Good morning, Whitewater.

Saturday in the Whippet City will be mostly sunny with a high of thirty-six. Sunrise today is 7:11 AM and sunset 4:20 PM, for 9h 09m 14s of daytime. We’ve a full moon today.

On this day in 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment is ratified by the states, having been passed by Congress about six months earlier on January 31st, and submitted to the sates on February 1st in a joint Congressional resolution that Pres. Lincoln signed.

How about “a sleek, solid metal, American-made mechanical pencil that will last you a lifetime”? The proposal has a Kickstarter page where you can learn more about the project. Creator Andrew Sanderson has already reached his funding goal, so this venture has a promising future. (The pencil also nicely fits in a Field Notes notebook’s spiral binding, a proof of thoughtful, useful design.)

Good morning, Whitewater.

We’ll have a mostly cloudy but mild day for Whitewater’s 6 PM Christmas Parade of Lights (with pre-parade events beginning at 5 PM in our downtown).

The parade route runs from the intersection of Whiton & Main to Whitewater Street near Cravath and by the SweetSpot. Map below from DTWW (clicking the image produces a larger map):

On this day in 1933, America repeals Prohibition:

The repeal movement was initiated and financed by the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment, who worked to elect Congressmen who agreed to support repeal. The group’s wealthy supporters included John D. Rockefeller, Jr., S. S. Kresge, and the Du Pont family, among others, who had abandoned the dry cause.[24] Pauline Sabin, a wealthy Republican who founded the Women’s Organization for National Prohibition Reform (WONPR), argued that Prohibition should be repealed because it made the United States a nation of hypocrites and undermined its respect for the rule of law. This hypocrisy and the fact that women had initially led the prohibition movement convinced Sabin to establish the WNPR. Their efforts eventually led to the repeal of prohibition.[31][32]

When Sabin’s fellow Republicans would not support her efforts, she went to the Democrats, who switched their support of the dry cause to endorse repeal under the leadership of liberal politicians such as Fiorello La Guardia and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Sabin and her supporters emphasized that repeal would generate enormous sums of much-needed tax revenue, and weaken the base of organized crime.[citation needed]

Repeal of Prohibition was accomplished with the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment on December 5, 1933. Under its terms, states were allowed to set their own laws for the control of alcohol. Following repeal, public interest in an organized prohibition movement dwindled. However, it survived for a while in a few southern and border states.[31][32] To this day, however, there are still counties and parishes within the US known as “dry”, where the sale of liquor (whiskey, wine) -not beer- is prohibited; several such municipalities have adopted liquor-by-the-drink, however in order to expand tax revenue.[33]

On this day in 1879, Wisconsin gets an animal-protection society:

1879 – Humane Society of Wisconsin Organized
On this date the Humane Society of Wisconsin was organized in Milwaukee. Inspired by Henry Bergh, a New York City philanthropist, and his Humane Movement, the state Humane Society was formed to protect both animals and children. However, with the formation of child protection laws in the early 1900s, the Humane Society of Wisconsin began to focus primarily on animal protection. [Source: Humane Society of Wisconsin]

Google-a-Day aska a question on literature:

What traffic circle with a “square” name is located just south of the site where the author lived while writing “The Seven Pillars”?

Good morning, Whitewater.

Thursday in Whitewater will be cloudy in the morning giving way to sunshine in the afternoon, with a high of thirty-four. Sunrise is 7:09 AM and sunset 4:21 PM, for 9h 11m 24s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 95.5% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Landmarks Commission meets tonight at 6 PM.

On this day in 1780, America successfully tricks Britain during the Revolutionary War:

A force of Continental dragoons commanded by Colonel William Washington — General George Washington’s second cousin once removed — corners Loyalist Colonel Rowland Rugeley and his followers in Rugeley’s house and barn near Camden, South Carolina, on this day in 1780.

After nearly a year of brutal backcountry conflict between Washington and the fierce British commander Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton (who was infamous for Tarleton’s Quarter, the murder of colonial POWs on May 29, 1780 at Waxhaws), Washington had retreated to North Carolina the previous October. Commanded to return to the South Carolina theater by Brigadier General Daniel The Old Wagoner Morgan, Colonel Washington still lacked the proper artillery to dislodge the Loyalists. He told his cavalrymen to dismount and surround the barn. While out of Rugeley’s sight, Washington’s men fabricated a pine log to resemble a cannon.

This Quaker gun trick, named so because Quakers used it to be intimidating without breaching their pacifist vow of non-violence, worked beautifully. Washington faced the cannon toward the buildings in which the Loyalists had barricaded themselves and threatened bombardment if they did not surrender. Shortly after, Rugeley surrendered his entire force without a single shot being fired.

When informed of the pacifist victory, General Charles Cornwallis, commander of the British armies in America, informed Tarleton that Rugeley’s performance ensured he would never rise to the rank of brigadier. A few weeks later, Tarleton would himself face an even worse humiliation at the hands of General Morgan during the devastating Battle of Cowpens. The harrowing civil war for the hearts and minds of the Carolina backcountry had finally begun to favor the Patriots.

On this day in 1933, Janesville remains defiant:

1933 – Janesville Council Denies Prohibition End
On this date the Janesville Council drafted a “drastic liquor control law” that prohibited serving liquor. The law prohibited distilled spirits, but not beer, at bars, and limited liquor service to tables. Backrooms and “blinds” (closed booths) were also prohibited. The only place where packaged liquor was allowed to be sold was at municipal dispensaries. Further, bars were prohibited from selling packaged liquor. The next day, the city was uncommonly quiet as the 18th Amendment was repealed. For nearly 14 years, the 18th Amendment (the Prohibition Amendment), outlawed the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages within the U.S. [Source: Janesville Gazette, December 5, 1933, p.1]]

Google-a-Day asks a question of geography and history:

In the Russian monument of the founder of Moscow, which hand is he holding out to the side?

Good morning, Whitewater.

Midweek in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of thirty-two. Sunrise is 7:08 AM and sunset 4:21 PM for 9h 12m 35s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with ninety percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1776, Gen. Washington reaches the banks of the Delaware River, directing his army to cross into Pennsylvania. He arrives at a time, just half a year beyond the Declaration, when Patriot fortunes seem at their lowest:

In a letter dated December 3, 1776, General George Washington writes to Congress from his headquarters in Trenton, New Jersey, to report that he had transported much of the Continental Army’s stores and baggage across the Delaware River to Pennsylvania.

In his letter Washington wrote, ‘Immediately on my arrival here, I ordered the removal of all the military and other stores and baggage over the Delaware, a great quantity are already got over, and as soon as the boats come up from Philadelphia, we shall load them, by which means I hope to have every thing secured this night and tomorrow if we are not disturbed.’

Washington then made the critical strategic move of confiscating and burning all the boats along the Delaware to prevent British troops from pursuing his beleaguered forces across the river. The British strategy of chasing Washington across New Jersey, rather than capturing his entire army in Manhattan, seemed to be a stroke of genius. As New Jersey was devastated at the hands of British forces and Washington’s men cowered in Pennsylvania, even staunch Patriots, including Thomas Jefferson, considered surrender to the crown.

Also on this day, General Washington received a letter dated November 30 from his second-in-command, General Charles Lee, reporting that he was about to cross into New York near Peekskill on this day in 1776. In an apt reflection of the state of the American fortunes, the British captured General Lee nine days later in New Jersey. Richard Stockton, a leading New Jersey patriot and signer of the Declaration of Independence, was also in British custody and was forced to swear an oath of allegiance to the British king along with thousands of his New Jersey neighbors.

On this day in 1947, Wisconsin gets a new medium:

1947 – First TV Station in Wisconsin Established
On this date the first TV station in Wisconsin, WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee, was established. The seventeenth television station in the country, WTMJ-TV was the first in the Midwest. [Source: University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee Libraries]

Google-a-Day asks a sports question:

What British Queen watched and promoted a lacrosse game in 1867?