Good morning, Whitewater.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be a partly cloudy day with a high of thirty-two. Sunrise is 6:44 AM, sunset 4:34 PM, and we will have 9h 50m of daytime.

Whitewater’s CDA Capital Screening Committee is scheduled to meet at 3:30 PM, and the CDA Board at 5 PM.

At 6:30 PM, there is a scheduled meeting of the Fire & Rescue Task Force.

On this day in 1892, America has her first professional football player:

On November 12, 1892, William “Pudge” Heffelfinger becomes the first professional football player when Pittsburgh’s Allegheny Athletic Association pays him $500 to play as a ringer in a game against its rival Pittsburgh Athletic Club. Before Heffelfinger, players had traded their services on the field for expense money, “double expenses,” or trinkets that players could pawn back to the team–but no one had ever openly accepted a cash payment to play football. (Baseball, on the other hand, had been frankly professional for almost 25 years.) For his part, Heffelfinger never acknowledged that he’d taken the payment. He went on to become a prominent insurance executive and congressman from Minnesota.

On this day in 1836, Wisconsin has her first territorial law:

1836 – Governor Dodge Signs First Law
On this date territorial governor, Henry Dodge, signed the first law passed by the Wisconsin Territorial Legislature. The law prescribed how the legislators were to behave, and how other citizens were to behave towards them. For example, it authorized “the Assembly to punish by fine and imprisonment every person, not a member, who shall be guilty of disrespect, disorderly or contemptuous behavior, threats, in the legislature or interference with witnesses to the legislature; also to expel on a two thirds majority in either house a member of its own body…” This did not keep the members from vociferous arguments, fist fights, or even shooting one another (see this This Day in Wisconsin History for February 11th)

Google-a-Day asks a baseball question:

Willie Mays began his professional career in 1948 with a team that has what three letter in the middle circle of their logo?

Good morning, Whitewater.

Whitewater’s Veteran’s Day will have a high of thirty-eight, with a probability of morning rain or light snow. Sunrise is 6:42 AM, sunset 4:35 PM, with 9h 52m 15s of daytime.

The Parks & Rec Board meets today at 5:30 PM. (Update: subsequently canceled.)

On this day in 1918, World War One ends:

At the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, the Great War ends. At 5 a.m. that morning, Germany, bereft of manpower and supplies and faced with imminent invasion, signed an armistice agreement with the Allies in a railroad car outside Compiégne, France. The First World War left nine million soldiers dead and 21 million wounded, with Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, France, and Great Britain each losing nearly a million or more lives. In addition, at least five million civilians died from disease, starvation, or exposure.

On this day in 1964, the Rolling Stones play Milwaukee:

On this date the Rolling Stones first performed in Wisconsin, to a crowd of 1,274 fans at Milwaukee Auditorium. Although Brian Jones remained in a Chicago hospital with a high fever, the rest of the band performed. According to a dubious reporter for the Milwaukee Journal, “Chances are, few in the audience missed his [Jones’] wailing harmonica. Screams from a thousand throats drowned out all but the most insistent electronic cacaphony and the two-fisted smashes of drummer Charlie Watts.” The reporter continued, “Unless someone teaches guitar chords to chimpanzees, the visual ultimate has been reached in the Rolling Stones. With shoulder length hair and high heeled boots, they seemed more feminine than their fans. The Stones make the Beatles look like clean cut kids. You think it must be some kind of parody – but the little girls in front paid $5.50 a seat.” [Source: Milwaukee Journal November 12, 1964, p.14]

Google-a-Day asks a question about science:

What is the name of the anatomy text written by a physician from Bologna who is credited as “the restorer of anatomy?”

Good morning, Whitewater.

We’ll have a high of fifty-eight today, with morning clouds and afternoon sunshine. Sunrise is 6:41 AM and sunset 4:36 PM. There will be 9h 54m 33s of daytime today.

Whitewater’s Planning Commission meets this evening at 6:30 PM.

If you enjoy projects in electronics, Raspberry Pi has a new (and smaller) product out:

Raspberry Pi micro-computer gets even tinier – and cheaper – with new Model A+ board http://t.co/OPHtp0lRFz pic.twitter.com/YBFLxoyArJ

— CNET (@CNET) November 10, 2014

On this day in 1969, it’s a debut for Sesame Street. Here’s that first episode:

Google-Day asks a geography question:

What U.S. peninsula, explored by Captain Cook, experienced a tidal wave that destroyed its main port?

Good morning, Whitewater.

Sunday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of forty-eight, with an even chance of showers this evening. Sunrise is 6:40 AM and sunset 4:37 PM, for 9h 56m 52s of daytime today.

In the Friday FW poll, about a help-line worker who spoke in an intentionally robotic voice, a majority of respondents (56.67%) felt that suspension was the right punishment.

It’s the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall:

On this day in 1968, Wisconsin feels an earthquake:

1968 – Earthquake Shakes Wisconsin
On this date one of the strongest earthquakes in the central United States occurred in south-central Illinois. Measured at a magnitude of 5.3, press reports from LaCrosse, Milwaukee, Port Washington, Portage, Prairie Du Chien, and Sheboygan indicated that the shock was felt in these cities. [Source: United States Geological Survey]

Good morning, Whitewater

Our Saturday will be partly sunny with a high of forty. Sunrise is 6:39 AM and sunset 4:38 PM. We’ll have 9h 59m 15s of daytime, and the moon is in a waning gibbous phase.

On this day in 1895, Wilhelm Röntgen first observes X-rays:

Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen…27 March 1845 – 10 February 1923) was a German physicist, who, on 8 November 1895, produced and detected electromagnetic radiation in a wavelength range today that was known as X-rays or Röntgen rays, an achievement that earned him the first Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901.[1] In honour of his accomplishments, in 2004 the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) named element 111, roentgenium, a radioactive element with multiple unstable isotopes, after him.

In the late afternoon of 8 November 1895, Röntgen was determined to test his idea [about a fluorescent effect]. He carefully constructed a black cardboard covering similar to the one he had used on the Lenard tube. He covered the Hittorf-Crookes tube with the cardboard and attached electrodes to a Ruhmkorff coil to generate an electrostatic charge. Before setting up the barium platinocyanide screen to test his idea, Röntgen darkened the room to test the opacity of his cardboard cover. As he passed the Ruhmkorff coil charge through the tube, he determined that the cover was light-tight and turned to prepare the next step of the experiment. It was at this point that Röntgen noticed a faint shimmering from a bench a few feet away from the tube. To be sure, he tried several more discharges and saw the same shimmering each time. Striking a match, he discovered the shimmering had come from the location of the barium platinocyanide screen he had been intending to use next.

Röntgen speculated that a new kind of ray might be responsible. 8 November was a Friday, so he took advantage of the weekend to repeat his experiments and make his first notes. In the following weeks he ate and slept in his laboratory as he investigated many properties of the new rays he temporarily termed “X-rays”, using the mathematical designation for something unknown. The new rays came to bear his name in many languages as “Röntgen Rays” (and the associated X-ray radiograms as “Röntgenograms”).