Good morning, Whitewater.

Friday in town will be mostly sunny with a high of seventy-eight.

On this day in 1969, Woodstock began:

The Woodstock Music & Art Fair—informally, the Woodstock Festival or simply Woodstock—was a music festival, billed as “An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music”. It was held at Max Yasgur‘s 600-acre (240 ha; 0.94 sq mi) dairy farm in the Catskills near the hamlet of White Lake in the town of Bethel, New York, from August 15 to 18, 1969. Bethel, in Sullivan County, is 43 miles (69 km) southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, in adjoining Ulster County.

During the sometimes rainy weekend, 32 acts performed outdoors before an audience of 400,000 young people.^[2] It is widely regarded as a pivotal moment in popular music history. Rolling Stone listed it as one of the 50 Moments That Changed the History of Rock and Roll.^[3]

The festival is also widely considered to be the definitive nexus for the larger counterculture generation.^[4][5]

The event was captured in the 1970 documentary movie Woodstock, an accompanying soundtrack album, and Joni Mitchell‘s song “Woodstock“, which commemorated the event and became a major hit for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

Embedded below is a 30-year anniversary documentary as part of the VH1 Behind the Music series:

Google-a-Day asks a question about literature:

What Tom Wolfe novel is named after a 1497 ritual that Savonarola led involving mirrors?

Good morning, Whitewater.

Thursday will be sunny with a high of seventy-four.

Whitewater’s Police & Fire Commission meets tonight at 6:30 PM.

On this day in 1945, the existence of a Japanese proclamation of surrender is made public:

…an official announcement of Japan’s unconditional surrender to the Allies is made public to the Japanese people:

Even though Japan’s War Council, urged by Emperor Hirohito, had already submitted a formal declaration of surrender to the Allies, via ambassadors, on August 10, fighting continued between the Japanese and the Soviets in Manchuria and between the Japanese and the United States in the South Pacific. In fact, two days after the Council agreed to surrender, a Japanese submarine sank the Oak Hill, an American landing ship, and the Thomas F. Nickel, an American destroyer, both east of Okinawa.

In the afternoon of August 14, Japanese radio announced that an Imperial Proclamation was soon to be made, accepting the terms of unconditional surrender drawn up at the Potsdam Conference. That proclamation had already been recorded by the emperor. The news did not go over well, as more than 1,000 Japanese soldiers stormed the Imperial Palace in an attempt to find the proclamation and prevent its being transmitted to the Allies. Soldiers still loyal to Emperor Hirohito repulsed the attackers.

That evening, General Anami, the member of the War Council most adamant against surrender, committed suicide. His reason: to atone for the Japanese army’s defeat, and to be spared having to hear his emperor speak the words of surrender.

The emperor’s recording to his people was broadcast the next day, on 8.15.1945.

Today, a geography question from Google-a-Day:

After centuries of being passed between Genoa, France and Sardinia what European country was finally granted sovereignty in 1861?

Good morning, Whitewater.

Wednesday brings a slight chance of afternoon showers, but otherwise a partly sunny day with a high of seventy-eight.

The Fire & Rescue Task Force meets tonight at 7:30 PM.

On this day in 1961, Communist East Germany began construction of the Berlin Wall:

On 15 June 1961, First Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party and GDR State Council chairman Walter Ulbricht stated in an international press conference, “Niemand hat die Absicht, eine Mauer zu errichten!” (No one has the intention of erecting a wall!). It was the first time the colloquial term Mauer (wall) had been used in this context.

The record of a telephone call between Nikita Khrushchev and Ulbricht on 1 August in the same year, suggests that it was from Khrushchev that the initiative for the construction of the wall came.^[40][41] However, other sources suggest that Khrushchev had initially been wary about building a wall, fearing negative Western reaction. What is beyond dispute, though, is that Ulbricht had pushed for a border closure for quite some time, arguing that East Germany’s very existence was at stake.^[42]

Khrushchev had been emboldened by US President John F. Kennedy’s tacit indication^[how?] that the US would not actively oppose this action in the Soviet sector of Berlin.^[43] On Saturday, 12 August 1961, the leaders of the GDR attended a garden party at a government guesthouse in Döllnsee, in a wooded area to the north of East Berlin. There Ulbricht signed the order to close the border and erect a wall.

At midnight, the police and units of the East German army began to close the border and, by Sunday morning, 13 August, the border with West Berlin was closed. East German troops and workers had begun to tear up streets running alongside the border to make them impassable to most vehicles and to install barbed wire entanglements and fences along the 156 kilometres (97 mi) around the three western sectors, and the 43 kilometres (27 mi) that divided West and East Berlin.

The barrier was built slightly inside East Berlin or East German territory to ensure that it did not encroach on West Berlin at any point. Later, it was built up into the Wall proper, the first concrete elements and large blocks being put in place on 17 August. During the construction of the Wall, National People’s Army (NVA) and Combat Groups of the Working Class (KdA) soldiers stood in front of it with orders to shoot anyone who attempted to defect. Additionally, chain fences, walls, minefields and other obstacles were installed along the length of East Germany’s western border with West Germany proper. A huge no man’s land was cleared to provide a clear line of fire at fleeing refugees.^[44]

Google-a-Day poses a question from its Art & Literature category:

What was the name of the pet that often traveled with the artist of “Tuna Fishing”?