Good morning.

We’ll have a one-third chance of afternoon thunderstorms this Wednesday, and a high of seventy-seven.

July 31, 1777, a young French aristocrat begins serving America without compensation:

On this day in 1777, a 19-year-old French aristocrat, Marie-Joseph Paul Roch Yves Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, accepts a commission as a major-general in the Continental Army—without pay.

Lafayette served at Brandywine in 1777, as well as Barren Hill, Monmouth and Rhode Island in 1778. Following the formal treaty of alliance with Lafayette’s native France in February 1778 and Britain’s subsequent declaration of war, Lafayette asked to return to Paris and consult the king as to his future service. Washington was willing to spare Lafayette, who departed in January 1779. By March, Franklin reported from Paris that Lafayette had become an excellent advocate for the American cause at the French court. Following his six-month respite in France, Lafayette returned to aid the American war effort in Virginia, where he participated in the successful siege of Yorktown in 1781, before returning to France and the further service of his own country.

On this day in 1967, Lake Geneva’s local government, having no more immediate work before them, decided to strike a blow in defense of Western Civilization:

1967 – Lake Geneva Bans Go-Go Girls
On this date the Lake Geneva city government passed an ordinance banning go-go girls, dancers in bikinis, and swimsuit-clad waitresses from working in establishments that served alcohol. [Source: Janesville Gazette]

Puzzability has a series this week, from 7.29 to 8.2, entitled Last Laughs:

Last Laughs

For your amusement this week, we started each day with the name of a TV star who won an Emmy for his or her lead performance in a comedy series. Then we replaced all the letters in each word—except the last letter—with asterisks.

Example:
***Y ****R ****E

Answer:
Mary Tyler Moore

Here’s Wednesday’s puzzle:

***N ***A

Good morning.

We’ll have a high of seventy-four with a thirty percent chance of showers today.

On this day in 1863, Henry Ford is born. Upon his death eighty-three years later, the New York Times wrote of him that

Henry Ford was the founder of modern American industrial mass production methods, built on the assembly line and the belt conveyor system, which no less an authority than Marshal Josef Stalin testified were the indispensable foundation for an Allied military victory in the Second World War.

Mr. Ford had many other distinctions. As the founder and unchallenged master of an industrial empire with assets of more than a billion dollars, he was one of the richest men in the world. He was the apostle of an economic philosophy of high wages and short hours that had immense repercussions on American thinking. He was a patron of American folkways and in later years acquired a reputation as a shrewd, kindly sage. But these were all relatively minor compared with the revolutionary importance of his contribution to modern productive processes.

In Wisconsin history, economist Thorstein Veblen is born:

1857 – Thorstein Veblen Born
On this date economist and social commentator Thorstein Bunde Veblen was born in Cato, although some sources place his birth in Valders. He is best known for his book The Theory of The Leisure Class (1899), a classic of social theory that introduced the concept of “conspicuous consumption.” [Source: The Radical Academy]

Puzzability has a series this week, from 7.29 to 8.2, entitled Last Laughs:

Last Laughs

For your amusement this week, we started each day with the name of a TV star who won an Emmy for his or her lead performance in a comedy series. Then we replaced all the letters in each word—except the last letter—with asterisks.

Example:
***Y ****R ****E

Answer:
Mary Tyler Moore

Here’s Tuesday’s puzzle:

***A **Y

Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of seventy-five.

Whitewater’s Park & Rec Board meets at 4:30 PM this afternoon.

They’ve seen better days, and I think that the future of space travel will be mostly private flight, but it’s still a memorable date:

On this day in 1958, the U.S. Congress passes legislation establishing the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a civilian agency responsible for coordinating America’s activities in space. NASA has since sponsored space expeditions, both human and mechanical, that have yielded vital information about the solar system and universe. It has also launched numerous earth-orbiting satellites that have been instrumental in everything from weather forecasting to navigation to global communications.

NASA was created in response to the Soviet Union’s October 4, 1957 launch of its first satellite, Sputnik I. The 183-pound, basketball-sized satellite orbited the earth in 98 minutes. The Sputnik launch caught Americans by surprise and sparked fears that the Soviets might also be capable of sending missiles with nuclear weapons from Europe to America. The United States prided itself on being at the forefront of technology, and, embarrassed, immediately began developing a response, signaling the start of the U.S.-Soviet space race.

Puzzability starts a new series this week, from 7.29 to 8.2, entitled Last Laughs:

Last Laughs

For your amusement this week, we started each day with the name of a TV star who won an Emmy for his or her lead performance in a comedy series. Then we replaced all the letters in each word—except the last letter—with asterisks.

Example:
***Y ****R ****E

Answer:
Mary Tyler Moore

Here’s Monday’s puzzle:

**Y *****O

Good morning.

We’ve a high of sixty-four ahead today, with a forty-percent chance of morning showers.

On this day in 1914, Austria declares war on Serbia, a month after a Serbian nationalist killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife in Sarajevo. The New York Times reports the declaration:

VIENNA, July 28- Upon the issue of the formal declaration of war against Servia today Emperor Franz Josef gave orders for the removal of the Summer Court from Ischl to the capital. His entourage tried to persuade him that Vienna air would not suit him, but the aged Emperor replied:

“I do not want the air of Vienna. I want the atmosphere of headquarters.” The opening of the war has caused the imposition of all kinds of restrictions upon public business. All the railways, of course, are under military control, and the telegraphs are being reserved entirely for the service of the State. The hope is still entertained here that the war will be confined to Austria-Hungary and Servia. The report that Russia and France have intervened in Vienna is incorrect. In official circles here it is maintained that any action by those powers must be supported by the third party to the Triple Entente, namely, Great Britain. It is known that Great Britain and France do not want a European war. Peace among the great powers or war among the great powers must depend on the action of St. Petersburg.

In 1934, a riot kills two in a so-called model Wisconsin village:

1934 – Two killed, 40 hurt in Kohler riot; National Guard occupies town

On this day, the “model industrial village” of Kohler became an armed camp of National Guard cavalrymen after deadly strike-related rioting. The July 27th violence, which killed two Sheboygan men and injured 40 others, prompted the summoning of 250 Guardsmen to join the 200 special deputy village marshals already present.

After striking workers became agitated and began to destroy company property, deputies turned to tear gas, rifles, and shotguns to quell the stone-throwing crowd, resulting in the deaths and injuries. Owner Walter Kohler blamed Communists and outside agitators for the violence, while union leaders blamed Kohler exclusively.

Workers at the Kohler plant were demanding better hours, higher wages, and recognition of the American Federation of Labor as their collective bargaining agent. Not settled until 1941, the strike marked the beginning of what was to become a prolonged struggle between the Kohler Company and organized labor in Wisconsin; a second Kohler strike lasted from 1954 to 1965. [Source: Capital Times 7/28/1934, p.1]

Good morning.

It’s will be a mild day in Whitewater, with a high of sixty-three and a one-third chance of afternoon showers. Sunrise was 5:41 AM and sunset will be 8:21 PM. The moon is in a waning gibbous phase with 70% of the its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1953, an armistice brings an end to the Korean War, begun three years earlier by Communist aggression:

Tokyo, Monday, July 27–Communist and United Nations delegates in Panmunjom signed an armistice at 10:01 A.M. today [9:01 P.M., Sunday, Eastern daylight time]. Under the truce terms, hostilities in the three-year-old Korean war are to cease at 10 o’clock tonight [9 A.M., Monday, Eastern daylight time]….

The historic document was signed in a roadside hall the Communists built specially for the occasion. The ceremony, attended by representatives of sixteen members of the United Nations, took precisely eleven minutes. Then the respective delegations walked from the meeting place without a word or handshake between them.

The matter-of-fact procedure underlined what spokesmen of both sides emphasized: That though the shooting would cease within twelve hours after the signing, only an uneasy armed truce and political difficulties, perhaps even greater than those of the armistice negotiations, were ahead.

Signers Are Expressionless

The representatives of the two sides were expressionless as they put their names to a pile of documents, providing for an exchange of prisoners, establishment of a neutral zone for the cease-fire and a later political conference that would attempt to settle the tragic Korean questions, unsolved by three years of fighting that caused hundreds of thousands of casualties.

On this day in 1894, fire destroys most of a northern Wisconsin town:

1894 – Forest Fire Destroys Phillips
On the afternoon of this day, a forest fire swept over the Price Co. town of Phillips from the west, destroying nearly all the buildings and forcing 2,000 people to flee for their lives. When the sun came up the next morning, 13 people had been killed, the entire downtown was in ashes, and exhausted survivors were wandering through the ruins in a daze. The fire ultimately consumed more than 100,000 acres in Price County. Much of the town was rebuilt within a year.