Good morning.

Tuesday brings a high of twenty-six, and gradually clearing skies.

Common Council meets tonight at 6:30 PM.

A decade ago, the Iraq war begins:

On this day in 2003, the United States, along with coalition forces primarily from the United Kingdom, initiates war on Iraq. Just after explosions began to rock Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, U.S. President George W. Bush announced in a televised address, “At this hour, American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger.” President Bush and his advisors built much of their case for war on the idea that Iraq, under dictator Saddam Hussein, possessed or was in the process of building weapons of mass destruction.

On 3.19.1865, Wisconsin soldiers fought in a campaign against the Carolinas:

1865 – (Civil War) Battle of Goldsborough, North Carolina, Begins
The 21st, 22nd and 25th Wisconsin Infantry regiments took part in the battle at Goldsborough, North Carolina, during the Campaign of the Carolinas. Three Union armies totaling 100,000 men attacked the city in order to control its strategically important railroad lines.

Google-a-Day asks about Roman mythology: “Of the Romans “group of three” gods in the Archaic Triad, which one did not have a Greek counterpart?”

Good morning.

Monday brings snow during the day, with a high of thirty-five. If the National Weather Service is right, accumulation will be less than one inch. We’ll see.

The city’s Library Board meets tonight at 6:30 PM.

On this day in 1890, the Wisconsin Supreme Court rules against reading the Bible in public classrooms:

1890 – Bible Prohibited from Wisconsin Schools

On this date a Rock County circuit court decision which had permitted the Bible to be read in classrooms was overturned by the Wisconsin Supreme Court. In 1889 a group of Edgerton citizens brought suit against their school board for allowing area teachers to read the Bible in class. They contested the teacher’s use of the Douay version which, they claimed, differed materially from the King James translation. The case was tried in the circuit court of Rock County. The judge denied the petition and ruled that “reading the Bible was not sectarian and was, therefore, lawful and proper.” The case was appealed to the Supreme Court which handed down a decision that reversed the circuit court and held “the use of any version of the Bible as textbook in the public schools” violated the Constitution. [Source: Wis. Court System, “Famous Cases of the Supreme Court”]

Google-a-Day asks a politics and science question: “What cabinet position had been held by the head of the commission that investigated the STS-51L disaster?”

Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater: mostly sunny, a high of thirty-one, with 12 hours of sunlight, and 12h 56m of daylight.

From the deepest place in my heart, loving advice: avoid the Greyhound bus from Atlantic City to New York.

On this day in 1776, the British retreat from Boston:

…British forces are forced to evacuate Boston following General George Washington’s successful placement of fortifications and cannons on Dorchester Heights, which overlooks the city from the south.

During the evening of March 4, American Brigadier General John Thomas, under orders from Washington, secretly led a force of 800 soldiers and 1,200 workers to Dorchester Heights and began fortifying the area. To cover the sound of the construction, American cannons, besieging Boston from another location, began a noisy bombardment of the outskirts of the city. By the morning, more than a dozen cannons from Fort Ticonderoga had been brought within the Dorchester Heights fortifications. British General Sir William Howe hoped to use the British ships in Boston Harbor to destroy the American position, but a storm set in, giving the Americans ample time to complete the fortifications and set up their artillery. Realizing their position was now indefensible, 11,000 British troops and some 1,000 Loyalists departed Boston by ship on March 17, sailing to the safety of Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Today in 1941,

General Mitchell Field Named

On this date Milwaukee’s airport was named to honor the city’s famous air-power pioneer, General William Mitchell. [Source: History Just Ahead: A Guide to Wisconsin’s Historical Markers edited by Sarah Davis McBride]

Focus is the subject Google-a-Day’s question: “What book and DVD by the Director of Sport Psychology for the University of Missouri, talks about “focus” as the key to a winning team?”

Good morning.

It’s a ‘wintry mix’ for Whitewater before 1 PM, and a few flurries thereafter. Weather reporting has descended into base scare tactics and attention-grabbing alerts, all designed to induce fretting over even ordinary conditions, and through fretting to encourage repeat viewers for the Weather Channel or local news. One would think that the Midwest had never seen a snowflake, icicle, or raindrop.

It has; it will again. There is a place for people who’d like to avoid cold weather. It’s called the Deep South.

And yet, and yet, despite all the hyperbole over weather, the term ‘wintry mix’ is a welcome one: cold rain, sleet, flurries, or snow, all of them the concoction of winter. We area a strong people, able to endure (and enjoy) cold weather, and the wintry mix is simply part of our mix, day in, day out, this time of year.

Above our weather, the beauty of the night sky, including comets:

On this day in 1924, a Prohibition-related killing:

1924 – Antonio “Tony” Navarra murdered in Rum War

On this date Antonio “Tony” Navarra was gunned down by a hired killer. Born in Sicily in 1906 and longtime resident of Madison’s Greenbush neighborhood, Navarra presided over the Inner Council of Sicilians and sought to keep peace among the various factions engaging in illegal alcohol trade during Prohibition. With substantial income earned from his legitimate grocery business, he served as bail bondsman for the Regent Street gang. It was suspected that Navarra’s murder was orchestrated by Tony Musso, leader of the rival Milton Street gang and a former lieutenant of Al Capone. [Source: From Bishops to Bootleggers: A Biographical Guide to Resurrection Cemetery, pg. 191]

Google-a-Day asks a geography question: “What NY lake is sometimes referred to as the finger that is known in humans to have opposition and apposition movements?”

Good morning.

Friday brings rain to Whitewater, with a high of thirty-five.

Today was, in 44 B.C., an especially bad day for Julius Caesar:

Julius Caesar, the “dictator for life” of the Roman Empire, is murdered by his own senators at a meeting in a hall next to Pompey’s Theatre. The conspiracy against Caesar encompassed as many as sixty noblemen, including Caesar’s own protege, Marcus Brutus.

Caesar was scheduled to leave Rome to fight in a war on March 18 and had appointed loyal members of his army to rule the Empire in his absence. The Republican senators, already chafing at having to abide by Caesar’s decrees, were particularly angry about the prospect of taking orders from Caesar’s underlings. Cassius Longinus started the plot against the dictator, quickly getting his brother-in-law Marcus Brutus to join.

Caesar should have been well aware that many of the senators hated him, but he dismissed his security force not long before his assassination. Reportedly, Caesar was handed a warning note as he entered the senate meeting that day but did not read it. After he entered the hall, Caesar was surrounded by senators holding daggers. Servilius Casca struck the first blow, hitting Caesar in the neck and drawing blood. The other senators all joined in, stabbing him repeatedly about the head.

On this day in 1862, Wisconsinites muster in for the Union:

1862 – (Civil War) 17th and 18th Wisconsin Infantry Regiments Mustered In

The 17th and 18th Wisconsin Infantry regiments mustered in at Madison and Milwaukee, respectively. Both regiments would move from the lower Mississippi Valley into Tennessee and Georgia, participate in Sherman’s March to the Sea, and converge on Virginia at the end of the war. Before they mustered out, the 17th would lose 269 men and the 18th, 225.

Google-a-Day asks a sports question: “What 2009 Formula One race, in the nation that invented motor racing, was canceled due to a financial crisis?”