Good morning.

Whitewater’s new week begins with showers and a high of sixty-six.

In Whitewater today, the Emerald Ash Borer Ad Hoc Committee meets at 5 PM, The Planning Commission at 6 PM, and the Whitewater School Board at 7 PM.

On this day in 1962, Pres. Kennedy announced an air and naval blockade of Cuba, following the discovery of Soviet missiles on that island:

Google’s daily puzzle asks about geography: “What famous route originally terminated at Oregon’s first capital city?”

Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny, with south winds five to ten mph, and a high of sixty-six.

On this day in 1879, Thomas Edison created a working electric light.  The New York Times reported his triumph:

There was no lack of enthusiasm or of confidence about Mr. Edison as he greeted the Times reporter who entered his laboratory at Menlo Park, N. J., yesterday. The inventor, a short, thick-set man, with grimy hands, led the way through his workshop, and willingly explained the distinctive features of what he and many others look upon as an apparatus which will soon cause gas-light to be a thing of the past.

The lamp which Mr. Edison regards as a crowning triumph is a model of simplicity and economy. In the lamp the light is emitted by a horseshoe of carbonized paper about two and a half inches long and the width of a thread. This horseshoe is in a glass globe, from which the air has been as thoroughly exhausted as science is able to do. So good a vacuum is produced that it is estimated that at the utmost no more than a one-millionth part of the air remains. The operation of pumping lasts one hour and a quarter.

At the ends of the carbon horseshoe are two platinum clamps, from which platinum wires run outwardly through a small glass tube contained within a larger one leading out of the glass globe. The small tube contains air. Within it the platinum wires are met by two copper wires connecting with the conductors of the electricity. The air is left in the small tube, because otherwise the copper wires would be fused by the electric current. The carbonized paper is capable of being made incandescent by a current of electricity, and while it allows the current to pass over it, its resistance to the heat is strong enough to prevent it from fusing.

Google’s daily puzzle ask about a place in New York: “What is the nickname of the area located east of Coney Island Beach and west of Manhattan Beach in Brooklyn?”

Good morning.

It’s a partly sunny Saturday for Whitewater, with a high of fifty-five, and northwest winds at 5 miles per hour.

On this day in 1973, it was a Saturday Night Massacre in Washington: “in the so-called Saturday Night Massacre, President Nixon abolished the office of special Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox, accepted the resignation of Attorney General Elliot L. Richardson and fired Deputy Attorney General William B. Ruckelshaus.”

In Wisconsin history on this day, a fish tale turned out to be true:

1949 – Really Huge Fish Caught

On this date a record-breaking muskellunge (“muskie”) was caught on the Chippewa Flowage near Hayward. The fish weighed 69 pounds, 11 ounces. The muskie became the official state fish of Wisconsin in 1955. [Source: American Profile Note: Linked picture is not the record breaking fish]

Google’s daily puzzle asks about presidential history: “Who married the grandson of the man to whom her father had served two terms as Vice President of the United States?”

Good morning.

Whitewater’s work week ends with a likelihood of showers and a high of forty-nine.

On this day in 1987, the stock market fell after the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 508 points – 22.6% – its second biggest percentage drop.

On this day in 1781, America achieved a decisive victory over Britain at Yorktown:

Hopelessly trapped at Yorktown, Virginia, British General Lord Cornwallis surrenders 8,000 British soldiers and seamen to a larger Franco-American force, effectively bringing an end to the American Revolution….On October 19, General Cornwallis surrendered 7,087 officers and men, 900 seamen, 144 cannons, 15 galleys, a frigate, and 30 transport ships. Pleading illness, he did not attend the surrender ceremony, but his second-in-command, General Charles O’Hara, carried Cornwallis’ sword to the American and French commanders. As the British and Hessian troops marched out to surrender, the British bands played the song “The World Turned Upside Down.”

Google’s daily puzzle asks about a physicist, with a sitcom hint: “Who, by virtue of his discovery of the Red Shift, set forth the foundation for the theory that has the same name as a sitcom that stars Jim Parsons?”

Good morning.

Whitewater’s Thursday will be a day of likely showers in the afternoon, a high of fifty, and southwest winds of ten to fifteen miles per hour.

On this day in 1867, the United States took possession of Alaska:

On this day in 1867, the U.S. formally takes possession of Alaska after purchasing the territory from Russia for $7.2 million, or less than two cents an acre. The Alaska purchase comprised 586,412 square miles, about twice the size of Texas, and was championed by William Henry Seward, the enthusiastically expansionist secretary of state under President Andrew Johnson.

Russia wanted to sell its Alaska territory, which was remote, sparsely populated and difficult to defend, to the U.S. rather than risk losing it in battle with a rival such as Great Britain. Negotiations between Seward (1801-1872) and the Russian minister to the U.S., Eduard de Stoeckl, began in March 1867. However, the American public believed the land to be barren and worthless and dubbed the purchase “Seward’s Folly” and “Andrew Johnson’s Polar Bear Garden,” among other derogatory names….Public opinion of the purchase turned more favorable when gold was discovered in a tributary of Alaska’s Klondike River in 1896, sparking a gold rush. Alaska became the 49th state on January 3, 1959, and is now recognized for its vast natural resources….The name Alaska is derived from the Aleut word alyeska, which means “great land.” Alaska has two official state holidays to commemorate its origins: Seward’s Day, observed the last Monday in March, celebrates the March 30, 1867, signing of the land treaty between the U.S. and Russia, and Alaska Day, observed every October 18, marks the anniversary of the formal land transfer.

In Wisconsin history on October 18th, 1967, a violent confrontation:

1967 – Police and Student Activists Clash in Madison
On this date club-wielding Madison police joined campus police to break up a large anti-war demonstration on the UW-Madison campus. Sixty-five people, including several officers, were treated for injuries. Thirteen student leaders were ordered expelled from school. State Attorney General Bronson La Follettecriticized the police for using excessive brutality. [Source: They Marched Into Sunlight]

From a GO Comics TrivQuiz earlier this year, here’s a question about singer-songwriter Stephen Demetri Georgiou: “Name two of the albums he released as Cat Stevens before his “retirement” in the late 1970s (excluding compilations).”