12kBCE Southeast Wisconsin was free of ice by this
time.
(Arch, 7/02, p.54)
11.5k-10.2kBCE A site near Kenosha, Wisc., indicates
human butchery of wooly mammoths during this period.
(Arch, 7/02, p.50)
c1000 Dan Arnold, an amateur
archeologist, found Indian charcoal drawings in a cave near La Crosse
in 1998 that dated back at least 1000 years. The site was not revealed
to the public until 2000 to allow official documentation.
(SFC, 11/21/00, p.A2)
1634 French explorer Jean Nicolet,
looking for Cathay, traveled the western shores of Lake Michigan and
landed on Wisconsin soil.
(www.wisconsinhistory.org/museum/exhibits/framed/landfall.asp)(Econ,
6/27/09, p.38)
1799 Feb 9, The USS Constellation
captured the French frigate Insurgente off the coast of Wisconsin.
(HN, 2/9/97)
1814 Jul 18, The British captured
Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin.
(MC, 7/18/02)
1832 Aug 2, Some 1,300 Illinois
militia under General Henry Atkinson massacred Sauk Indian men, women
and children who were followers of Black Hawk at the Bad Axe River in
Wisconsin. Black Hawk himself finally surrendered three weeks later,
bringing the Black Hawk War to an end.
(HN, 8/2/98)(MC, 8/2/02)
1835 Solomon Laurent Juneau, a fur
trader, laid out the eastern part of Milwaukee and became the first
president of the village in 1837. Juneau was born in Montreal and in
1818 settled on the site of Milwaukee and established a trading
business. Juneau, who became a U.S. citizen in 1831, was elected
the city‘s first mayor in 1846.
(HNQ, 2/6/00)
1836 Apr 20, The Territory of
Wisconsin was established by Congress.
(AP, 4/20/97)(HN, 4/20/98)
1836 Jul 4, The territorial
government of Wisconsin was established.
(IB, Internet, 12/7/98)
1848 May 29, Wisconsin became the
30th state of the union.
(AP, 5/29/97)(HN, 5/29/98)
1853 Aug 21, Henry Wellcome
(d.1936) was born in Wisconsin. In 1880 Henry went to London to join
Silas Burroughs and set up a successful pharmaceutical firm called
Burroughs, Wellcome & Co.
(www.swan.ac.uk/egypt/infosheet/Wellcome.htm)
1854 Feb 28, Some 50 slavery
opponents met in Ripon, Wis., to call for creation of a new political
group, which became the Republican Party. [see Mar 20, Jul 6]
(AP, 2/28/00)
1854 Mar 20, The Republican Party
was founded when former members of the Whig political party met to
establish a new political party that would oppose the spread of slavery
into the western territories. [see Feb 28, Jul 6]
(MC, 3/20/02)
1854 Jul 6, The Republican Party
was officially organized in Jackson, Michigan. The Republican Party was
formed in Ripon, Wisconsin, by a group of anti-slavery politicians at
the Little White Schoolhouse. [see Feb 28, Mar 20]
(Hem., 7/96, p.28)(HN, 7/6/98)
1855 Jun 14, Robert Marion
"Fighting Bob" La Follette, reform movement leader, Governor of
Wisconsin, U.S. Senator, Progressive Party presidential candidate, was
born.
(HN, 6/14/98)
1857 Thorstein Veblen (d.1929),
political economist and social critic, was born in Wisconsin to
Norwegian immigrants.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R20)(SFEC, 7/11/99, BR p.4)
1858 Feb 8, A record brawl in the
US House of Representatives erupted over the issue of slavery.
Wisconsin Congressman John F. Potter pulled a wig off a Mississippi
congressman and declared “I’ve scalped him.”
(WSJ, 6/13/06,
p.D6)(www.wisconsinhistory.org/odd/archives/001067.asp)
1867 Jacob Leinenkugel, an
immigrant from Bavaria, founded Leinenkugel Beer to supply the
lumberjack community of Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. In 1988 the family
business agreed to be acquired by the Miller Brewing Co.
(WSJ, 9/27/08, p.A16)(http://tinyurl.com/4epavl)
1868 Apr 19, Paul P. Harris,
founder of the Rotary Club, was born in Racine, Wisconsin.
(www.rotary.org/en/AboutUs/History/paulharris/Pages/Timeline.aspx)
1871 Oct 8-14, In Peshtigo, Wisc.,
some 1,500 people were killed in the nation’s worst forest fire, which
burned across six counties and into Michigan. Fires also broke out in
the Michigan communities of Holland, Manistee and Port Huron.
(WSJ, 9/13/01, p.B11)(WSJ, 8/4/04, p.B1)(SSFC,
9/4/05, p.A7)(AP, 10/8/08)
1871 P.T. Barnum (Phineas Taylor
Barnum,1810-1891), US showman, founded "The Greatest Show On Earth" in
Delavan, Wis. He presented General Tom Thumb and Jenny Lind
(1820-1870), "The Swedish Nightingale," to the public. He also
introduced 3 rings to the circus.
(WUD, 1994, p.121)(WSJ, 1/7/97, p.A19)(WUD, 1994,
p.832)(AP, 6/10/07)
1873 The Racine Silver Plate Co.
was founded.
(SFC,11/26/97, Z1 p.7)
1877 Joseph S. Hartmann opened a
luggage business in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Hartmann family ran the
business until 1955. In 1959 the company moved to Lebanon, Tennessee
and was later taken over by Clarion Capital Partners.
(SFC, 1/2/08, p.G3)
1878 Jul 9, H.V. Kaltenborn,
newscaster (Who Said That?), was born in Milwaukee, Wisc.
(MC, 7/9/02)
1878 Harry Houdini (1874-1926),
magician and escape artist born as Erik Weisz (Ehrich Weiss) in
Budapest, arrived in Appleton, Wisconsin, where his father became town
rabbi.
(WSJ, 3/25/04, p.A1)
1880 Mar 23, John Stevens of
Neenah, Wis., patented the grain crushing mill. This mill allowed flour
production to increase by 70 percent.
(HN, 3/23/98)
1881 Jul 8, Edward Berner of Two
Rivers, Wisconsin, created the Sundae.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1881 George B. Mattoon founded his
Mattoon Manufacturing Co. in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. From 1904 to the
1950s the company manufactured upscale furniture. The name of the
company was changed to Northern Furniture following Mattoon’s death
(1916), when the Reiss family took over and re-named it R-Way
Furniture. The Northern Furniture brand name continued.
(SFC, 10/4/06, p.G2)
1882 The factory of the Racine
Silver Plate Co. burned down. It was re-opened a year later in
Rockford, Ill.
(SFC,11/26/97, Z1 p.7)
1883 Jan 10, Fire at uninsured
Newhall Hotel in Milwaukee, Wisconsin killed 71. General Tom Thumb of
P.T. Barnum fame escaped unhurt.
(MC, 1/10/02)
1883 Jun 11, Frank O. King,
"Gasoline Alley" cartoonist, was born in Cashton, Wisc.
(SC, 6/11/02)
1887 Nov. 15, Georgia O'Keefe
(d.1986), American painter, was born in Wisconsin.
(WUD, 1994, p.1002)(HFA, '96, p.42)(SFC, 7/16/97,
p.E3)
1890-1900 Black River Falls was plagued by a series
of suicides, murders, financial ruin and bizarre eruptions of violence.
These events were described in the 1973 book “Wisconsin Death Trip” by
Michael Lesy. In 2000 a documentary film was completed based on the
book and this period.
(SFC, 1/2/02, p.D1)
1892 Kiel Manufacturing Co. was
founded in Kiel, Wis. The name was changed to Kiel Furniture in 1907.
In 1935 a manager bought the company and changed the name to A.A. Laun
Furniture Co. and continued operations.
(SFC, 7/6/05, p.G3)
1894 Sep, A major fire in
Wisconsin burned several million acres.
(SFC, 10/30/03, p.A15)
1895 In Wisconsin Frank Grove,
James Clark, J. Howard Jenkins and George Jones co-founded OshKosh
B’Gosh.
(SSFC, 8/20/06, p.M4)
1900 Jun 11, Belle Boyd (b.1844),
former Confederate spy, died in Wisconsin. Her 1865 autobiography was
titled “Belle Boyd in Camp and Prison.” In 1944 Louis Sigaud authored
“Belle Boyd: Confederate Spy.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belle_Boyd)(ON, 4/10,
p.3)(http://tinyurl.com/27holn6)
1901 Jan 28, Byron Bancroft
Johnson announced that the American League would play the 1901 baseball
season as a major league and would not renew its membership in the
National Agreement. The new league would include Baltimore and
Washington, DC, recently abandoned by the National League. The league
would also invade 4 cities where National League teams existed: Boston,
Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia. The 8 charter teams included: the
Baltimore Orioles, Boston Americans, Chicago White Stockings, Cleveland
Blues, Detroit Tigers, Milwaukee Brewers, Philadelphia Athletics, and
Washington Senators.
(ON, 6/09,
p.11)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_League)
1901 After the 1901 baseball
season the Milwaukee Brewers were moved to St. Louis, Mo.
(ON, 6/09, p.11)
1903 Aug 14, John Ringling North,
circus director (Ringling Bros), was born in Baraboo, Wisc.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1903 William Harley and the 3
Davidson brothers: Arthur (20), Walter and William (21), started out in
a Milwaukee basement to produce their first motorized bike. In 1999
Brock Yates published "Outlaw Machine: Harley-Davidson and the Search
for the American Soul."
(WSJ, 5/28/99, p.W6)(NW, 7/22/02, p.60)
1904 Feb 16, George Keenan, U.S.
diplomat, was born in Milwaukee. He became a historian and proposed the
policy of “containment” for dealing with the Soviet Union.
(HN, 2/16/99)
1905 Sep 25, Red Smith,
sportscaster and columnist, was born in Green Bay Wisc.
(MC, 9/25/01)
1907 Oct 11, The freighter Cyprus
foundered during a storm on Lake Superior, while on its second voyage
hauling iron ore from Superior, Wis., to Buffalo, NY. All but one of
the Cyprus' 23 crew members died. The 420-foot shipwreck was found in
2007, 8 miles north of Deer Park, Mich., where a single survivor had
reached shore. The ship was built in Lorain, Ohio, and launched on Aug.
17, 1907.
(AP, 9/10/07)
1908 Mar 13, Walter Annenberg
(d.2002), publisher (Triangle-TV Guide), Ambassador to GB, was born in
Milwaukee, the 6th of 9 children.
(SFC, 10/2/02, p.A2)(AP, 3/13/08)
1908 May 31, Actor Don Ameche was
born in Kenosha, Wis.
(AP, 5/31/08)
1908 Nov 14, Senator Joseph
McCarthy, anti-Communist Senator from Wisconsin who gave the name
“McCarthyism” to his communist witch-hunts, was born. In 1999 William
F. Buckley Jr. published "The Redhunter," a historical novel about Joe
McCarthy.
(HN, 11/14/98)(WSJ, 7/22/99, p.A24)
1908 Dec 29, A patent was granted
for a 4-wheel automobile brake in Clintonville, Wisc.
(MC, 12/29/01)
1911 Jul 31, George Liberace,
violinist (Liberace Show), was born in Menasha, Wisc.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1912 Oct 14, Theodore Roosevelt,
former president and the Bull Moose Party candidate, was shot at close
range by anarchist William Schrenk while greeting the public in front
of the Hotel Gilpatrick in Milwaukee while campaigning for the
presidency. He was saved by the papers in his breast pocket and still
managed to give a 90 minute address in Milwaukee after requesting his
audience to be quiet because “there is a bullet in my body.” Schrenk
was captured and uttered the now famous words "any man looking
for a third term ought to be shot."
(WSJ, 8/5/96, p.A10)(AP, 10/14/97)(WSJ, 8/5/96,
p.A10)(HN, 10/14/98)(MC, 10/14/01)
1912 Nov 4, Arizona and Kansas
granted women the right to vote. Wisconsin voted against suffrage for
women.
(HN,
11/5/98)(http://library.wisc.edu/etext/WIReader/WER0124-12.html)
1914 Mamah Cheney, the mistress of
Frank Lloyd Wright, was axed to death along with her 2 children and 4
others by a crazed servant at Wright’s rural Taliesin home.
(SFEC, 11/8/98, DB p.48)
1915 May 6, Orson Welles (d.1985),
actor, director, and writer, was born in Kenosha, Wisc. He is famous
for his movie Citizen Kane (1941).
(HN,
5/6/99)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orson_Welles)
1916 The Four Wheel Drive Auto Co.
of Clintonville, Wis., got a boost from WW I demand for its trucks.
(WSJ, 9/16/05, p.W12)
1918 Oct 12, A forest fire in
Minnesota and Northern Wisconsin killed about 800. [see Oct 13]
(MC, 10/12/01)
1918 Oct 13-15, A forest fire
killed some 1,000 people in Minnesota and Wisconsin. [see Oct 12]
(WSJ, 9/13/01, p.B11)
1919 May 16, Liberace (d.1987),
pianist, was born in a Milwaukee suburb as Wladziu Valentino Liberace.
At 17 he debuted with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He later averaged
an income of $5 million for over 35 years.
(SSFM, 4/29/01, p.22)
1919 Jun 10, Wisconsin became the
first state to ratify the 19th amendment granting national suffrage to
women.
(www.wisconsinhistory.org/turningpoints/tp-032/)
1919 The first owner of the Green
Bay Packers, Indian Packing Company, paid an unofficial purchase price
of $500 to supply Curly Lambeau with uniforms and equipment. In turn,
Lambeau and team manager George Calhoun called the club "Packers."
(www.packers.com)
1921 Aug 27, J.E. Clair of Acme
Packing Co. of Green Bay was granted an NFL franchise.
(MC, 8/27/02)
1921 Oct 23, Green Bay Packers
played their 1st NFL game. They won 7-6 over Minneapolis.
(MC, 10/23/01)
1922 Aug 21, Curly Lambeau and
Green Bay Football Club were granted an NFL franchise.
(SC, 8/21/02)
1923 The Villa Terrace Decorative
Arts Museum in Milwaukee was designed in the style of a 16th century
Italian villa.
(SSFC, 4/3/05, p.E11)
1924 Oct 1, William Rehnquist was
born in Milwaukee. He served as Supreme Court Justice (1972-86) and US
Chief Justice (1987- ).
(USAT, 1/7/99, p.2A)(MC, 10/1/01)
1927 Nov 22, 1st snowmobile patent
was granted to Carl Eliason in Sayner, Wisc.
(MC, 11/22/01)
1927 John Hammes (1895-1953), a
Wisconsin architect, invented the sink-connected garbage disposal. In
1938 he started the InSinkErator company, which later became a part of
Emerson Electric Corp.
(WSJ, 2/26/08,
p.B1)(http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_gx5202/is_1995/ai_n19122482)
1928 Frank Lloyd Wright announced
that he would establish his own school of architecture. He took in 60
students for $300 in tuition plus voluntary labor at his Taliesin
homestead in Spring Green, Wisconsin. In 2006 Roger Friedland authored
“The Fellowship,” an account of Wright and his students.
(WSJ, 8/25/06, p.W5)
1929 Keil Furniture of Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, advertised a radio table with an Atwater Kent screen-grid
radio for $179.
(SFC, 2/13/08, p.G8)
1930s The Depression era "Eau
Claire" system set milk prices according to the distance from Eau
Claire, Wisconsin, to ensure that every region of the country
maintained a local supply of fresh milk.
(SFC, 11/17/99, p.A12)
1934 A postcard of a man in bikini
shorts inspired a Wisconsin-based Cooper’s Inc. designer to invent
Jockey Shorts, the first pair of briefs.
(SSFC, 11/29/09, p.N6)
1935 Jan 26, Bob Uecker, catcher,
actor, was born in Milwaukee, Wisc.
(MC, 1/26/02)
1935 Feb 2, A lie detector was 1st
used in court at Portage, Wisc.
(MC, 2/2/02)
1935 Jun 11, Gene Wilder, actor
(Young Frankenstein, Silver Streak), was born in Milwaukee.
(SC, 6/11/02)
1937 John Steuart Curry, American
painter, began his work “Wisconsin Landscape,” and completed it in 1938.
(SFC, 6/13/98, p.E1)
1938 Jul 21, Les Aspin,
(Rep-D-Wisc, 1971-93), Minister of Defense (1993-94), was born.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1939 Jan 19, Ernest Hausen of
Wisconsin set a chicken-plucking record of 4.4 sec.
(MC, 1/19/02)
1940 Nov 17, The Green Bay Packers
became the 1st NFL team to travel by plane.
(MC, 11/17/01)
1942 Dec, Dr. Ira Baldwin
(1896-1999), plant bacteriologist at the Univ. of Wisconsin, was
selected to head US biological warfare.
(AH, 6/03, p.46)
1948 Two Milwaukee lawyers founded
Manpower after they failed to find extra administrative help for an
urgent legal brief. By 2009 the company had over 4,000 offices in 82
countries.
(Econ, 1/6/07, p.57)(Econ, 12/12/09, p.74)
1950 Mar 11, Jerry Zucker, film
director and TV producer, was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0958387/)
1950s-60s Harry Harlow (1905-1981) conducted
psychology experiments on baby rhesus monkeys at the Univ. of
Wisconsin. In 2003 Deborah Blum authored “Love at Goon Park: Harry
Harlow and the Science of Affection.”
(NYTBR, 2/2/03, p.19)
1951 Jul 4, The "Capital Times" in
Madison, Wisconsin, reported that one of its reporters was turned down
by 99 out of 100 people he asked to sign a petition made up of
quotations from the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights.
Many said the petition was subversive.
(IB, Internet, 12/7/98)
1953 Mar 18, The Braves baseball
team announced that they were moving from Boston to Milwaukee.
(HN, 3/18/98)
1954 Mar 11, The U.S. Army charged
that Wisconsin Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy and his subcommittee's chief
counsel, Roy Cohn, had exerted pressure to obtain favored treatment for
Pvt. G. David Schine, a former consultant to the subcommittee.
(AP, 3/11/98)
1954
Dec 2, The US Senate voted 67-22 to censure Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy,
R-Wis., for "conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and
disrepute." This followed the McCarthy investigation of the Army. Roy
Cohn was McCarthy’s aide and Joseph Welch was the attorney for the
army. Army general counsel John G. Adams (d.2003) later authored
"Without Precedent: The story of the Death of McCarthyism." In 1999
Arthur Herman published "Joseph McCarthy," a reexamination of
McCarthy's accusations.
(NYT, 12/3/54, p.1)(WSJ, 8/5/96, p.A10)(AP, 12/2/97)(WSJ, 12/6/99,
p.A32)(SFC, 6/28/03, p.A1)
1954 US Congress voted to withdraw
support to Wisconsin Indians guaranteed in 1854. The Menomonee (people
of the wild rice) Chiefs Oshkosh and Keshena met with federal Indian
agents in Keshena Falls, Wisconsin, in 1854 and agreed to retain only
275,000 acres from their original 9 1/2 million acres. As part of the
settlement the chiefs and their followers were promised eternal
government protection.
(NG, Aug., 1974, p.235)
1955 The Old Milwaukee brand was
first brewered by the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company of Wisconsin. It
was the first beer brand launched exclusively as a “popular” beer.
(www.oldmilwaukee.com/ourbeer_main.htm)(http://tinyurl.com/rvxp4)
1955 The Hearst Corp. acquired
WISN-TV, Milwaukee.
(SFC, 8/7/99, p.A9)
1957 May 2, Sen. Joseph R.
McCarthy (48), the controversial Republican from Wisconsin, died at
Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland. McCarthy drank himself to death.
(AP, 5/2/97)(WSJ, 2/9/00, p.A26)
1957 Oct 10, The Milwaukee Braves
won the World Series, defeating the New York Yankees in Game 7, 5-0.
(AP, 10/10/07)
1957 William Proxmire (1915-2005),
Wisconsin Democrat, won a special election to fill the seat of US Sen.
Joseph R. McCarthy. Proxmire served until 1989.
(SFC, 12/16/05, p.A4)
1957 All 30,000 high school
graduating students were given questionnaires with questions on family
background, and educational and occupational aspirations. Dr. William
H. Sewell found them in the early 1960s and used them with colleagues
for the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study.
(SFC, 7/14/01, p.C2)
1957-1974 Edward Gein, a handyman in Plainfield,
Wis., liked to dig up fresh graves, cut the skin off corpses, wear the
skin on his own body and dance in the moonlight. He was picked up in
this year and evidence showed that he’d been collecting body
parts for years. He had skulls on bedposts, a human heart in a
saucepan, and a lady out in his barn dressed like a deer. The 1974 film
“Texas Chainsaw Massacre” was based on his story. It starred Gunnar
Hansen as Leatherface and was directed by Tobe Hooper and was first
shown in San Francisco. The film was narrated by John Larroquette.
(SFC, 5/18/96, p.E-4)(WSJ, 10/31/97, p.A1)
1959 Sep 27, Beth Heiden, 3000m
speed skater (Olympic-bronze-1980), was born in Madison, Wisc.
(MC, 9/27/01)
1962 Gaylord Nelson (1916-2005),
defeated Republican Sen. Alexander Wiley to win his 1st term as US
Senator form Wisconsin. Nelson was defeated in 1980.
(SFC, 7/4/05, p.A2)
1962 Kohl’s discount department
store was founded in Wisconsin. The company went public in 1992 and by
2009 it counted 1,059 stores nationwide, including 121 in California.
(SFC, 8/5/09, p.C1)
1962 Edwin Traisman (1915-2007),
food researcher for McDonald’s, patented a method for preparing frozen
French fried potatoes. In 1968 his associate Ken Strong patented a
method for quick frying cut potatoes before freezing along with a short
steam blanch to preserve sugars and other flavors. Traisman was
instrumental in the development of Cheese Whiz for Kraft Foods and had
bought the first McDonald’s franchise in Madison, Wis., in the late
1950s.
(SFC, 6/9/07, p.B6)
1964 Jan 22, World's largest
cheese (15,723 kg) was manufactured in Wisconsin.
(MC, 1/22/02)
1964 Mammoth bones were discovered
at the Schaefer farm near Kenosha, Wisc. Butcher marks indicated human
activity. Other bones were found as early as 1935.
(Arch, 7/02, p.51)
1967 Jan 15, The first Super Bowl
was played as the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League
defeated the Kansas City Chiefs of the American Football League, 35-10
in Los Angeles. The matchup was officially called the AFL-NFL World
Championship Game.
(WSJ, 1/28/97, p.A16)(AP, 1/15/98)
1967 Jul 30, There was a race riot
in Milwaukee and 4 people were killed.
(MC, 7/30/02)
1967 Oct 18, A protest in Madison,
Wisc., against recruiting by Dow Chemical, the maker of napalm and
Agent Orange, turned violent. In 2003 David Maraniss authored "They
Marched Into Sunlight: War and Peace, Vietnam and America." It centered
on an Oct 17 battle in Vietnam and the Wisconsin protest.
(Econ, 11/22/03, p.82)(SSFC, 12/28/03, p.M3)
1967 Dec 10, Singer Otis Redding
(26) and 6 others died in the crash of his private plane in Lake
Monona, Wisconsin. He had recently recorded “Sittin’ on the Dock of the
Bay,” which became a big hit in 1968.
(SFC, 4/25/06, p.B5)(AP, 12/10/07)
1967-1968 Dr. William H. Sewell (d.2001 at 91),
sociologist, served as the chancellor of the Univ. of Wisconsin.
(SFC, 7/14/01, p.C2)
1968 Jan 14, The Green Bay Packers
under Vince Lombardi, after winning its third consecutive NFL
championship, won the 2nd Super Bowl Football game over the Oakland
Raiders. This was Lombardi's last game as coach of the Packers. The
game drew the first $3 million gate in football history. In 1999 David
Maraniss authored "When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi."
(WSJ, 1/28/97, p.A16)(SFEC, 1/9/00, BR
p.5)(Superbowl.com)
1968 Jan 28, Vince Lombardi
resigned as coach of Wisconsin’s Green Bay Packers, two weeks after
winning Super Bowl II. He remained as general manager. On Feb 1 Phil
Bengtson was named coach of the Packers.
(www.packers.com/history/chronology/)(www.nfl.com/history/chronology/1961-1970)
1968 Apr 2, Senator Eugene
McCarthy won the Democratic primaries in Wisconsin. In 2004 Dominic
Sandbrook authored "Eugene McCarthy: The Rise and Fall of Postwar
American Liberalism."
(http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2005/06/15_newsroom_mccarthytimeline/)(SSFC,
4/11/04, p.M6)
1968 In Grand Chute, Wis., a night
watchman was killed during a robbery at a car dealership. In 2005
police in Appleton, Wis., arrested Robert Mitchell (75) for the murder.
(SFC, 11/19/05, p.A3)
1970 Apr 22, The first Earth Day
and Earth Week was celebrated and millions protested pollution on Earth
and their concern for the environment. The event was organized by a
33-member committee in Philadelphia. Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson
suggested Earth Day as a means to focus national attention on
ecological issues.
(TMC, 1994, p.1970)(WSJ, 4/22/96, p.A22)(AP,
4/22/97)(WSJ, 5/12/99, p.A23)(HNQ, 6/2/99)
1970 Jun 2, Har Gobind Khorana
(1922-1993), Indian-American chemist at the Univ. of Wisconsin,
announced the synthesis of the 1st artificial gene.
(www.super70s.com/Super70s/Timeline/1970/)(www.answers.com/topic/har-gobind-khorana)
1970 Aug 24, A bomb planted by
anti-war extremists exploded at the University of Wisconsin's Army Math
Research Center in Madison, killing 33-year-old researcher Robert
Fassnacht. On Sep 2 the FBI began a nationwide hunt for Dwight
Armstrong (19), Karleton Armstrong (22), David S. Fine (18), and Leo F.
Burt (22). Dwight Armstrong (1951-2010), the last to be caught, was
arrested in Toronto in April, 1977.
(AP, 8/24/97)(SSFC, 6/27/10, p.C9)
1970 Sep 3, Vince Lombardi (57),
one of Fordham University‘s stalwart linemen known as the "Seven Blocks
of Granite" during his college days, succumbed to cancer in Washington,
D.C. He had recently coached the Washington Redskins to their first
winning season in 14 years. Lombardi had previously coached the Green
Bay Packers to five NFL championships and victories in the first two
Super Bowls. He went to the Washington Redskins in 1969 as head coach,
general manager, and part owner. The team wound up with a 7-5-2 record
for the season. In 1999 David Maraniss authored "When Pride Still
Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi."
(AP, 9/3/97)(WSJ, 10/7/99, p.A28)
1970 Dec 31, Lorine Niedecker
(b.1903), died. She was a Wisconsin-born objectivist-influenced poet.
(SFEC, 4/23/00, BR
p.6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorine_Niedecker)
1970 George L. Mosse (1918-1999),
a Univ. of Wisconsin historian, published "Germans and Jews: The Right,
the Left, and the Search for a 'Third Force' in Pre-Nazi Germany."
(SFEC, 1/31/99,
p.D8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Mosse)
1970 The Seattle Pilots baseball
team after one season moved to Milwaukee and became the Brewers.
(WSJ, 4/7/99, p.B1)
1972 May 13, Milwaukee
Brewers beat Minn. Twins, 4-3, in 22 innings. The game had started the
evening of May 12.
(www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/MIN/MIN197205120.shtml)
1975 Mar, US Sen. William Proxmire
(1915-2005), Wisconsin Democrat, started his monthly Golden Fleece
Awards to highlight examples of government waste. The 1st award went to
the National Science Foundation for squandering $84,000 to try to find
out why people fall in love.
(SFC, 12/16/05,
p.A4)(www.taxpayer.net/awards/goldenfleece/1975-1980.htm)
1976 Dec 1, Konerak
Sinthasomphone, Jeffrey Dahmer's victim, was born in Milwaukee, Wisc.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1978 William Steiger, congressman
from Wisconsin, led a drive to reduce the capital gains tax rate from
nearly 50% to 28%. In 1999 this was credited by Brian S. Wesbury in
"The New Era of Wealth" as one of the factors that contributed to the
economic boom of the 1990s.
(WSJ, 12/22/99, p.A16)
1979 Aug 14, In northern Wisconsin
Rob Pfiel (27) was killed by a shotgun blast to the back of his head. 2
months earlier Rusk County sheriff’s deputies killed his 3 dogs because
they had gotten loose. Rusk County DA Robert Rogers (d.1984), his wife
Cherie Barnard, and 3 brothers were later accused of plotting to kill
Pfiel, who had threatened to get even. In 2005 police arrested 2 of the
Rogers’ brothers for Pfiel’s murder as well as Barnard.
(SFC, 8/4/05, p.B1)(SFC, 10/17/05, p.A1)
1979 Sep 16, In Wisconsin the
Madison Press Connection published a detailed explanation of how to
build a hydrogen bomb in an article written by Charles Hansen
(1947-2003) of Mountain View, Ca. In 1988 Hansen published "U.S.
Nuclear Weapons: The Secret History."
(SFC, 9/17/04,
p.F4)(http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/News/HansenRetrospective.html)
1979 Dec 26, Robert Ben Madison
(14) founded the virtual Kingdom of Talossa in his Milwaukee, Wisc.,
bedroom and migrated it to the Internet in 1996.
(Econ, 12/24/05,
p.85)(www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.03/kingdoms_pr.html)
1980 Mar 11, Marilyn McIntyre (18)
was beaten stabbed and strangled to death at her home in Columbus, Wis.
In 2009 Curtis Forbes, a friend of her husband, was charged with 1st
degree murder based on DNA evidence.
(SFC, 3/31/09,
p.A6)(www.nbc15.com/home/headlines/11251061.html)
1981 Jan 18, Wendy O. Williams
(1949-1998), lead singer for the punk band the Plasmatics, was arrested
in Milwaukee for on-stage obscenity.
(http://tinyurl.com/3dsq4g)
1981 The Univ. of Wisconsin began
a multivolume History of Cartography. In 2004 editor David A. Woodward,
British-born geographer, died at age 61.
(SFC, 9/1/04, p.B7)
1982 Jun 10, The Jos. Schlitz
Brewing Company and the Old Milwaukee brand was acquired by Stroh
Brewing Company of Detroit. The Old Milwaukee brand was first brewered
by the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company.
(http://tinyurl.com/rvxp4)
1983 Eugene Von Bruenchenhein
(b.1910), commercial bakery worker, died In Milwaukee, Wis. He was also
a prolific artist but never exhibited any of his work.
(NYT, 10/8/04, p.B35)
1985 Mar 1, Herb Kohl (b.1935),
Milwaukee businessman and later US Senator (1988), purchased the
Milwaukee Bucks basketball team.
(www.nba.com/bucks/history/history.html)
1985 Sep 6, All 31 people aboard a
Midwest Express Airlines DC-9 were killed when the Atlanta-bound
jetliner crashed just after takeoff from Milwaukee's Mitchell Field.
(WSJ, 6/14/96, p.A15)(AP, 9/6/05)
1985 Pleasant Rowland, a textbook
publishing executive, founded The American Girl company in Madison,
Wis. The company started with 3 dolls, each one set in a specific
moment in American history. Mattel bought the company for $700 million
in 1998.
(WSJ, 12/30/06, p.A1)
1988 Apr 5 Gov. Michael S. Dukakis
won a solid victory in Wisconsin's Democratic presidential primary
while, on the Republican side, Vice President George Bush overwhelmed
his opposition.
(AP, 5/5/97)
1988 The Bradley Center in
Milwaukee, home to the NBA Bucks, indoor soccer, minor league hockey
and Marquette Univ. basketball, was completed for $90 million.
(SFC, 5/21/01, p.A3)
1990 The first Weedstock Festival,
a pro-marijuana event, was held.
(SFC, 5/27/97, p.A12)
1991 Mar 30, In Milwaukee, Wisc.,
serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer killed and dismembered Konerak
Sinthasomphone (b.1976).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Dahmer)
1991 Jul 22, Police in Milwaukee
arrested serial killer Jeffrey L. Dahmer. He was murdered while in
prison in 1994.
(AP, 7/22/97)(SFC, 5/29/96, A4)
1991 Wisconsin introduced wild
turkeys in Marathon County and sold licenses to hunt them. The birds
took a taste to the local ginseng crops and wrought havoc. In the early
1900s 4 Fromm brothers had begun cultivating Ginseng in Wisconsin and
it became much appreciated by Chinese users. In the 1990s Canada,
having acquired Wisconsin ginseng seeds, began competing and sold seeds
to China causing ginseng prices to plummet to about $15 per pound.
(WSJ, 3/8/06, p.A1)
1992 Feb 17, Serial killer Jeffrey
Dahmer was sentenced in Milwaukee to life in prison. He was beaten to
death in prison in November 1994.
(AP, 2/17/98)
1992 After hearing about his
cutting-edge research on the brain and emotions through mutual friends,
the Dalai Lama invited Richard Davidson, a University of
Wisconsin-Madison neuroscientist, to his home in India to pose a
question: Scientists often study depression, anxiety and fear, but why
not devote your work to the causes of positive human qualities like
happiness and compassion? In 2010 the Dalai Lama marked the opening of
the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at the university's Waisman
Center.
(AP, 5/14/10)
c1992 The Russian city of Dubna
began a sister-city relationship with La Crosse, Wisconsin.
(SFC, 12/31/00, p.B5)
1993 Mar, Drinking water in
Milwaukee became contaminated with the cryptosporidium bacterium and
more than 100 people died and some 400,000 got sick.
(SFC, 6/26/96, p.A6)(SFC, 6/24/98, Z1 p.5)(SFC,
8/1/98, p.A11)
1893 Pickard China was established
in Edgerton, Wisconsin, by Wilder Austin Pickard, and moved to Chicago
in 1897. For some forty years the Pickard China Studio, as the firm was
then known, was a decorating company specializing in hand painted art
pieces, dessert and tea sets.
(www.pickardchina.com/About_us.htm)
1994 Nov 28, Jeffrey Dahmer (b.
May 21, 1960), a serial killer who sexually abused, tortured, and
cannibalized murder victims during the 1980's, was clubbed to death in
prison by a fellow inmate while cleaning a prison toilet. He was
serving several life terms for the killing of 17 young men and boys
over a 13-year rampage of necrophilia and dismemberment.
(SFC, 5/29/96, A4)(AP, 11/28/97)(DT internet
11/28/97)
1995 Aug 3, Gov. Tommy Thompson
announced an end to welfare offices in the state at the site of a new
jobs center in Racine.
(SFC, 9/1/97, p.A3)
1997 May 26, In Ferryville the 8th
annual Weedstock Festival, a pro-marijuana event, had 3,500 people with
60 arrests.
(SFC, 5/27/97, p.A3)
1997 Dec 19, In Milwaukee a postal
clerk, Anthony J. De Culit, shot and killed his supervisor, a co-worker
and wounded another and then killed himself.
(SFC,12/20/97, p.A3)
1998 Apr 19, In Madison Salim
Amara doused a fellow passenger on a city bus with gasoline and ignited
a fire burning himself and others severely.
(SFC, 4/21/98, p.A9)
1998 May 14, Abortion clinics
across the state closed as a sweeping ban against “partial birth”
abortions went into effect following last month’s bill signed by Gov.
Tommy Thompson.
(SFC, 5/15/98, p.A3)
1998 May 20, Abortion clinics
resumed first-trimester abortions after being assured that the new
state law did not impact the first trimester operations.
(SFC, 5/21/98, p.A6)
1998 Jun 10, The Wisconsin Supreme
court ruled that taxpayer could be used to send poor children to
private religious schools.
(SFC, 6/11/98, p.A3)
1998 Sep 23, In Milwaukee Sammy
Sosa hit homers 64 and 65 against the Brewers.
(SFC, 9/24/98, p.A18)
1998 Nov 10, A heavy snow storm
hit the northern Midwest. Minnesota, Wisconsin and the Dakotas suffered
loss of power, heavy snow and violent winds.
(SFC, 11/11/98, p.A3)
1998 Rep. Tammy Baldwin, Democrat,
was elected as the 1st openly gay woman in Congress.
(SFC, 6/23/00, p.A26)
1998 Dr. James Thomson, Univ. of
Wisconsin research biologist, announced that he had successfully grown
human embryonic stem cells in a privately funded research lab.
(WSJ, 8/23/01, p.A18)
1998 Rev. Lawrence Murphy
(d.1998), who had worked at the former St. John's School for the Deaf
in St. Francis, Wisconsin (1950-1975), died. In July 1996, Milwaukee
Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland sent a letter to the Vatican seeking
advice on how to proceed with charges of sexual molestation by Murphy
on as many as 200 deaf students. Cardinal Ratzinger, who led the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from 1981 until 2005, when
he was elected pope, did not respond. The case was made public in 2010.
(AP, 3/25/10)
1999 Mar 25, Six people were
killed and 8 injured when a speeding van loaded with young salespeople
rolled over near Janesville. Jeremy Holmes (20), the driver, was later
sentenced to 7 years in prison.
(SFC, 3/26/99, p.A4)(SFC, 6/12/99, p.A2)
1999 Wisconsin dairy farmers began
a cow-sharing program in order to send owners unpasteurized milk. Sale
of unpastuerized milk was illegal in Wisconsin and 21 other states.
(WSJ, 9/11/03, p.A1)
2000 Jan 1, In the Rose Bowl
Wisconsin beat Stanford 17-9.
(SFEC, 1/2/00, p.A1)
2000 Jan 6, Many state rebate
checks, sent as a postcard from Gov. Tommy Thompson as part of a relief
package in the 1999-2001 budget, were mistaken by recipients as junk
mail and discarded.
(SFC, 1/7/00, p.A3)
2000 Jul 28, Brianna Kriefall (3)
of South Milwaukee died from E. coli poisoning. 21 people were reported
sickened from E. coli after eating at a Sizzler restaurant.
(SFC, 7/29/00, p.A5)
2000 Nov 7, Wisconsin voters
supported Al Gore by a margin of some 5,700 votes.
(Econ, 7/24/04, p.30)(Econ, 9/13/08, p.39)
2000 Dec 1, Milwaukee Mayor John
Norquist (51) announced that he had had a 5-year affair with staff aid,
Marilyn Figueroa (41).
(SFC, 12/27/00, p.A3)
2001 Apr, Part of the new $121
million extension of the Milwaukee Art Museum, designed by Spanish
architect Santiago Calatrava, opened. The rest of the Quadracci
Pavilion was set to open in September.
(WSJ, 2/14/00, p.B12)(SSFC, 4/3/05, p.E11)
2001 Jun 19, A tornado struck in
Siren and 3 people were killed.
(SFC, 6/20/01, p.A5)
2001 Sep 5, The new Kenosha Public
Museum opened.
(Arch, 7/02, p.54)
2001 Sep 6, Scott Stoll (38) and
Dennis Snader (36) set off from San Francisco on a bicycle journey that
aimed to cover 24,901.55 miles, equal to the circumference of the
Earth. After 3+ years Stoll completed 25,752 miles across North and
South America, Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa. Stoll ended his
adventure on the southern tip of South Africa on October 24, 2004. The
Milwaukee native returned to Waukesha where he grew up and his parents
still live.
(SSFC, 2/26/06, p.F3)(www.theargonauts.com)
2001 Tommy Thompson joined the
Bush administration as Sec. for Health and Human Services. Scott
McCallum served as governor.
(WSJ, 8/23/01, p.A18)
2001 Wisconsin hunters killed
446,000 deer and generated over $1 billion in economic activity. Brain
tests of white-tailed deer showed that about 3% were infected with
chronic wasting disease (CWD).
(WSJ, 5/24/02, p.A1)
2002 Feb 24, Leo Ornstein
(b.1893), Russian-born Futurist composer, died in Green Bay, Wisc. In
1918 Frederick H. Martens authored “Leo Ornstein: The Man, His Ideas,
His Work.” In 1990 Ornstein composed his last work: the Eighth Piano
Sonata.
(SFC, 3/8/02,
p.A31)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Ornstein)
2002 Mar 26, In Ixonia a bus
carrying residents of a retirement home collided with a delivery van on
Hwy 16 and 4 people were killed.
(SFC, 3/27/02, p.A5)
2002 May 24, Pope John Paul
accepted the resignation of Rembert Weakland (75), archbishop of
Milwaukee. Weakland admitted to a $450,000 settlement in 1998 to Paul
Marcoux (53) for an alleged sexual assault in 1979.
(SFC, 5/25/02, p.A3)
2002 Jul 9, To the boos of
disappointed fans, the All-Star game in Milwaukee finished in a 7-7 tie
after 11 innings when both teams ran out of pitchers.
(AP, 7/9/03)
2002 Jul 15, A Canadian National
freight train derailed and caught fire near Allenton, Wisc., and 34 of
107 cars jumped the tracks.
(SFC, 7/16/02, p.A4)
2002 Sep 2, In Ladysmith a tornado
injured 43 and cut a swath 14 blocks long by 4 wide.
(WSJ, 9/4/02, p.A1)
2002 Sep 29, In Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, Charlie Young Jr. (36) was beaten to death by a mob of
youths after he punched and knocked out the tooth of a 14-year-old who
hit him with an egg.
(ADN, 10/8/02, p.A4)
2002 Oct 11, In Wisconsin 10
people were killed in a crash on I-43 that involved over 2 dozen
vehicles north of Milwaukee.
(SFC, 10/12/02, p.A4)
2003 Jan 6, Jim Doyle was sworn in
as Wisconsin’s 44th governor.
(www.wisgov.state.wi.us)
2003 Aug 30, Harley-Davidson
celebrated its 100th anniversary in Milwaukee with a parade of 10,000
motorcycles. Some 250,000 bikers packed the roads around Milwaukee for
a 3-day celebration.
(AP, 9/1/03)
2003 Wisconsin consumers filed a
record 28,225 bankruptcy petitions, 12% higher than 2002.
(USAT, 1/20/04, p.12A)
2003 Robert Posser (81) of Turtle
Lake, Wisconsin, died. He left behind his collection of over 750,000
old telephones.
(WSJ, 10/10/05, p.A1)
2004 Jan 2, Marvin Pratt was sworn
in as acting mayor of Milwaukee following the resignation of 4-term
Mayor John Norquist due to a sex scandal.
(Econ, 1/10/04, p.25)
2004 Jan, La Gloria English School
opened on Isla Mujeres, Mexico. Maggie and Tom Washa of Wisconsin
opened the school to help the local Mayan children.
(SSFC, 9/25/05, E5)
2004 Feb 17, In Wisconsin John
Kerry won the primary with about 40 percent of the vote while Edwards
finished a close second with 34 percent. Dean, who had banked his
future on a strong showing, drew just 18 percent.
(AP, 2/18/04)(SFC, 2/18/04, p.A1)
2004 Apr 8, Milwaukee residents
elected former white Rep. Tom Barrett as mayor over acting Mayor Marvin
Pratt. The city's population of 50% white, 37% black and 12% Hispanic
voted along racial lines.
(SFC, 4/9/04, p.A2)
2004 May 19, Flooding from storms
hit Wisconsin. On June 19 Pres. Bush granted federal disaster
recognition to 12 counties.
(SSFC, 6/20/04, p.A3)
2004 Nov 2, John Kerry carried
Wisconsin by 11,400 votes.
(Econ, 9/13/08, p.39)
2004 Nov 21, A trespassing deer
hunter in northern Wisconsin opened fire on other hunters when they
asked him to leave, killing 5 and wounding 3. Another hunter died the
next day. Police arrested Chai Soua Vang, a Hmong man of St. Paul
Minn., for killing 6 hunters. In 2005 Vang (36) was convicted of 1st
degree murder and sentenced to 6 life terms.
(AP, 11/22/04)(WSJ, 11/23/04, p.A1)(SFC, 11/9/05,
p.A3)
2005 Mar 12, In Brookfield,
Wisconsin, Terry Ratzmann (44) opened fire with a handgun during an
evangelical church service at a suburban Milwaukee hotel, killing 7
people before taking his own life.
(AP, 3/13/05)(SFC, 3/14/05, p.A1)
2005 Apr 11, Some 12,000 Wisconsin
citizens took part in an advisory poll on shooting free-roaming
domestic cats. 57% voted to allow shooting them. An advisory committee
dropped the issue May 13 following an outcry from animal rights groups.
(Econ, 4/16/05, p.27)(SFC, 5/14/05, p.A2)
2005 Jul 3, Gaylord Nelson (89),
former governor and US senator from Wisconsin, died. He founded Earth
Day (1970), and helped spawn the modern environmental movement. Nelson
was at the center of legislation that resulted in the Wild and Scenic
Rivers Act (1968), the Clean Air Act (1970), and passage of the
Endangered Species Act.
(AP, 7/3/05)(SFC, 7/4/05, p.A2)
2005 Jul, The new Milwaukee Public
Market was set to open.
(SSFC, 4/3/05, p.E11)
2005 Oct 16, In Wisconsin a bus
carrying Chippewa Falls High School students home from a band
competition collided with a semi truck, killing five passengers near
Osseo.
(AP, 10/16/05)
2005 Oct 30, In Madison,
Wisconsin, police used pepper spray to break up rowdy Halloween
celebrations. Over 400 arrests were made mostly for alcohol-related
offenses.
(SFC, 10/31/05, p.A3)
2006 Mar 12-2006 Mar 13, Swarms of
tornadoes killed at least 10 people across the Midwest states of
Indiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas, South Dakota, Minnesota and
Wisconsin. It caused so much damage in Springfield, Ill., that the
mayor compared it to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
(AP, 3/13/06)
2006 May 19, The NRA opened its
annual convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Wayne LaPierre, executive
VP, signed copies of his new book: “the Global War on Your Guns: Inside
the UN Plan to destroy the Bill of Rights.”
(Econ, 5/27/06, p.28)
2006 Aug 24, Deadly storms swept
across the northern Plains, bringing tornadoes that ripped roofs off
houses and hail that smashed car windshields. One man was killed when a
tornado hit his home in Minnesota, and in Wisconsin, lightning
apparently killed a dozen cows and struck a woman as she left a
supermarket.
(AP, 8/25/06)
2006 Sep 14, US federal health
officials said an outbreak a deadly strain of E. coli (0157:H7) had
left at least one person dead in Wisconsin over 100 others sick and
warned consumers not to eat bagged fresh spinach. The outbreak in 8
states soon extended to 25. The number sickened rose to at least 190.
Most of the spinach crop at this time of the year comes from
California. A special effort was under way in the Salinas Valley of
California, a major leafy-vegetable growing region, to look for any
possible source of contamination there. The outbreak was traced to
California’s Natural Selection Foods of San Juan Bautista, which
recalled all suspect products. This was the same deadly strain that in
1982 had sickened at least 47 people in Oregon and Michigan who ate
McDonald’s burgers. A surveillance system setup after a 1993 outbreak
at the Jack-in-the-Box fast food chain helped single out spinach as the
likely source of this outbreak. A 2nd death on Sep 20, a 2-year-old boy
in Idaho, was attributed to the spinach E. coli. A 3rd death in late
August, a woman (84) in Nebraska, was also attributed to the spinach E.
coli. On Sep 29 the FDA cleared spinach from California’s Monterey, San
Benito and Santa Clara counties.
(SFC, 9/23/06, p.A9)(WSJ, 9/25/06, p.A4)(SFC,
9/30/06, p.A5)(SFC, 10/7/06, p.A6)
2006 Sep 14, In Green Bay, Wisc.,
police arrested two 17-year-olds, suspected of plotting a shooting
spree at East High School. William C. Cornell and Shawn R. Sturtz were
arrested for suspicion of conspiracy to commit first-degree intentional
homicide and conspiracy to commit arson. Police found homemade bombs
and weapons at their homes.
(http://kutv.com/topstories/topstories_story_258075847.html)
2006 Sep 29, In Cazenovia,
Wisconsin, Eric Hainstock (15) walked into Weston High School with a
shotgun. The principal confronted him in a corridor and was shot and
killed. Hainstock was taken into custody and all the children were
reported safe.
(AP, 9/29/06)(Econ, 10/7/06, p.38)
2006 Oct 20, US federal
authorities arrested Jake Brahm, a 20-year-old Wisconsin grocery store
clerk, for making a hoax threat that said seven football stadiums
across the nation would be targeted by terrorists with radiological
"dirty bombs" this weekend.
(AP, 10/20/06)(SFC, 10/21/06, p.A5)
2006 Dec 6, In Wisconsin a propane
gas leak led to a huge explosion in a west side Milwaukee industrial
area, killing three people at the Falk Corp. transmission parts plant.
46 others were injured.
(SFC, 12/7/06, p.A3)
2006 The US Navy planned to launch
2 versions of its new Littoral Combat Ships (LCS), currently under
construction in Wisconsin and Alabama.
(SFC, 6/16/06, p.A24)
2007 Jan 6, The body of Cha Vang
(30), a Hmong man, was found hidden under a log in a Wisconsin wild
life refuge. Vang had been shot and stabbed 5 times. On Nov 28 James
Nichols (29) was sentenced to 69 years in prison for Vang’s murder.
(SFC, 11/29/07, p.A3)
2007 Feb 24, In Arkansas tornado
winds injured 40 people and damaged dozens of homes and businesses. The
Midwest storm system was blamed for 8 traffic deaths, 7 in Wisconsin
and one in Kansas.
(SFC, 2/26/07, p.A4)
2007 Apr 1, Tommy Thompson, former
Wisconsin governor (GOP), announced that he is running for president.
(SFC, 4/2/07, p.A4)
2007 Jun 4, A small plane from
Milwaukee carrying a six-member organ transplant team and their cargo
of donor organs to Michigan crashed in Lake Michigan with no survivors.
(AP, 6/5/07)
2007 Jun 4, In Portage, Wisconsin,
Tammie Garlin was killed. Felicia Garlin (15) and Michaela Clerc (20)
had kicked her, then later that day carried her into the bathroom,
where Clerc dropped her head on the floor. A roving band of suspected
identity thieves buried her in the backyard and locked her bloody and
beaten 11-year-old son in an upstairs closet. Authorities reached the
house on June 14.
(AP, 6/21/07)
2007 Jun 7, Severe thunderstorms
spawned tornadoes, produced baseball-size hail and dropped more than 6
inches of rain across the Upper Midwest, killing a swimmer in Illinois.
Four people in Wisconsin were injured, none seriously. A northern
Wisconsin resort was demolished by one of at least five tornadoes that
swept across the state.
(AP, 6/8/07)
2007 Jun 9, In Delavan, Wisconsin,
a shooting inside a home killed six people including twin baby boys. A
1-year-old daughter was found wounded in a nearby vehicle. Place later
said Ambrosio Analco committed the murder and suicide.
(AP, 6/10/07)(SFC, 6/14/07, p.A3)
2007 Jun, A team from the Univ. of
Wisconsin claimed to have developed a biofuel, called
2,5-dimethlyfuran, with a 40% higher energy density than ethanol.
(Econ, 6/23/07, p.89)
2007 Aug 12, Tommy Thompson,
former governor of Wisconsin, said he was dropping out of the
Republican presidential campaign following his 6th place finish in
Iowa’s straw poll.
(SFC, 8/13/07, p.A2)
2007 Aug 22, The death toll across
the Upper Midwest and from the remnants of Tropical Storm Erin that
swept Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri over the past week rose to at least
26. Three people were electrocuted by lightning at a bus stop in
Madison, Wis.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Oct 7, In Crandon, Wisconsin,
Tyler Peterson (20), an off-duty sheriff's deputy, killed six young
people and critically wounded another, before he was shot to death,
during a homecoming weekend gathering. Relatives of the victims said
the rampage may have been fueled by a romantic dispute.
(AP, 10/8/07)
2007 Dec 16, Street and highway
crews were at work trying to clear roads across the Great Lakes states
into New England as a storm blamed for three deaths spread a hazardous
mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain. The storm was blamed for at least
10 deaths including 4 in Indiana, 2 in Michigan and Wisconsin, one in
Pennsylvania and one in Nova Scotia.
(AP, 12/16/07)(SFC, 12/18/07,
p.A19)
2007 Dec 18, John Morgridge, the
retired chairman of Cisco Systems, and his wife Tashia, both graduates
from the Univ. of Wisconsin, announced that they are donating $175
million to help low-income Wisconsin students attend any of the state’s
public colleges and universities. Morgridge’s fortune was estimated at
$2.1 billion.
(SFC, 12/19/07, p.C2)
2007 Dec 21, Ken Hendricks
(b.1941), creator of ABC Supply (1982), one of the largest US roofing
supply companies (1982), died. He used his wealth in part to rebuilt
his home town of Beloit, Wisconsin.
(WSJ, 12/29/07, p.A7)
2007 Dec 23, High wind and ice
coated power lines blacked out tens of thousands of people in the
Midwest. The storm was blamed for at least 22 deaths. At least 8 people
in Minnesota, 5 in Wisconsin, 3 each in Indiana and Wyoming and one
each in Michigan, Texas and Kansas were killed in traffic accidents.
(AP, 12/23/07)(WSJ, 12/24/07, p.A1)(SFC, 12/25/07,
p.A11)
2008 Jan 7, Tornadoes were
reported or suspected in southwest Missouri, southeastern Wisconsin,
Arkansas, Illinois and Oklahoma. Two people were killed in Missouri.
(AP, 1/8/08)
2008 Feb 19, Barack Obama won
Wisconsin (58%) and Hawaii (76%) adding to a primary season winning
streak that now totals 10. This put Hillary Rodham Clinton into a
virtual must-win scenario in Democratic contests coming early next
month in Texas and Ohio.
(AP, 2/20/08)(SFC, 2/21/08, p.A10)
2008 Mar 4, Gary Gygax (b.1938),
co-creator of the role-playing Dungeons & Dragons game, died in
Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Gygax and David Arneson founded Tactical
Studies Rules (TSR) and published D&D in 1974. In 1997 TSR was sold
to Wizards of the Coast.
(WSJ, 3/8/08, p.A7)(Econ, 3/15/08, p.102)
2008 Mar 23, In Wisconsin Madeline
Neumann (11) died of complication from diabetes after her parents
prayed in lieu of seeking medical help. Both parents were charged with
reckless homicide.
(SSFC, 7/26/09,
p.A12)(www.religionnewsblog.com/21316/madeline-kara-neuman)
2008 May 10, In Wisconsin a
medical helicopter crashed killing a surgeon, nurse and pilot.
(SFC, 5/12/08, p.A3)
2008 Jun 8, Wicked weekend storms
pounded the US from the Midwest to the East Coast, forcing hundreds of
people to flee flooded communities, spawning tornadoes that tore up
houses and killing at least eight people in Indiana (1), Michigan (6),
Connecticut (1). Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle declared a state of emergency
in 29 counties and President Bush declared a major disaster in 29
Indiana counties, freeing up aid. Iowa Gov. Chet Culver declared an
emergency in nearly a third of the state's 99 counties.
(AP, 6/8/08)
2008 Jul 4, In Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, early morning gunfire killed 2 men and 2 women on the city’s
north side.
(SFC, 7/4/08, p.A4)
2008 Jul 31, In Wisconsin a gunman
opened fire on a group of young adults from Michigan killing 3, aged
17-19, along the Menominee riverbank in the town of Niagara. The next
day police arrested Scott J. Johnson (38). He had a raped a woman near
the same site the evening before the murders. In 2009 Johnson was
sentenced to life in prison without parole.
(AP, 8/2/08)(SFC, 5/22/09, p.A6)
2008 Oct 3, The Great Lakes
Governors (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio,
Pennsylvania, Wisconsin) applauded President George W. Bush for signing
a joint resolution of Congress providing consent to the Great Lakes-St.
Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact. It barred new
diversions beyond the Great Lakes Basin.
(www.cglg.org/projects/water/CompactConsent.asp)(Econ, 5/22/10, p.36)
2008 Dec 16, Melvin S. Cohen
(b.1918), longtime chairman of Wisconsin-based National Presto
Industries, died.
(WSJ, 12/27/08, p.A7)
2008 Dec 31, SF ended the year
with 98 homicides. In Milwaukee, Wisc., the total number of homicides
dropped 32%, from 105 in 2007 to 71 in 2008, the lowest number since
1985. Detroit had 344 slayings, a 13% drop from the 396 in 2007;
Philadelphia's 332 killings were a 15% drop from the 392 in 2007; and
the 234 homicides in Baltimore were 17% less than the 392 the year
before. Cleveland recorded 102 homicides in 2008, down from a 13-year
high of 134 in 2007. Homicides in New York rose 5.2%, to 522 from 496
the year before. Slayings in Los Angeles were down to 376 in 2008
compared to 400 the prior year. Preliminary data in Chicago showed 508
homicides were reported in 2008, the first time the city had more than
500 murders since 2003 and about 15% more than the 442 homicides
reported in 2007. Washington, D.C., ended 2008 with 186 homicides, up
from 181 in 2007.
(SFC, 1/2/09, p.1)(AP, 1/3/09)
2008 The new Harley-Davidson
Museum was scheduled to open in Milwaukee.
(SSFC, 4/3/05, p.E11)
2009 Mar 16, Wisconsin Gov. Jim
Doyle said the state will use "Live like you mean it" to promote the
state as a tourism and business destination, replacing the slogan
"Life's So Good."
(AP, 3/18/09)
2009 Mar 19, Josias Kumpf (83), a
former Nazi concentration-camp guard, was deported from Wisconsin to
Austria, despite objections from his lawyer that the guard was simply
present at the Trawniki Labor Camp in Poland but committed no acts of
persecution [see Nov 3, 1943].
(AP, 3/20/09)
2009 Apr 30, In Wisconsin Shane
Kettner (36) was arrested in Nelsonville for killing his estranged
girlfriend and 2 of their children.
(SFC, 5/5/09, p.A7)
2009 May 4, Wolves in parts of the
northern Rockies and the Great Lakes region come off the endangered
species list, opening them to public hunts in some states for the first
time in decades. States such as Idaho and Montana planned to resume
hunting the animals this fall, but no hunting has been proposed in the
Great Lakes region. About 300 wolves in Wyoming will remain on the list
because the US Fish and Wildlife Service rejected the state's plan for
a "predator zone" where wolves could be shot on sight. An estimated
4,000 wolves lived in Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota.
(AP, 5/4/09)
2009 May 18, In Guatemala Rev.
Lawrence Rosebaugh (74) of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was shot and killed by
masked gunmen who stopped a car carrying him and four other
missionaries to a meeting in Playa Grande. He had put an international
spotlight on human rights abuses in Brazil in 1977.
(AP, 5/19/09)
2009 Jul 28, At the EAA AirVenture
air show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, Aabar Investments, an Abu Dhabi-based
sovereign wealth fund, and Virgin Galactic signed a strategic
partnership in which Aabar would take a 32% stake in Virgin Galactic
for $280 million. To date Virgin Galactic has been wholly owned and
funded by Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group.
(Econ, 9/12/09, p.87)(http://tinyurl.com/y8gtjad)
2009 Sep 5, Milwaukee police
arrested Walter Ellis (49) after DNA evidence linked him to the slaying
of 9 women, including 8 suspected prostitutes, dating back to 1986.
(SFC, 9/8/09, p.A6)
2009 Oct 23, US regulators shut
down 3 small banks in Florida and one each in Georgia, Illinois,
Minnesota and Wisconsin bringing the total for the year of failed US
banks to 106.
(SFC, 10/24/09, p.A6)
2009 Dec 3, Wisconsin police found
the bodies of 2 women and their 2 young daughters shot to death in
Madison. Police searched for Tyrone Adair (38), the father linked to
the deaths of his two young daughters and their mothers. Adair was
found dead of suspected suicide in his SUV on Dec 7.
(AP, 12/5/09)(SFC, 12/8/09, p.A12)
2009 Dec 9, A blizzard dumped over
a foot of snow across much of the Midwest and New England. Nearly 19
inches fell in Madison, Wis., 16 inches was reported in Des Moines,
Iowa. At least 16 deaths were blamed on the storm.
(SFC, 12/10/09, p.A17)
2010 Apr 1, A US federal judge
struck down a Wisconsin law that prohibits transgender inmates from
receiving taxpayer funded hormone therapy to alter their appearance.
(SFC, 4/2/10, p.A7)
2010 Jul 19, Despite being
rebuffed twice by the US Supreme Court, five states (Michigan,
Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota and Pennsylvania) filed suit with a lower
court demanding tougher federal and municipal action to prevent Asian
carp from overrunning the Great Lakes and decimating their fishing
industry.
(AP, 7/19/10)
2010 Aug 18, In Wisconsin the
bodies of a couple, their 13-month-old daughter, and their three dogs
were found dead at their home in Superior. Matthew Magdzas (23), an
Iraq war veteran, apparently shot and killed his pregnant wife and
young daughter before turning the gun on himself. He left behind no
clues to explain what might have prompted the bloodshed.
(AP, 8/20/10)