These pictures show some tornado damage to a forest along the Wisconsin River.
Archive for May, 2008
Does it make a sound? The answer is you don’t know because no one is there to hear it.
However, when a tornado strikes in the woods…
If a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to here it. Does it make a sound?
27
May
08
Wisconsin Deer
Mule Deer crossing a field.
White-tailed Deer at the edge of the Wisconsin River.
27
May
08
On This Day, 5-27-08: Bismarck
Bismarck sunk by Royal Navy
On May 27, 1941, the British navy sinks the German battleship Bismarck in the North Atlantic near France. The German death toll was more than 2,000.
On February 14, 1939, the 823-foot Bismarck was launched at Hamburg. Nazi leader Adolf Hitler hoped that the state-of-the-art battleship would herald the rebirth of the German surface battle fleet. However, after the outbreak of war, Britain closely guarded ocean routes from Germany to the Atlantic Ocean, and only U-boats moved freely through the war zone.
In May 1941, the order was given for the Bismarck to break out into the Atlantic. Once in the safety of the open ocean, the battleship would be almost impossible to track down, all the while wreaking havoc on Allied convoys to Britain. Learning of its movement, Britain sent almost the entire British Home Fleet in pursuit. On May 24, the British battle cruiser Hood and battleship Prince of Wales intercepted it near Iceland. In a ferocious battle, the Hood exploded and sank, and all but three of the 1,421 crewmen were killed. The Bismarck escaped, but because it was leaking fuel it fled for occupied France. On May 26, it was sighted and crippled by British aircraft, and on May 27 three British warships descended on the Bismarck and finished it off.
“Bismarck sunk by Royal Navy.” 2008. The History Channel website. 26 May 2008, 01:07 http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=5040.
1647 – Achsah Young, a resident of Windsor, CT, was executed for being a “witch.” It was the first recorded American execution of a “witch.”
1668 – Three colonists were expelled from Massachusetts for being Baptists.
1896 – 255 people were killed in St. Louis, MO, when a tornado struck.
1960 – A military coup overthrew the democratic government of Turkey.
1969 – Construction of Walt Disney World began in Florida.
1977 – George H. Willig was fined for scaling the World Trade Center in New York on May 26. He was fined $1.10.
1994 – Nobel Prize-winning author Alexander Solzhenitsyn returned to Russia. He had been in exile for two decades.
1999 – In The Hague, Netherlands, a war crimes tribunal indicted Slobodan Milosevic and four others for atrocities in Kosovo. It was the first time that a sitting head of state had been charged with such a crime.
Ex parte Merryman issued
On this day, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney issues ex parte Merryman, challenging the authority of Abraham Lincoln and the military to suspend the writ of habeas corpus in Maryland.
Early in the war, President Lincoln faced many difficulties due to the fact that Washington was located in slave territory. Although Maryland did not secede, Southern sympathies were widespread. On April 27, 1861, Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus between Washington and Philadelphia to give military authorities the necessary power to silence dissenters and rebels. Under this order, commanders could arrest and detain individuals who were deemed threatening to military operations. Those arrested could be held without indictment or arraignment.
On May 25, John Merryman, a vocal secessionist, was arrested in Cockeysville, Maryland. He was held at Ft. McHenry in Baltimore, where he appealed for his release under a writ of habeas corpus. The federal circuit court judge was Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, who issued a ruling, ex parte Merryman, denying the president’s authority to suspend habeas corpus. A Marylander himself, Taney shrilly denounced the heavy hand played by Lincoln in interfering with civil liberties and argued that only Congress had the power to suspend the writ.
Lincoln did not respond directly to Taney’s edict, but he did address the issue in his message to Congress that July. He justified the suspension through Article I, Section 9, of the Constitution, which specifies a suspension of the writ “when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it.”
Although military officials continued to arrest suspected Southern sympathizers, the incident led to a softening of the policy. Concern that Maryland might still secede from the Union forced a more conciliatory stance from Lincoln and the military. Merryman was remanded to civil authorities in July and allowed to post bail. He was never brought to trial, and the charges of treason against him were dropped two years after the war.
“Ex parte Merryman issued.” 2008. The History Channel website. 26 May 2008, 01:13 http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=2044.
The Battle of Tsushima Strait
During the Russo-Japanese War, the Russian Baltic Fleet is nearly destroyed at the Battle of Tsushima Strait. The decisive defeat, in which only 10 of 45 Russian warships escaped to safety, convinced Russian leaders that further resistance against Japan’s imperial designs for East Asia was hopeless.
“The Battle of Tsushima Strait.” 2008. The History Channel website. 26 May 2008, 01:08 http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=5039.
Golden Gate Bridge opens
San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, a stunning technological and artistic achievement, opens to the public after five years of construction. On opening day–“Pedestrian Day”–some 200,000 bridge walkers marveled at the 4,200-foot-long suspension bridge, which spans the Golden Gate Strait at the entrance to San Francisco Bay and connects San Francisco and Marin County. On May 28, the Golden Gate Bridge opened to vehicular traffic.
“Golden Gate Bridge opens.” 2008. The History Channel website. 26 May 2008, 01:09 http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=6910.
26
May
08
Sunrise
Wisconsin River from the boat landing at Lone Rock
The Trail 
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