12kBCE Southeast Wisconsin was free of ice by this
(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.
1799 Feb 9, The USS
Constellation captured the French frigate Insurgente off the coast
1814 Jul 18, The British
captured Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin.
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.
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.
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
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]
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,
1857 Thorstein Veblen (d.1929),
political economist and social critic, was born in Wisconsin to
(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."
1867 Oct 11, Carlos Glidden and
Samuel Soule applied for a patent on their new direct action
typewriter. Christopher Latham Sholes (1819-1890), Carlos Glidden
(1834-1877) and Samuel Soule had invented the typewriter in the
1860s. Charles E. Weller coined the phrase "Now is the time for all
good men to come to the aid of the party" to check out the first
typewriter built in Milwaukee.
(ON, 12/10, p.7)(SFC, 1/29/97, Z1 p.2)(SFEC,
3/22/98, Z1 p.8)
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.
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
(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,
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.
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
(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.
1881 Jul 8, Edward Berner of
Two Rivers, Wisconsin, created the Sundae.
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
(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.
1883 Jun 11, Frank O. King,
"Gasoline Alley" cartoonist, was born in Cashton, Wisc.
1885 Joseph Steinwand
created Colby cheese and named it after the township where his
father built northern Clark County’s first cheese factory. In 2021 a
bipartisan bill heard by the Wisconsin state Assembly committee
aimed to make it the state's official cheese.
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,
1888 In Wisconsin the Theresa
diamond, weighing 21.5 carats, was found on or near the Green Lake
Moraine near Kohlsville, Washington county.
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
(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."
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.
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.
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
1905 Sep 25, Red Smith,
sportscaster and columnist, was born in Green Bay Wisc.
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.
1907 Oct 22, The five Ringling
brothers of Baraboo, Wisconsin, bought out Barnum & Bailey
Circus to form the Greatest Show on Earth.
(HN, 10/22/98)(SFC, 3/6/15, p.A10)
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.
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.
1911 Jul 31, George Liberace,
violinist (Liberace Show), was born in Menasha, Wisc.
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
(WSJ, 8/5/96, p.A10)(AP, 10/14/97)(WSJ, 8/5/96,
1912 Nov 4, Arizona and Kansas
granted women the right to vote. Wisconsin voted against suffrage
1914 Aug 15, Mamah Borthwick
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. Wright restored the house, which was set aflame
in the rampage. The house was ravaged by fire again in 1925 and
again restored by Wright.
(SFEC, 11/8/98, DB p.48)(Econ, 3/5/11,
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).
1916 The Four Wheel Drive Auto
Co. of Clintonville, Wis., got a boost from WW I demand for its
(WSJ, 9/16/05, p.W12)
1917 Nov 24, In Wisconsin a
large black powder bomb exploded at a Milwaukee police station
killing 9 officers and a female civilian. It had been discovered by
a social worker, next to an evangelical church. It was suspected at
the time that the bomb had been placed outside the church by
anarchists, particularly by adherents of Luigi Galleani.
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.
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."
1921 Aug 27, J.E. Clair of Acme
Packing Co. of Green Bay was granted an NFL franchise.
1921 Oct 23, Green Bay Packers
played their 1st NFL game. They won 7-6 over Minneapolis.
1922 Aug 21, Curly Lambeau and
Green Bay Football Club were granted an NFL franchise.
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.
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.
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
(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
(SFC, 11/17/99, p.A12)
1932 Jan, Wisconsin became the
first state to provide unemployment benefits.
1933 A Wisconsin milk strike
began as a series of strikes conducted by a cooperative group of
dairy farmers in an attempt to raise the price of milk paid to
producers during the Great Depression. Three main strike periods
occurred in 100933, with length of time and level of violence
increased during each one.
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.
1935 Feb 2, A lie detector was
1st used in court at Portage, Wisc.
1935 Jun 11, Gene Wilder, actor
(Young Frankenstein, Silver Streak), was born in Milwaukee.
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.
1939 Jan 19, Ernest Hausen of
Wisconsin set a chicken-plucking record of 4.4 sec.
1940 Nov 17, The Green Bay
Packers became the 1st NFL team to travel by plane.
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.
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
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.
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
1955 The Hearst Corp. acquired
(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
(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
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
(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.
1959 Wisconsin became the 1st
US state to enact a comprehensive collective bargaining law.
(SFC, 2/17/11, p.A8)
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
(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.
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.
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
(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
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.
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
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
(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. Gaylord selected Pete
McCloskey as co-chairman. Organizers later identified 12
anti-environment members of the US House and Senate, 7 of whom soon
lost their seats.
(AP, 4/22/97)(WSJ, 5/12/99, p.A23)(SSFC, 4/18/04,
1970 Jun 2, Har Gobind Khorana
(1922-1993), Indian-American chemist at the Univ. of Wisconsin,
announced the synthesis of the 1st artificial gene.
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
(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
(SFEC, 4/23/00, BR
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
1970 The Seattle Pilots
baseball team after one season moved to Milwaukee and became the
(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.
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.
1976 Jul 9, In Wisconsin Ellen
Matheys (24) and David Schuldes (25) were fatally shot in McClintock
Park in Silver Cliff. In early 2020 a judge ruled that Raymand
Vannieuwenhoven (83), a man charged with the killing, is not
mentally competent to stand trial. DNA from evidence from the
assault was eventually used to tie him to the crime scene. In
November, 2020, a judge ruled that Vannieuwenhoven is competent to
stand trial. In 2021 he was convicted and sentenced to consecutive
p.A3)(SFC, 11/6/20, p.A6)(Fox News, 8/27/21)
1976 Dec 1, Konerak
Sinthasomphone, Jeffrey Dahmer's victim, was born in Milwaukee,
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."
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.
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.
1981 Jan 18, Wendy O. Williams
(1949-1998), lead singer for the punk band the Plasmatics, was
arrested in Milwaukee for on-stage obscenity.
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.
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.
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
(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.
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)
1989 May 29, The first
Weedstock Festival, a pro-marijuana event, was held on Memorial Day
in Wisconsin. Steve Wessing worked the event as a stage manager.
1990 Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
pioneered a school voucher program.
(Econ, 2/14/15, p.23)
1990 The Russian city of Dubna
began a sister-city relationship with La Crosse, Wisconsin.
(http://tinyurl.com/mrtq7n9)(SFC, 12/31/00, p.B5)
1991 Mar 30, In Milwaukee,
Wisc., serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer killed and dismembered Konerak
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.
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.
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,
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.
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
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.
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 6, Scientists reported
the successful culture of human stem cells in research financed by
Geron Corp. James Thomson of the Univ. of Wisconsin first isolated
stem cells from human embryos. Science published this research in an
article titled "Embryonic Stem Cell Lines Derived from Human
(Econ, 1/28/12, p.77)
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.
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
(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.
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.
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.
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.
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,
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
(b.1916), former Wisconsin governor (1959-1963) and US senator
(1963-1981), 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,
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
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
(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.
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.
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.
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
(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
(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
(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
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.
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.
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
(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.
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.
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,
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
rebuild 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
(AP, 12/23/07)(WSJ, 12/24/07, p.A1)(SFC,
2008 Jan 7, Tornadoes were
reported or suspected in southwest Missouri, southeastern Wisconsin,
Arkansas, Illinois and Oklahoma. Two people were killed in Missouri.
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.
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.
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.
2008 Dec 16, Melvin S. Cohen
(b.1918), longtime chairman of Wisconsin-based National Presto
(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."
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].
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.
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.
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. On Feb 18, 2011, Ellis was convicted in the deaths of 7
women and faced a mandatory sentence of life in prison.
(SFC, 9/8/09, p.A6)(SFC, 2/19/11, 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)
2009 Wisconsin resident Todd
Bol (1956-2018) built a model of a one-room schoolhouse on a post in
his front yard in Hudson, and filled it with books as a tribute to
his teacher mother. This started the Little Free Library program.
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
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.
2010 Oct 21, The Guinness World
Records confirmed that a pumpkin grown in Wisconsin is officially
the world’s heaviest. Chris Stevens of New Richmond grew the 1,810.5
pound gourd. It was 85 pounds heavier than the record set in Ohio in
(SFC, 10/22/10, p.A10)
2010 Nov 2, Iowa (Terry
Branstad), Kansas (Sam Brownback), Maine (Paul LePage), Michigan
(Rick Snyder), New Mexico (Susana Martinez), Ohio (John Kasich),
Oklahoma (Mary Fallin), Pennsylvania (Tom Corbett), Tennessee (Bill
Haslam), Wisconsin (Scott Walker), Wyoming (Matt Mead) all replaced
the Democratic governors with Republicans. Snyder (R) defeated
Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D) by bragging about his managerial
(Econ, 11/6/10, p.45)
2010 Nov 29, In Wisconsin
sophomore Samuel Hengel (15) took 23 of his classmates and a teacher
hostage in a classroom at the Marinette High School, shooting
himself as police broke in. No one else was injured. Hengel died the
(Reuters, 11/30/10)(SFC, 12/1/10, p.A13)
2010 Dec 2, Dominican Rep.
authorities detained 18 military officials and two US pilots, Kevin
Kuranz and Christopher Smith, after stopping a cocaine-laden
airplane from taking off. The plane was owned by Wisconsin-based Air
Cargo Carriers LLC.
2010 Dec 13, Schools in
Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin and other states closed because of snow
and low temperatures. Authorities worked frantically to reach
motorists in snow-covered northwest Indiana who were trapped in
their cars in biting temperatures.
2011 Feb 6, In Dallas, Texas,
Wisconsin’s Green Bay packers won Super Bowl XLV 31-25 win over the
2011 Jan 4, The archdiocese of
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, filed for bankruptcy becoming the 8th in the
US to do so. It had become besieged by lawsuits related to priests
(Econ, 2/12/11, p.36)
2011 Feb 17, In Wisconsin 14
Democratic lawmakers disappeared as the state Senate was about to
begin debating a measure by Gov. Scott Walker that would eliminate
collective bargaining for most state public employees. Protesters
filled the Capitol for a 3rd day.
(SFC, 2/18/11, p.A6)
2011 Feb 24, Wisconsin state
troopers were dispatched to try to find at least one of the 14
Senate Democrats who have been on the run for eight days to delay a
vote on Republican Gov. Scott Walker's proposal to strip collective
bargaining rights from nearly all public employees.
2011 Feb 26, In Wisconsin a
crowd estimated at more than 70,000 people waved American flags,
sang the national anthem and called for the defeat of a state plan
to curb public sector unions that has galvanized opposition from the
American labor movement.
2011 Mar 10, The Wisconsin
Assembly stripped a bill of its spending language and passed
legislation with only Republicans present taking away the collective
bargaining rights of the state’s government workers.
(SFC, 3/11/11, p.A6)
2011 Mar 11, Wisconsin Gov.
Scott Walker signed a bill taking away the collective bargaining
rights of the state’s government workers.
(SFC, 3/12/11, p.A9)
2011 Mar 12, In Wisconsin tens
of thousands of pro-labor protesters cheered its Democratic
lawmakers and vowed to focus on future elections.
(SSFC, 3/13/11, p.A10)
2011 Mar 20, In Wisconsin
suspect James Cruckson (30) opened fire on police during a standoff
in Fond du Lac killing Officer Craig Birkholz (28). Cruckson was
found dead from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot.
(SFC, 3/21/11, p.A7)
2011 Mar 29, Wisconsin Circuit
Judge Maryann Sumi ruled that there should be no further
implementation of a law taking away nearly all collective bargaining
rights for public workers.
(SFC, 3/30/11, p.A5)
2011 May 13, Timmothy Pitzen
(6)of Aurora, Illinois, was last seen on a security camera as he and
his mom checked out of the Kalahari resort in Wisconsin. A
housekeeper found the body of Amy Fry-Pitzen (42) the next morning.
Police would later say she had self-inflicted cuts on her neck and
wrists and a lethal dose of drugs in her system.
(SFC, 4/10/19, p.A5)
2011 May 25, The Wisconsin Act
23 established a requirement for nearly all voters to present
approved photo identification to cast a ballot.
2011 Jun 14, The Wisconsin
Supreme Court reinstated Gov. Scott Walker’s plan to all but end
collective bargaining for public workers.
(SFC, 6/15/11, p.A5)
2011 Jul 6, In Wisconsin the
dead bodies of 3- and 4-year-old Wisconsin brothers were found in a
parked car and the boyfriend of the children's mother was arrested.
2011 Aug 9, Wisconsin
Republicans held onto control of the state Senate, beating back 4
Democratic challengers in a recall election despite an intense
political backlash against GOP support for Gov. Walker's effort to
curb public employees' union rights. Democrats captured two seats.
(AP, 8/9/11)(SFC, 8/10/11, p.A6)
2011 Oct 6, In Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, Annette Morales-Rodriguez (33), who had faked a
pregnancy, kidnapped Maritza Ramirez Cruz (23), killed her and cut
out her full term fetus, who died in the process.
(SFC, 10/11/11, p.A6)
2011 Oct 8, In Wisconsin Scott
Anderson (56) was ordained as the first US Presbyterian church gay
minister at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Madison.
2011 Nov 19, Thousands of
people gathered at the Wisconsin capitol to demand a recall of
Republican Governor Scott Walker, whose controversial and successful
drive to limit public unions last winter sparked the biggest
protests in the state since the Vietnam War.
2011 Dec 13, The American Civil
Liberties Union (ACLU) filed the lawsuit Frank v. Walker in the
United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin
seeking to block the Act 23, a voter ID law, as a violation of the
2012 Jan 5, In Wisconsin a
former aide close to Gov. Scott Walker and a Walker-appointee were
arrested on embezzlement charges.
(SFC, 1/6/12, p.A6)
2012 Jan 14, Laura Kaeppeler
(23), a beauty queen from Wisconsin, won the Miss America pageant in
Las Vegas after singing opera and strutting in a white bikini and
black beaded evening gown.
2012 Jan 17, In Wisconsin
opponents of Gov. Scott Walker submitted 1 million signatures for
his recall, far exceeding the 540,208 needed.
(SFC, 1/18/12, p.A7)
2012 Apr 3, Mitt Romney swept
Republican primaries in Maryland (47%), Wisconsin (42%) and
Washington, DC (70%).
(SFC, 4/4/12, p.A6)
2012 May 31, In Wisconsin
Darius Simmons (13), a black boy, was shot dead by his white
neighbor John Henry Spooner (75) after having stolen four guns from
Spooner. On July 17, 2013, a jury found Spooner guilty of
(SFC, 7/18/13, p.A7)
2012 Jun 5, Wisconsin Gov
.Scott Walker won his recall rematch with Tom Barrett, the
Democratic mayor of Milwaukee, by a larger margin than in 2010.
Walker became only the third governor to face a recall election—and
the first to survive one—since the Progressives came up with this
drastic remedy for bad governance more than a century ago.
(SFC, 6/6/12, p.A13)
2012 Aug 5, A gunman opened
fire in a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wis., and killed six people. He
was identified as Army veteran Wade Michael Page (40). Page, a
self-described member of the “Hammerskins Nation" of skinheads, died
after shooting himself in the head during an exchange of gunfire
with a wounded police officer outside the temple.
(AFP, 8/6/12)(SFC, 8/7/12, p.A4)(SFC, 8/9/12,
2012 Aug 11, Mitt Romney
announced he's selected Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin as his vice
presidential running mate.
(SSFC, 8/12/12, p.A7)
2012 Sep 14, A Wisconsin judge
struck down nearly all of the 2011 state law championed by Gov.
Scott Walker that effectively ended collective bargaining rights for
most public workers.
2012 Oct 21, A shooting at a
spa near a Brookfield, Wis., mall left 3 women dead and four others
wounded in a scene of domestic violence. The suspected gunman,
Radcliffe Haughton (45), of Brown Deer, Wis., was found dead inside
(AP, 10/21/12)(SFC, 10/22/12, p.A5)
2013 Mar 2, In Kentucky a
tractor trailer plowed into an SUV killing 6 of 8 people, members of
an extended family from Marion, Wis.
(SFC, 2/4/13, p.A4)
2013 May, Dominion Power shut
down a nuclear plant in Wisconsin, that was licensed for another 20
years, due to the fall in the price of natural gas from increasing
(Econ, 6/1/13, p.26)
2013 Oct 26, Wisconsin’s
Milwaukee-based Garden-Fresh Foods recalled 50 more tons of chicken
and ham products over concern of possible listeria contamination.
The company first recalled 9 tons of food on Sep 25.
(SSFC, 10/27/13, p.A8)
2014 Feb 23, In Wisconsin three
men broke into a Madison home looking for money, found a couple
lying in bed and assaulted the woman, who was six months pregnant.
Efemia A. Neumaier told the assailants they'd find at least $1,500
in cash in the home of the man she was seeing, but that the men
broke into the wrong home. Michon A. Thomas, Eric D. Bass and
Kristopher J. Hughes all faced robbery and sexual assault charges.
2014 Apr 10, US wildlife
agencies in Michigan and Wisconsin said they have confirmed
diagnoses of white-nose syndrome in tested bats. The fungal disease
has killed millions on North American bats since 2006 and has now
been detected in half of the US.
(SFC, 4/11/14, p.A6)
2014 Apr 29, A federal judge
struck down Wisconsin’s voter ID law declaring that it imposes an
unfair burden on poor and minority voters.
(SFC, 4/30/14, p.A6)
2014 Apr 30, In Milwaukee
Dontre Hamilton (31), a mentally ill man, died after he was shot 14
times by police Officer Christopher Manney following a scuffle.
Manney was fired in October.
2014 May 31, In Waukesha,
Wisconsin, Anissa Weier (12) and Morgan Geyser (12) stabbed their
friend Peyton Leutner (12) nineteen times in a park following a
slumber party in Waukesha to please “Slender Man," a demon-like
creature they learned about on creepypasta.wikia.com. On Aug 1 a
judge ruled that one of the girls is mentally incompetent and can’t
stand trial. On March 13 a judge ruled that both girls must stand
trial as adults. On Aug 21, 2017, Weier pleaded guilty. On Sep 15 a
jury determined that Weier was mentally ill at the time of the
attack. Geyser also planned to plead guilty and receive treatment
for mental illness.
(SFC, 6/3/14, p.A6)(SFC, 8/2/14, p.A4)(SFC,
3/22/17, p.A5)(SSFC, 9/17/17 p.A15)(SFC, 9/30/17, p.A6)
2014 Jun 6, In Wisconsin gay
couples began getting married after a federal judge struck down the
state’s same-sex marriage ban.
(SFC, 6/7/14, p.A4)
2014 Jun 13, A federal judge in
Madison, Wis., issued an order postponing her decision striking down
Wisconsin’s ban on same-sex marriage as unconstitutional, pending
the outcome of an expected appeal. More than 550 same-sex couples in
the state cited her June 6 decision in order to get married over the
past seven days.
2014 Jun 26, In Wisconsin
Steven Zelich (52), a former police officer, was charged with two
counts of hiding a corpse. He was suspected of in the deaths of two
women whose bodies were stuffed into suitcases and discarded on a
(SFC, 6/27/14, p.A6)
2014 Jul 31, The Wisconsin
Supreme Court upheld Act 10, the 2011 law that effectively ended
collective bargaining for most public workers.
2014 Oct 6, The US Supreme
Court denied review of cases in five states that had limited
marriage to opposite sex couples. This in effect granted equal
marriage rights to gays and lesbians in Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah,
Virginia and Wisconsin.
(SFC, 10/7/14, p.A1)
2015 Feb 6, In Wisconsin
Sureshbhai Patel (57) from India was slammed to the ground by a
police officer after a caller said a "skinny black guy" with a
toboggan hat was walking in the neighborhood and peering into
garages. One of the officers restrained Patel by pulling his arms
behind his back and then slammed him face-first into the ground less
than 90 seconds after the confrontation began. Officer Eric Parker
was arrested and is being fired.
2015 Mar 6, Wisconsin police
fatally shot as Anthony "Tony" Robinson (19), an apparently unarmed
African-American, prompting dozens of people to protest at the site
of the killing. Robinson, tripping on mushrooms, had already
attacked several people. Authorities said Robinson had assaulted
Officer Mat Kenny (45) in an apartment. In 2017 a federal civil
rights lawsuit awarded Robinson’s family $3.35 million.
(Reuters, 3/7/15)(SSFC, 3/8/15, p.A9)(SFC,
5/14/15, p.A7)(SFC, 2/24/17, p.A6)
2015 Mar 9, Wisconsin Gov.
Scott Walker signed into law a measure that prohibits requiring a
worker to pay union dues.
(SFC, 3/10/15, p.A6)
2015 Mar 24, In Wisconsin
police officer Trevor Casper began pursuing a vehicle matching the
description of the car of a suspect who was wanted in a bank robbery
in Fond du Lac Fond du Lac. A gun battle ensued leaving both the
trooper and the suspect dead.
2015 May 3, In Wisconsin Sergio
Daniel Valencia del Toro (27), who had just been in a fight with his
girlfriend, armed himself with two guns, cycled to a scenic bridge
and opened fire, killing a father and his daughter along with
another man before taking his own life on the Trestle Trail bridge
2015 Jul 2, Aides of Wisconsin
Gov. Scott Walker said he is joining the Republican presidential
(SFC, 7/3/15, p.A7)
2015 Jul 13, Wisconsin Gov.
Scott Walker (47) became the 15th prominent Republican to join the
US presidential race.
(SFC, 7/14/15, p.A7)
2015 Aug 4, The Roman Catholic
Archdiocese of Milwaukee said it will pay $21 million top more than
300 victims of clergy abuse in a settlement that would end a
four-year bankruptcy proceeding.
(SFC, 8/5/15, p.A6)
2015 Oct 5, Pres. Obama
declared new marine sanctuaries off of Wisconsin’s Lake Michigan and
the tidal waters of Maryland.
(SFC, 10/6/15, p.A6)
2015 Oct 13, In Wisconsin a
Milwaukee state court jury ordered Badger Guns to pay $5.73 million
after the store was found liable for negligence in the 2009 shooting
of two local police officers.
(SFC, 10/15/15, p.A14)
2015 Oct 16, A US jury ordered
Apple Inc to pay the University of Wisconsin-Madison's patent
licensing arm more than $234 million in damages for incorporating
its microchip technology into some of the company's iPhones and
iPads without permission. Apple had faced up to $862 million in
damages after a US jury found the iPhone maker used technology owned
by the University of Wisconsin-Madison's licensing arm without
2015 Oct 30, Paul Ryan (45) of
Wisconsin was sworn in as the 54th speaker of the US House of
(SFC, 10/30/15, p.A6)
2015 Nov 23, A panel of the 7th
Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago ruled 2-1 that a Wisconsin law
requiring that abortion providers have admitting privileges at a
local hospital, is unconstitutional.
2016 Apr 5, In Wisconsin Ted
Cruz beat Republican front-runner Donald Trump soundly, winning most
of the state’s delegates and raising the probability of a contested
GOP convention in July. Upstart senator Bernie Sanders also beat
Democrat frontrunner Hillary Clinton, bolstering his claim to be a
viable alternative standard-bearer to the former secretary of state
and first lady.
2016 Apr 8, Wisconsin’s right
to work law, championed by Gov. Scott Walker, was struck down as
violating the state constitution.
(SFC, 4/9/16, p.A5)
2016 Apr 23, In Wisconsin a
police officer fatally shot Jakob Wagner (18) after Wagner shot and
wounded two students outside a high school prom in Antigo.
(SFC, 4/25/16, p.A5)
2016 Jun 30, In Italy Wisconsin
student Beau Solomon (19) disappeared in Rome a day after arriving
there. On July 4 police discovered his body in the Tiber river in
Rome. A suspect identified as Massimo Galioto (40), who lived in an
encampment under a bridge near where Solomon was last seen, was soon
arrested and accused of pushing Solomon in the river after a fight.
(AP, 7/4/16)(AP, 7/5/16)(AP, 5/8/18)
2016 Jul 17, In Wisconsin a
domestic violence suspect opened fire on a Milwaukee police officer
who was sitting in his squad car early today, seriously wounding him
before fleeing and apparently killing himself shortly afterward. The
suspect, a 20-year-old man from the suburb of West Allis, had two
felonies on his arrest record.
2016 Aug 13, Milwaukee police
shot and killed Sylville Smith (23) after he failed to drop a gun.
An angry crowd of at least 200 people took to the streets, torching
at least six businesses, including a gas station and auto parts
store. Looting continued into the next night as police in riot gear
moved in on the Sherman Park neighborhood. On Dec 15 police Officer
Dominique Heaggan-Brown, who is also black, was charged with murder.
(AFP, 8/15/16)(SFC, 12/16/16, p.A10)
2016 Nov 8, In the US
presidential election Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin all swung
for Donald Trump with margins of one percent or less. Wisconsin’s
voter ID law impacted an unknown number of eligible voters as Trump
defeated Clinton by roughly 22,000 votes.
(Econ, 11/19/16, p.25)(SFC, 5/9/17, p.A4)
2016 Nov 24, It was reported
that the former Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein has
raised the necessary $1.1 million to request a vote recount in
Wisconsin. Donald Trump also won by a slim margin in Pennsylvania,
where a recount filing fee costs $500,000, due on November 28. The
filing fee in Michigan, where Trump has a razor-thin lead in
unofficial results so far, is $600,000 due by November 30.
2017 Feb 18, Clyde Stubblefield
(73), a former drummer for James Brown, died in Madison, Wis. His
short solo on Brown’s 1970 single “Funky Drummer" was sampled on
more than 1,000 songs and served as the backbeat on for countless
(SFC, 2/20/17, p.C4)
2017 Mar 22, In northern
Wisconsin a domestic dispute at a bank escalated into shootings at
three locations. A police officer and two bank employees and an
attorney were shot and killed. Suspect Nengmy Vang was in custody.
Attorney Sarah Quirt Sann was his wife’s divorce lawyer. On April 1
Vang died of his wounds.
(SFC, 3/23/17, p.A8)(SFC, 3/24/17, p.A8)(SFC,
3/25/17, p.A5)(SSFC, 4/2/17, p.A5)
2017 Apr 14, In Wisconsin
Joseph Allen Jakubowski (32), accused of stealing an arsenal of
weapons and sending an antigovernment manifesto to the White House,
was arrested near Readstown.
(SFC, 4/15/17, p.A7)
2017 Apr 18, President Donald
Trump visited Wisconsin and signed an order, dubbed "Buy American,
Hire American," aimed at curbing abuses in the H-1B visa program
used by technology companies that rely on high-skilled foreign
workers. The EU later argued that more stringent "Buy American"
policies were likely to increase costs and delays, with no net
benefit in job creation.
(AP, 4/18/17)(SFC, 4/19/17, p.A1)(AP, 10/17/17)
2017 May 16, In the central US
storms that stretched from Texas to the Great Lakes spawned 29
twisters that killed two people in Oklahoma and Wisconsin.
(SFC, 5/18/17, p.A4)
2017 May 31, In Wisconsin the
Didion Milling Plant exploded in Cambria leaving two people dead and
at least one person missing at the corn mill.
(SFC, 6/2/17, p.A4)
2017 Jul 1, In northern
Wisconsin a Cessna airplane crashed near the city of Philips killing
all six people aboard.
(SFC, 7/3/17, p.A4)
2017 Jul 26, An invitation to
President Donald Trump's afternoon news conference with Wisconsin
officials said electronics giant Foxconn will build a liquid-crystal
display panel plant in Wisconsin.
2017 Jul 26, It was reported
that Wisconsin-based tech company Three Square Market will begin
offering employees the implantation of RFID microchips under the
skin between their thumb and index finger as of August 1. This will
allow employees to perform tasks such as entering the office, and
paying for food with a wave of the hand.
(SFC, 7/26/17, p.C5)
2017 Aug 2, Marcus Hutchins
(23), a British cybersecurity researcher, was arrested at McCarran
Int’l. Airport in Las Vegas as he prepared to fly home following a
cybersecurity convention. On August 14 he faced charges in Wisconsin
for committing computer fraud. Four months earlier he had identified
a “kill switch" to slow the outbreak of the WannaCry virus that
crippled computer worldwide. In 2019 Hutchins pleaded guilty to
writing malware in 2015, before changing to a career in
cybersecurity. He was sentenced to time served.
(SFC, 8/1517, p.A7)(SFC, 4/22/19, p.A7)(SFC,
2017 Aug 13, In southeastern
Wisconsin three men from Illinois, believed to be gang members, were
shot to death at close range during a drag racing event at the Great
Lakes Dragaway in the town of Paris.
(SFC, 8/1517, p.A5)
2017 Sep 18, Gov. Scott Walker
signed into law a $3 billion incentive package for Taiwan-based
Foxconn Technology Group to build a flat-screen plant in
southeastern Wisconsin, a deal that he calls a "huge win" for the
2017 Nov 8, In northern
Wisconsin Jason Pero (14), of the Bad River Band Chippewa
reservation, was shot and killed by an Ashland County sheriff’s
deputy. Dispatchers had received a call about a male subject walking
down a street in Odanah with a knife.
(SFC, 11/10/17, p.A6)
2017 Nov 13, Wisconsin Gov.
Scott Walker signed off on a bill that eliminates the state’s
minimum age for hunting.
(SFC, 11/14/17, p.A5)
2018 Apr 17, A Wisconsin jury
convicted Cullen M. Osburn of Minneapolis of battery in the death of
a student from Saudi Arabia, but acquitted him on a more serious
murder charge. Osburn, angry that his girlfriend wasn't answering
his phone calls, reportedly punched a stranger, Hussain Saeed
Alnahdi, in the face outside a Menomonie pizzeria on Oct. 30, 2016.
Alnahdi died the next day at a hospital.
2018 Apr 26, In northern
Wisconsin the crash of a medical helicopter crash left three crew
(SFC, 4/28/18, p.A5)
2018 May 8, Former US Army
Capt. Ernest Medina, a key figure in the 1968 My Lai massacre during
the Vietnam war, died in Wisconsin.
2018 Jun 7, In Wisconsin police
Officer Charles Irvine Jr. (23) was killed amd his partner injured
when their car overturned on a side street while chasing a reckless
(SFC, 6/9/18, p.A6)
2018 Jun 19, Taiwan-based
Foxconn Technology Group said it's investing in a $30 million
recycling system that will significantly reduce the amount of water
drawn from Lake Michigan for its planned manufacturing complex in
2018 Jun 25, Wisconsin-based
Harley-Davidson, up against spiraling costs from tariffs, said it
will begin to shift the production of motorcycles headed for Europe
from the US to factories overseas.
2018 Jun 5, In Kenosha,
Wisconsin, Chrystul Kizer (17) allegedly shot Randall Volar twice in
the head, set his home on fire and then stole his luxury vehicle. In
2019 she faced life in prison after admitting to killing the accused
pedophile who allegedly abused her and sold her to other men for
(http://tinyurl.com/yx3ehmo5)(ABC News, 12/18/19)
2018 Jul 25, Milwaukee police
Officer Michael Michalski (52) was killed during an exchange of
gunfire as police searched for a man suspected of drug dealing. The
lone suspect was arrested after he rna out of bullets and
(SFC, 7/27/18, p.A5)
2018 Sep 19, In Wisconsin a
heavily armed man opened fire on co-workers at the WTS Paradigm
software company. He wounded three people before being fatally shot
by police in Middletown.
(SFC, 9/20/18, p.A5)
2018 Oct 15, In Wisconsin Jake
Patterson gunned down James and Denise Closs, dragged away their
daughter Jayme Closs (13), and held her under a bed in his remote
cabin for 88 days before she made a daring escape. An Amber Alert
was issued for Jayme Closs after deputies found her parents dead in
Barron. Jayme was found safe on Jan. 10 in the small town of Gordon
and suspect In March, 2019, Patterson (21) pleaded guilty to two
counts of intentional homicide and one count of kidnapping. On May
24 Patterson was sentenced to life in prison.
(SFC, 10/16/18, p.A6)(SFC, 1/11/19, p.A5)(SFC,
1/15/19, p.A4)(SFC, 5/25/19, p.A6)(AP, 12/20/19)
2018 Nov 3, In Wisconsin three
Girl Scouts and an adult were killed while collecting trash on a
rural highway. A pickup truck veered off the road and hit them and
sped away. Driver Colton Treu (21) of Chippewa Falls surrendered
later. Treu was accused of inhaling chemical vapors before the crash
and faced homicide charges. On March 11, 2020, Treu was sentenced to
54 years in prison.
(SFC, 11/5/18, p.A5)(SFC, 11/7/18, p.A4)(NBC
2018 Dec 14, Wisconsin Gov.
Scott Walker signed a sweeping package of Republican-written
legislation that restricts early voting and weakens the incoming
Democratic governor and attormey general.
(SFC, 12/15/18, p.A8)
2018 Dec 23, In Slovenia human
remains were found near a popular hiking place at Iski Vintgar
gorge. They were later confirmed as those of a Jonathan Luskin of
Wisconsin, who was reported missing to Slovenian authorities on July
2019 Jan 17, A US federal judge
struck down early-voting restrictions enacted by Wisconsin
Republicans in a lame-duck legislative session last year.
(SFC, 1/18/19, p.A5)
2019 Jan 30, US governors in
Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin declared emergencies as bitter cold
due to a split polar vortex caused temperature drops to as low as
minus 57 degrees. More than 2,600 flights to and from regional
airports were cancelled.
(SFC, 1/31/19, p.A7)
2019 Jan 30, Taiwan-based
Foxconn Technology Group said it is shifting the focus of its
planned Wisconsin campus away from blue-collar manufacturing to a
research hub, while insisting it remains committed to creating
13,000 jobs as promised.
2019 Mar 21, A Wisconsin
circuit court judge blocked Republicans' contentious lame-duck laws
limiting the powers of new Democratic Gov. Tom Evers.
(SFC, 3/22/19, p.A5)
2019 Mar 27, In Wisconsin the
3rd District Court of Appeals reinstated laws passed during the 2018
lame-duck legislative session that weaken powers of the Democratic
governor and attorney general.
(SFC, 3/28/19, p.A6)
2019 Apr 14, In Wisconsin a boy
(17) was arrested after he fatally shot his grandparents in
Grand Chute. The teen said he also planned to cause harm at his
Neenah High School.
(SFC, 4/16/19, p.A5)
2019 Apr 23, Manuel Franco of
West Allis, Wisconsin, stepped forward to claim a $768 million
(SFC, 4/24/19, p.A5)
2019 Jun 24, Milwaukee Bucks
star forward Giannis Antetokounmpo (24) of Greece was named the
NBA's Most Valuable Player for the 2018-19 regular season.
2019 Jul 28, In Wisconsin
shootings at two homes left five people dead, including the
suspected shooter, and two others injured. Ritchie German Jr.
wounded Teng Vang and Mai Chang Vang before taking his own life late
today. German shot his way into the Vang home in Lake Hallie after
killing his mother, Bridget German (66), his brother, Douglas German
(32), and his nephew, Calvin Harris (8), at their home in Lafayette.
(AP, 7/29/19)(AP, 8/1/19)
2019 Jul 30, Authorities who
had been searching a Missouri farm for two missing Wisconsin
brothers found human remains there, more than a week after the pair
disappeared during a trip for their livestock business. The farm was
operated by Garland Nelson, who is accused of tampering with a
vehicle that authorities say was rented by Nicholas Diemel (35), and
his brother, Justin Diemel (24).
2019 Sep 19, In Wisconsin a
woman driving with her two children was struck by a bullet and
killed during a gun fight in Milwaukee.
(SFC, 9/21/19, p.A5)
2019 Oct 15, A jury in
Wisconsin awarded $450,000 to the father of a boy killed in the 2012
Sandy Hook school shooting after he filed a defamation lawsuit
against conspiracy theorist writers who claimed the Dec. 14, 2012,
massacre in Connecticut never happened. James Fetzer, a retired
University of Minnesota Duluth professor now living in Wisconsin,
and Mike Palacek co-wrote a book, "Nobody Died at Sandy Hook," in
which they claimed the Sandy Hook shooting never took place but was
instead an event staged by the federal government as part of an
Obama administration effort to enact tighter gun restrictions.
2019 Nov 1, In Wisconsin
Clifton Blackwell threw acid on Mahud Villalaz, a Latino man, who
suffered 2nd degree burns. In 2020 Blackwell (61) was pronounced
competent to stand trial for reckless injury in a hate crime.
(http://tinyurl.com/y6p9wosp)(SFC, 1/7/20, p.A5)
2019 Dec 13, A Wisconsin judge
ordered that the registration of up to 234,000 voters be tossed out
because they may have moved, a victory for conservatives that could
make it more difficult for people to vote next year in the key swing
2020 Jan 10, Wisconsin
political activist Jeremy Ryan (31), accused of trying to buy a
lethal dose of a radioactive substance online, pleaded guilty to one
count of receiving a nuclear material. His attorneys said he had
cancer and intended to use the material to kill himself.
2020 Jan 14, A Wisconsin
appeals court put on hold an order to immediately remove up to
209,000 names from the state's voter registration polls.
(SFC, 1/15/20, p.A5)
2020 Jan 14, President Trump
used part of his campaign rally in Milwaukee to defend his decision
to authorize an airstrike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
Trump has alleged that Soleimani was plotting "imminent attacks"
against the US, but has offered no evidence.
(The Week, 1/14/20)
2020 Jan 27, Wisconsin Gov.
Tony Evers signed an executive order creating what he promised would
be a non-partisan commission to draw new legislative maps for next
year for the Legislature to consider.
(SFC, 1/28/20, p.A7)
2020 Feb 2, In Wisconsin Black
police Officer Joseph Mensah fatally shot Black teenager Alvin Cole
(17) outside a suburban Milwaukee mall. In October a prosecutor said
the officer would not be charged because he had reasonable belief
that deadly force was necessary.
2020 Feb 16, In Wisconsin the
bodies of a woman (26) and her two young daughters were found in a
Milwaukee garage more than a week after they were reported missing.
The bodies were found after police interviewed the woman's boyfriend
(25), who had been arrested in Tennessee on a fugitive from justice
2020 Feb 26, In Wisconsin
Anthony Ferril (51), a Molson Coors Beverage Co employee, shot ande
killed five co-workers before taking his own life at the company's
beer-brewing complex in Milwaukee.
(Reuters, 2/27/20)(SFC, 2/28/20, p.A6)
2020 Mar 10, In Wisconsin Adam
Roth of Waukesha stabbed four of his family members, two of them
fatally. In December Roth (36) was found not guilty by reason of
mental disease or defect in the attack.
2020 Mar 23, Governors of
Michigan, Massachusetts, West Virginia and Wisconsin implemented
stay-at-home policies. Worldwide cases of coronavirus top 372,000
and 16,000 dead.
2020 Mar 25, Miami, Wisconsin,
Vermont joined a growing list of places where residents must stay
home. At least 23 states have enacted policies to close nonessential
businesses in an effort to slow the spread of novel coronavirus on
(Good Morning America, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 29, A major storm
moving through the central US brought at least 17 reported tornadoes
overnight with eight in Iowa, three in Arkansas, one in Missouri,
four in Illinois and one in Wisconsin. In Arkansas six people were
hurt in the college town of Jonesboro.
(Good Morning America, 3/29/20)(SFC, 3/30/20,
2020 Mar 30, Wisconsin police
arrested Sagal Hussein (25). The body of her young son was found in
a duffel bag in her car apparently months after he died.
(SFC, 5/2/20, p.A3)
2020 Mar 31, In Wisconsin a
jogger found the bodies of Dr. Beth Potter (52) and her husband
Rovin Carre (57) near the arboretum of the Univ. of Wisconsin.
Suspect Khari Sanford (18) was arrested on April 3. Police soon
arrested a 2nd suspect, Ali'jah Larrue (18).
(SFC, 4/7/20, p.A3)
2020 Apr 5, Nine Wisconsin
mayors, including those representing the state's five largest
cities, urged the state's top public health official to postpone the
April 7 primary election due to the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 4/6/20)(NY Times, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 6, Wisconsin’s
Supreme Court overruled Gov. Tony Evers' (D) last-minute order to
stop in-person voting for April 7. The US Supreme Court ruled
against an attempt by Wisconsin Democrats to extend the deadline for
(Econ, 4/11/20, p.8)
2020 Apr 7, Wisconsin voters
lined up to cast ballots across the state, ignoring a stay-at-home
order in the midst of a pandemic to participate in the state's
presidential primary election. Voters in the state's Democratic
primary endorsed Joe Biden. Voters also elected Democrat Judge Jill
Karofsky to the state's Supreme Court.
(AP, 4/7/20)(SFC, 4/15/20, p.A3)
2020 Apr 16, Governors in seven
US Midwest states said they will work in close coordination to
reopen the economy in their regions. The governors for Michigan,
Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky have
formed a partnership to work together on restarting the economies in
their states, they said in a statement.
2020 Apr 21, Milwaukee's top
public health officials said that at least seven people appear to
have been infected with the COVID-19 coronavirus during activities
associated with Wisconsin's April 7 election.
(The Week, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 24, A rally outside
Wisconsin's capitol building in Madison drew hundreds of protesters
who demanded Democratic Governor Tony Evers reopen the state even as
it reported its largest single day jump of new coronavirus cases.
2020 Apr 26, JBS USA announced
that the JBS packerland plant in Greenbay, Wisconsin, would be
temporarily closed. At least 189 COVID-19 infections had been linked
to the plant.
(SFC, 4/28/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 27, Wisconsin police
found five people shot to death inside a Milwaukee home and arrested
the man (43) who dialed 911 to report the slayings.
2020 Apr 30, It was reported
that the US Fish and Wildlife Service is offering a $1,000 reward
for information that leads to the arrest of someone who is poisoning
pets and wildlife in northern Wisconsin. Ongoing poisonings in
Florence, Forest and Marinette counties have been investigated for
about a year. 7 pet dogs have died so far along with coyotes,
weasels and wolves.
2020 May 13, The Wisconsin
Supreme Court struck down Gov. Tony Evers’ stay-at-home
restrictions. The ruling means the state is essentially reopened
ahead of the May 26 expiration date of Evers’ order, lifting caps on
the size of gatherings, allowing people to travel as they please and
allowing shuttered businesses to reopen.
2020 May 31, In Wisconsin
hundreds of volunteers gathered early today in downtown Madison to
clean up damage from a night of violence that included setting a
police squad car on fire, looting and breaking windows at dozens of
stores and an art museum. 15 people were arrested after a second
night of violence erupted late today in Madison, with police firing
tear gas as protesters again threw rocks and damaged store downtown
stores following an afternoon peaceful protest over the death of
(AP, 5/31/20)(AP, 6/1/20)
2020 Jun 18, School board
members in Wisconsin’s largest school district voted to cut ties
with police officers who patrol outside its schools.
2020 Jun 23, Turmoil unfolded
late today outside the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison as
protesters allegedly attacked a state senator, smashed windows and
toppled two historic statues.
(Good Morning America, 6/24/20)
2020 Jun 24, Wisconsin Gov. Tom
Evers activated the National Guard to protect state properties
following a night of violence in Madison.
(SFC, 6/25/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 9, The
conservative-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld
Republican-authored lame-duck laws that stripped power from the
incoming Democratic attorney general just before he took office in
(SFC, 7/10/20, p.A8)
2020 Jul 29, The US Justice
Department said it would send dozens of law enforcement officers to
Cleveland, Milwaukee and Detroit to fight violent crime, expanding
the deployment of federal agents to major cities under a program
promoted by President Donald Trump.
2020 Jul 30, Wisconsin Gov.
Tony Evers issued a statewide mask mandate amid a spike in
coronavirus cases, setting up a conflict with Republican legislative
leaders and some conservatives who oppose such a requirement and
successfully sued to kill the governor's "safer at home" order.
2020 Aug 10, A rare storm
packing 100 mph winds and with power similar to an inland hurricane
swept across the Midwest, blowing over trees, flipping vehicles,
causing widespread property damage and leaving hundreds of thousands
without power as it moved through Chicago and into Indiana and
Michigan. The storm known as a derecho lasted several hours as it
tore from eastern Nebraska across Iowa and parts of Wisconsin and
Illinois. Iowa state's agriculture department later estimated that
the severe windstorm destroyed or seriously damaged more than 57
million bushels of commercial grain storage capacity in Iowa and a
similar amount on farms.
(AP, 8/10/20)(Reuters, 8/18/20)
2020 Aug 23, In Wisconsin a
video posted on social media appeared to show police officers shoot
at Jacob Blake (29), a Black man, seven times in the back as he
leaned into a vehicle. Protesters soon gathered and marchers headed
to the Kenosha County Public Safety Building, which houses the
police and county sheriff's departments. Blake had surgery and was
paralyzed from the waist down. Video later showed that Blake was
armed with a knife. In 2021 federal prosecutors said they would not
file charges against Officer Rusten Sheskey.
(AP, 8/24/20)(Insider, 8/24/20)(SSFC, 10/10/21,
2020 Aug 24, In Wisconsin
police officers deployed tear gas early today to disperse hundreds
of people who took to the streets following a police shooting in
Kenosha that also drew a harsh rebuke from the governor after a
video posted on social media appeared to show officers shoot at
Jacob Blake, a Black man, seven times in the back as he leaned into
a vehicle. Protesters set several Kenosha businesses on fire early
this morning. The father of Jacob Blake says his son was left
paralyzed from the waist down. Wisconsin's governor called out the
(AP, 8/24/20)(NY Times, 8/25/20)(AP,
2020 Aug 25, In Wisconsin two
people were killed and another was injured late today as shots were
fired during a third night of protests in Kenosha over the shooting
of Jacob Blake. Gov. Tony Evers (D) declared a state of emergency.
2020 Aug 26, Wisconsin
authorities arrested Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old white Illinois
resident, and charged him with first-degree intentional homicide in
the shooting of two protesters on August 25. Police said Rittenhouse
shot three people, killing two and injuring one.
(Yahoo News, 8/27/20)
2020 Aug 28, Mark Zuckerberg
said Facebook should have taken down the page and event listing
promoting a militia group that called for armed citizens to defend
Kenosha, Wisconsin, amid ongoing protests there. The event, titled:
"Armed Citizens to Protect Our Lives and Property," and the page,
"Kenosha Guard," were removed after two people were killed in a
shooting there on August 25.
(Business Insider, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 29, In Wisconsin
family members of Jacob Blake, a Black man who was paralyzed after a
Kenosha police officer shot him in the back, led a march and rally
to call for an end to police violence. A crowd of about 1,000
demonstrators gathered outside a courthouse in Kenosha to denounce
police violence and share messages of change.
2020 Aug 30, Wisconsin Governor
Tony Evers (D) urged President Trump to "reconsider" his plan to
visit the city of Kenosha as protests continue over the shooting of
Jacob Blake, a Black man, by a white police officer.
(The Week, 8/31/20)
2020 Sep 1, Pres. Trump
traveled to Kenosha, Wis., to offer support for law enforcement and
to tour shops damaged by rioting. During the visit, Trump did not
mention the name of Jacob Blake, an unarmed Black man shot by the
police last week, nor did the president speak with his family.
(NY Times, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 16, Hmong American Ee
Lee (36) was found brutally beaten in Washington Park, Milwaukee.
Lee died three days later. A group of five to seven people were
caught on film at the location where the struggle happened. Other
cameras captured two groups of people — totaling 11 individuals —
leaving the park on bicycles after the attack.
2020 Sep 17, US President
Donald Trump announced a new round of pandemic assistance to farmers
of about $13 billion at a campaign rally in Wisconsin late today,
delivering aid to an important sector in a crucial battleground
2020 Sep 22, Wisconsin Governor
Tony Evers declared a new public health emergency and extended a
face mask mandate into November to fight a coronavirus flareup in
his state, as the number of people who have died across the United
States since the pandemic began passed 200,000.
2020 Sep 25, Wisconsin, one of
the states where coronavirus cases are rising the fastest, reported
2,629 new infections, surpassing its previous record set a week
2020 Sep 26, Minnesota,
Montana, South Dakota, and Wisconsin all reported record one-day
increases in coronavirus cases, as COVID-19 infections continued to
surge in the Midwest and rose nationally for the second straight
(The Week, 9/27/20)
2020 Sep 27, A federal appeals
court temporarily blocked a six-day extension for counting absentee
ballots in the battleground state of Wisconsin ordered by a lower
court to accommodate an expected historic surge in voting by mail
due to the coronavirus crisis. For now ballots are due by 8 p.m. on
Election Day, a provisional win for Republicans and President Trump.
On Sept. 29 the appeals court upheld the six-day extension.
(The Week, 9/28/20)(SFC, 9/30/20, p.A4)
2020 Sep 30, In Wisconsin a
record number of people with COVID-19 were hospitalized. Of those
737 patients, 205 were in intensive care, with spikes in cases in
northern parts of the state driving up the numbers. The state also
reported its highest single-day number of deaths — 27 — raising the
toll to 1,327.
2020 Oct 1, Wisconsin
registered a record increase in new COVID-19 cases. Governor Tony
Evers issued an emergency order easing licensing rules in a bid to
bolster the number of healthcare workers able to deal with the
2020 Oct 2, Wisconsin
Republicans, who control the Legislature, filed a court motion in
support of a lawsuit seeking to repeal a mask mandate under Gov.
Tony Evers, a Democrat.
2020 Oct 8, A US federal
appeals court blocked a decision in Wisconsin to extend the deadline
for counting as many as 2 million absentee ballots by six days.
(SFC, 10/9/20, p.A5)
2020 Oct 19, A Wisconsin judge
reimposed an order from Gov. Tony Evers’ administration limiting the
number of people who can gather in bars, restaurants and other
indoor venues to 25% of capacity.
2020 Oct 22, Hackers reportedly
stole $2.3 million from the Wisconsin Republican Party's account
that was being used to help reelect President Donald Trump in the
key battleground state. The attack began as a phishing attempt and
no data appeared to have been stolen.
2020 Oct 26, The US Supreme
Court refused to revive a trial court ruling that would have
extended Wisconsin’s deadline for receiving absentee ballots to six
days after the election. The vote was 5 to 3, with the court’s more
conservative justices in the majority.
(NY Times, 10/27/20)
2020 Oct 30, Kyle Rittenhouse,
the 17-year-old Illinois resident charged in the shooting death of
two protesters, was extradited in Wisconsin where the crimes took
(SFC, 10/31/20, p.A4)
2020 Nov 6, It was reported
that more than 14,000 farmed minks have died in recent weeks in Utah
and Wisconsin after contracting COVID-19.
(SFC, 11/6/20, p.A7)
2020 Nov 6, Wisconsin police
arrested Nathanael Benton (23), suspected of shooting two police
officers earlier in the day in Waukesha County. Benton was also
wanted in Fargo, North Dakota, for attempted murder.
(SFC, 11/7/20, p.A4)
2020 Nov 18, President Donald
Trump's campaign said it has paid $3 million for a recount of two
heavily Democratic Wisconsin counties, saying that they were the
sight of the “worst irregularities" although no evidence of
wrongdoing has been presented and state elections officials have
said there was none.
2020 Nov 20, Kyle Rittenhouse,
the teenager charged with fatally shooting two men and wounding a
third at a demonstration in Kenosha, Wisconsin, was released on a $2
2020 Nov 21, Election officials
in Wisconsin’s largest county accused observers for President Donald
Trump of seeking to obstruct a recount of the presidential results,
in some instances by objecting to every ballot tabulators pulled to
2020 Nov 27, President-elect
Joe Biden picked up 257 votes in Wisconsin's Milwaukee County after
the Trump campaign demanded a recount there. President Trump also
picked up 125 votes, giving Biden a net gain of 132.
(The Week, 11/28/20)
2020 Nov 30, Arizona and
Wisconsin certified their presidential election results in favor of
Joe Biden, even as President Donald Trump's legal team continued to
dispute the results.
2020 Dec 1, The Trump campaign
said it filed a petition challenging Wisconsin's results in the 2020
presidential election with the state's Supreme Court.
2020 Dec 4, Courts in Arizona,
Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, and Wisconsin ruled against
President Trump and his allies in several lawsuits seeking to
overturn the results of the presidential election.
(The Week, 12/5/20)
2020 Dec 8, A Wisconsin fighter
pilot died after a plane crashed during a training flight in
Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
(SFC, 12/11/20, p.A6)
2020 Dec 29, President Donald
Trump's campaign asked the US Supreme Court to take its failed
lawsuit challenging election results in swing state Wisconsin. Trump
lost the state to Democrat Joe Biden by about 21,000 votes.
2020 Dec 30, In Wisconsin the
Aurora Medical System said that 500 doses of a coronavirus vaccine,
that had to be discarded after they were left unrefrigerated,
appeared to have been deliberately spoiled by an employee. Licensed
pharmacist Steven Brandenburg was arrested the next day on suspicion
of sabotaging more than 500 doses of the vaccine. Brandenburg later
said he believed the shots would mutate people's DNA. In 2021
Brandenburg was sentenced to three years in prison.
(SFC, 12/31/20, p.A3)(SFC, 1/6/21, p.A5)(SFC,
2021 Jan 5, A Wisconsin
prosecutor said that police officers involved in the Aug. 23
Kenosha, Wisconsin, shooting that left Jacob Blake paralyzed will
not face charges.
2021 Feb 4, Wisconsin Gov. Tony
Evers issued a new statewide mask order, an hour after the
Republican controlled Legislature voted to repeal his previous
(SFC, 2/5/21, p.A6)
2021 Feb 4, Dezman Ellis (17)
was arrested in Des Moines, Iowa, for the Jan. 31 fatal shooting at
a shopping mall in Wisconsin. Ellis was extradited to Wisconsin the
2021 Mar 31, The Wisconsin
Supreme Court struck down Gov. Tony Evers' statewide mask mandate
ruling 4-3 that he had exceeded his authority.
(SFC, 4/11/21, p.A8)
2021 Apr 14, The Wisconsin
Supreme Court ruled that the administration of Gov. Tony Evers does
not have the authority to issue capacity limits on bars, restaurants
and other businesses without the approval of the Legislature.
(SFC, 4/15/21, p.A4)
2021 Apr 18, In Wisconsin a
suspect reportedly was asked to leave a bar in Kenosha and returned
with a gun, firing shots inside and outside the tavern, killing
three people. A suspect was soon arrested.
2021 Apr 19, Wisconsin Gov.
Tony Evers and Taiwan-based Foxconn Technology Group, the world's
largest electronics maker, announced a new deal with reduced tax
breaks for a scaled back manufacturing facility.
2021 May 1, In Wisconsin Bruce
Pofahl (62) opened fire at a restaurant in the Oneida Casino in
Green Bay killing two people and wounding another. Police
respponding to the scene fatally shot Pofahl, who had been fired
from the restaurant.
(SFC, 5/3/21, p.A6)(SFC, 5/4/21, p.A3)
2021 Jun 20, Richard A. Balsimo
(34) of St. Paul, was reported missing by his family. On Aug. 16
Jacob C. Johnson (35) of Superior, Wis., was charged in Cook County
District Court with second-degree intentional murder in connection
with the death of Balsimo. Johnson was charged with firing the
gunshots that killed Balsimo, whose body was then dismembered and
dropped into the waters of Lake Superior off the northernmost
reaches of Minnesota's shoreline.
(Minneapolis Star Tribune, 8/17/21)
2021 Jul 5, University of
Wisconsin scientists said as many as one-third of the state's gray
wolves likely died at the hands of humans in the months after the
federal government in January announced it was ending legal
2021 Jul 9, The Wisconsin
diocese of La Crosse said Bishop William Patrick Callahan has
removed Rev. James Altman as pastor of St. James the Less for a
series of divisive remarks about politics and the pandemic. Altman
has said Catholics cannot be Democrats and has criticized COVID-19
vaccination efforts as "Nazi-esque controls'.
(SSFC, 7/11/21, p.A10)
2021 Jul 20, The Milwaukee
Bucks beat the Phoenix Suns to win their first NBA championship in
(NY Times, 7/21/21)
2021 Jul 31, Wisconsin
elections officials deactivated 174,307 voter registrations because
the voters hadn't cast a ballot in four years and didn't respond to
2021 Aug 1, In Wisconsin the
annual, week-long EAA AirVenture jamboree wrapped up in Oshkosh with
a record attendance. It was reported that United Airlines plans to
hire 350 pilots this year, 1,500 by 2022 and 3,000 by 2023.
2021 Aug 10, Wisconsin Governor
Tony Evers vetoed six voting restriction bills passed by the state's
Republican-controlled legislature, blocking the latest Republican
effort to limit access to the polls in a politically divided state.
2021 Aug 11, The state of
Wisconsin authorized the killing of 300 wolves as part of a hunt
this fall, far exceeding the recommendations of its own biologists
for the once-protected species and drawing criticism from
(NY Times, 8/12/21)
2021 Aug 16, It was reported
that Cardinal Raymond Burke, one of the Catholic Church's most
outspoken conservatives and a vaccine skeptic, has COVID-19 and his
staff said he is breathing through a ventilator in Wisconsin.
2021 Aug 20, Wisconsin began a
$100 incentive for more people to get vaccinated. Gov. Tony Evers
later extended the offer, due to end until Sept. 6., until Sept. 19.
(SSFC, 9/5/21, p.A6)