Star-Spangled Salute To America

Zebulon Pike leads expedition across American Southwest

On this day in US history, Zebulon Pike, the army officer who led an exploring party in 1805 to find the source of the Mississippi River, set off on a new expedition to explore the American Southwest on July 15, 1806. Pike was instructed to find the headwaters of the Red and Arkansas rivers as well as to investigate Spanish settlements in New Mexico. The information provided by his expedition provided great impetus for future US settlement; his reports about the weakness of the authority the Spanish held over parts of the territories stirred the talk of US annexation.

The Great Heat Wave of 1936

This week in Wisconsin history, one of the hottest heat waves Wisconsin has ever endured happened on July 13, 1936. At multiple points during the week from the 7th to the 14th, temperatures exceeded 100 degrees every day in Northeast Wisconsin. Resulting in the deaths of approximately 5,000 nationally and over 400 in the state of Wisconsin alone. Some of the deaths that occurred in the state weren’t from heat exhaustion or stroke, but from drowning, in an effort to relieve themselves from the intense heat. While the air temperature was around 100 degrees, meteorologists speculate that the “feels-like” temperature could have reached 120 degrees across the state.