In the mid-1800s Milwaukee earned its nickname “Cream City.” The nickname refers to the large amount of unique cream colored bricks that came out of the Menomonee River Valley and were used in building construction.
May 5, 1886 was the day of the Bay View Massacre in which striking steelworkers who were marching toward a mill in the Bay View section of Milwaukee were intercepted by a squad of National Guardsmen who, under orders from the Wisconsin Governor, fired point blank into the strikers, killing seven.
Towards the end of the century, Milwaukee enjoyed worldwide notoriety when it erected its City Hall in 1895. The Hall, at 15-stories, stood as the world’s tallest skyscraper for the next four years until the Park Row tower in New York City was completed in 1899. Milwaukee remains one of only three cities in the United States and four in the world which can claim to have ever been home to the world’s tallest building.
During the first half of the twentieth century, Milwaukee was the hub of the socialist movement in the United States. Milwaukeeans elected three socialist mayors during this time: Emil Seidel (1910-1912), Daniel Hoan (1916-1940), and Frank Zeidler (1948-1960), and remains the only major city in the country to have done so.
Of the 50 largest cities in the United States, Milwaukee has the second-coldest average annual temperature, next to that of Minneapolis.
Many people associate Milwaukee with beer, as it was once the home to four of the world’s largest breweries (Schlitz, Blatz, Pabst, and Miller), and was the number one beer producing city in the world for many years.
Tomorrow
It’s going to be 50 degrees outside, the snow is gone, go skate.
Later on I will be playing records, as Tim mentioned, at the Red Room. If you like to be funny, stupid movies, and getting horny, you will appreciate what I have lined up. 10pm, show up.
Photo of the day #60
Caveman noseblunt, that’s what!