Good morning, Whitewater.
Saturday in Whitewater will be cloudy in the morning, sunny in the afternoon, with a high of thirty-four for the day. Sunrise is 7:22 AM and sunset 4:23 PM, for 9h 01m 40s of daytime.
On this day in 1989, America begins an operation to topple Panama’s leader:
WASHINGTON, Wednesday, Dec. 20 — The United States launched a military operation in Panama early this morning designed to topple the Government of Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega.
Reports from Panama said that American troops and tanks were moving on General Noriega’s headquarters, with mortar and machine gunfire echoing through the city. American citizens were ordered by the American military command in Panama to stay off the streets.
Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega surrendered to American forces about two weeks later.
A generation earlier, on this day in 1957, Elvis Presley is drafted, and serves in Europe:
After six months of basic training–including an emergency leave to see his beloved mother, Gladys, before she died in August 1958–Presley sailed to Europe on the USS General Randall.
For the next 18 months, he served in Company D, 32nd Tank Battalion, 3rd Armor Corps in Friedberg, Germany, where he attained the rank of sergeant. For the rest of his service, he shared an off-base residence with his father, grandmother and some Memphis friends. After working during the day, Presley returned home at night to host frequent parties and impromptu jam sessions.
At one of these, an army buddy of Presley’s introduced him to 14-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu, whom Elvis would marry some years later. Meanwhile, Presley’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker, continued to release singles recorded before his departure, keeping the money rolling in and his most famous client fresh in the public’s mind. Widely praised for not seeking to avoid the draft or serve domestically, Presley was seen as a model for all young Americans.
After he got his polio shot from an army doctor on national TV, vaccine rates among the American population shot from 2 percent to 85 percent by the time of his discharge on March 2, 1960.