Good morning, Whitewater.
Our Friday will be mostly cloudy but mild, with a high of twenty-six. Sunrise is 7:21 AM and sunset 4:47 PM, for 9h 26m 17s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 20.5% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1991, Pres. George H.W. Bush tells the nation that Operation Desert Storm had begun. The next morning, the New York Times published news of the American-led campaign to drive the Iraqi Army from Kuwait:
WASHINGTON, Thursday, Jan. 17 — The United States and allied forces Wednesday night opened the long threatened war to drive President Saddam Hussein’s army from Kuwait, striking Baghdad and other targets in Iraq and Kuwait with waves of bombers and cruise missiles launched from naval vessels.
“The liberation of Kuwait has begun,” President Bush said in a three-sentence statement confirming the start of the attack that was read by his spokesman, Marlin Fitzwater, shortly after the raids began.
Later, in a televised address to the nation from the Oval Office a somber Mr. Bush said that after months of continuous diplomatic overtures had failed to produce movement by Iraq, the United States and its allies “have no choice but to force Saddam from Kuwait by force. We will not fail.”
Google-a-Day asks a geography question:
What area with nearly 2 million life forms was created to protect the wildlife of the country with the largest economy in Africa?