Good morning.
Thursday brings a high of twenty-three, with a likelihood of about half an inch of snow. Sunrise is 7:25 AM and sunset 4:27 PM. The moon is a waning crescent with 38% of its visible disk illuminated.
Dictator and mass murderer Mao Tse-tsung is born on this day in 1893.
Also on this day, in 1776, a far better man wins a surprise victory in Trenton:
At approximately 8 a.m. on the morning of December 26, 1776, General George Washington’s Continental Army reaches the outskirts of Trenton, New Jersey, and descends upon the unsuspecting Hessian force guarding the city. Trenton’s 1,400 Hessian defenders were still groggy from the previous evening’s Christmas festivities and had underestimated the Patriot threat after months of decisive British victories throughout New York. The troops of the Continental Army quickly overwhelmed the German defenses, and by 9:30 a.m.Trenton was completely surrounded.
Although several hundred Hessians escaped, nearly 1,000 were captured at the cost of only four American lives.
Over these last few days, astronauts at the International Space Station undertook repairs to a cooling system on the station. They had quite a view of the outdoors: