Good morning, Whitewater.
Saturday will be mild, with a high of forty-five. Sunrise is 7:24 AM and sunset 4:27 PM, for 9h 03m 14s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 37.3% of its visible disk illuminated.
In case you’ll one day have the need to turn a baseball park into a hockey rink, here’s a video to show you how its done:
On this day in 1979, the Soviets seize Afghanistan:
Washington, Dec. 27–President Hafizullah Amin of Afghanistan was ousted from power and executed today in a coup reportedly supported by Soviet troops.
The Afghan radio announced in a broadcast monitored here that Mr. Amin had been sentenced to death at a revolutionary trial for “crimes against the state” and that the sentence had been carried out.
The broadcast said that Babrak Karmal, a former Deputy Prime Minister who had been living in exile in Eastern Europe, was the new President and Secretary General of the ruling People’s Democratic Party.
Mr. Amin was the third Afghan President to be toppled in the last 20 months. All three were slain.
The Afghan broadcast was the first authoritative word received in Washington that tended to confirm earlier reports from Teheran and Moscow about the political change in Kabul.
On this day in 1831, Wisconsin governor and solider Lucius Fairchild is born:
On this date Lucius Fairchild was born in Kent, Ohio. Soldier, diplomat, and Wisconsin Governor, Fairchild arrived in Madison with his family in 1846. After a trip to California in search of gold, Fairchild returned to Madison and studied law. He was a soldier in the “Iron Brigade” and lost an arm at the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863. He was elected as a Republican to the post of secretary of state and in 1865 was elected governor. He served for three terms. As governor and as a private citizen, Fairchild was active in promoting soldiers’ aid.