Good morning.
We’ll have a mostly sunny day with a high of twenty-five. Today brings 10h 39m of sunlight, 11h 37m of daylight, with a waxing crescent moon.
On 2.17.1972, Nixon goes to China:
Washington, Feb. 17 — President Nixon left for China today.
He is to reach Peking on Monday morning, China time (Sunday night, New York time), for a week’s stay on the mainland that is to include two conferences, with Chairman Mao Tse-tung and meetings with Premier Chou En-lai.
Addressing ‘Vice’ President Agnew, the leaders of Congress, members of his Cabinet and a large crowd assembled on the White House lawn this morning to bid him farewell, the President said in a brief statement that the United States and China must “find a way to see that we can have differences without being enemies in war.”
If We Can Make Progress
“If we can make progress toward that goal on this trip,” he declared, “the world will be a much safer world and the chance particularly for all of those young children over there to grow up in a world of peace will be infinitely greater.”
The trip produced several accords with Mao’s China, and was even the inspiration for an opera (from the composer, but most certainly not the blogger who lacks any of those talents, John Adams):
2002 – Wisconsin Skater Takes Gold
On this date West Allis native Chris Witty won a gold medal in speed skating’s 1000 meter at the Salt Lake City Olympic Winter Games. She broke the world record with a time of 1:13.82, even though she was recovering from mononucleosis. Before Witty competed in ice staking, she was a professional bicyclist. [Source: US Olympic Team]
Google-a-Day asks a history question: “Whose disciples founded Yellow Hats?”