Good morning.
Whitewater’s Friday will be sunny with calm winds and a high of eighty-two. Sunrise was 5:28 a.m., and sunset will be 8:33 p.m. The moon is a waxing crescent with 17% of the its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1990, Boris Yeltsin resigns from the Society Communist Party:
Just two days after Mikhail Gorbachev was re-elected head of the Soviet Communist Party, Boris Yeltsin, president of the Republic of Russia, announces his resignation from the Party. Yeltsin’s action was a serious blow to Gorbachev’s efforts to keep the struggling Soviet Union together….
During the next year and a half, Gorbachev’s power gradually waned, while Yeltsin’s star rose. In December 1991, Gorbachev resigned as president of the Soviet Union and the Soviet Union officially dissolved. Yeltsin, however, retained his position of power as president of Russia. In their own particular ways, both men had overseen the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War.
Yeltsin remained president of Russia until December 31, 1999, when he resigned. Despite his attempts at economic reform, his tenure in office saw the country’s economy falter badly, including a near-complete collapse of its currency. His administration was also marked by rampant corruption, an invasion of Chechnya and a series of bizarre incidents involving Yeltsin that were reputedly a result of his alcoholism. Yeltsin’s opponents twice tried to impeach him. With his resignation, Prime Minsiter Vladimir Putin became acting president until new elections could be held. On March 26, 2000, Putin became Russia’s new president.
On this day in 1995, a deadly heatwave afflicts Wisconsin:
From July 12-15, 1995, the Midwest was subjected to a deadly outbreak of hot and humid weather responsible for 141 deaths in Wisconsin. According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, this was the “greatest single event of weather-related deaths in Wisconsin history.” Most of the fatalities happened in the urban southeast counties of the state, and at one point several Milwaukee-area hospitals were unable to admit more patients.
Milwaukee Temperatures (from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel): July 12: Hi=91, Lo=65 July 13: Hi=103*, Lo=78 July 14: Hi=102, Lo=84 July 15: Hi=92, Lo=69 July 16: Hi=88, Lo=68 *Some communities reported highs as high as 108. Heat Index values were 120-130 degrees.
NOAA’s Natural Disaster Survey Report on the outbreak is available at http://www.weather.gov/os/assessments/pdfs/heat95.pdf [Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]
Puzzability‘s Fruit Salad series concludes today:
Fruit Salad
For a refreshing summer dessert this week, just mix and serve. For each day, we’ve taken the name of a kind of fruit, added a letter, and scrambled all the letters to get a new word. The answer phrase, described by each day’s clue, is the new word followed by the fruit name.
Example:
Citrus fruit turned to a lava-like liquid
Answer:
Molten lemon
Here’s the puzzle for Friday:
Treating a citrus fruit with worshipful respect fit for a saint