Bobby Peel (12 February 1857 – 12 August 1941) was an English
professional cricketer who played first-class cricket for Yorkshire
between 1883 and 1897. Although an effective batsman, he was primarily a
left-arm spin bowler; when conditions favoured his bowling style, he was
a matchwinner. Between 1884 and 1896, Peel was regularly selected to
represent England, playing 20 Test matches in which he took 101 wickets;
in one such game, he bowled England to victory after they had followed
on in Australia in 1894–95. Peel began playing for Yorkshire in 1883
and was the team's main spinner by 1887; he regularly took over 100
wickets in a season, despite receiving little support from other
bowlers, and was among the leading batsmen for the county. As a player,
he was very popular but had a reputation for drinking heavily. In 1897
he was suspended for drunkenness during a match and never played for
Yorkshire again, although the events leading up to this are unclear.
Later stories, generally dismissed by historians, suggested he urinated
on the pitch. He continued to play and coach cricket for most of his
life. Among his other jobs, he became the landlord of a public house and
worked in a mill.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Peel>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1818:
On the first anniversary of its victory in the Battle of
Chacabuco, Chile formally declared its independence from Spain.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilean_Declaration_of_Independence>
1912:
Xinhai Revolution: Puyi, the last Emperor of China, abdicated
under a deal brokered by military official and politician Yuan Shikai,
formally replacing the Qing dynasty with a new republic in China.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puyi>
1947:
The French fashion company Christian Dior SE unveiled a "New
Look" that revolutionized women's dress and reestablished Paris as the
center of the fashion world after World War II.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Dior_SE>
1994:
Edvard Munch's iconic painting The Scream was stolen from the
National Gallery of Norway.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scream>
2001:
NASA's robotic space probe NEAR Shoemaker touched down on Eros,
becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/433_Eros>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
abderitism:
(philosophy) The theory that the human race's morality will never
advance beyond its present state.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/abderitism>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Congratulations. You're alive. There's an unbroken thread that
stretches across more than three billion years that connects us to the
first life that ever touched this world. Think of how tough, resourceful
and lucky all of our countless ancestors must have been to survive long
enough to pass on the message of life to the next and the next and the
next generation, hundreds of millions of times before it came to us.
There were so many rivers to cross, so many hazards along the way.
Predators, starvation, disease, miscalculation, long winters, drought,
flood and violence. Not to mention the occasional upheavals that erupted
from within our planet and the apocalyptic bolts that come from the
blue. No matter where we hail from or who our parents were, we are
descended from the hearty survivors of unimaginable catastrophes. Each
of us is a runner in the longest and most dangerous relay race there
ever was, and at this moment, we hold the baton in our hands.
--Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cosmos:_A_Spacetime_Odyssey>
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