Kevin O'Halloran (1937–1976) was an Australian freestyle swimmer of the
1950s, who won a gold medal in the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay at the
1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne. The first Western Australian to win
Olympic gold, O'Halloran learnt to swim in his home town of Katanning.
He moved to Perth to attend secondary schooling at Guildford Grammar
School, where he began swimming passionately. Competitive swimming was
not well developed in Western Australia; races were held in muddy river
pools, so in late 1955, O'Halloran moved to the east coast to support
his attempt to qualify for the Olympics. His new coach, Frank Guthrie,
overhauled his training regimen, and within a year, O'Halloran had
reduced his times by approximately 10%. He gained Olympic selection in
the relay and the 400 m freestyle. O'Halloran led off the Australian
quartet on the way to a new world record, before placing sixth in the
400 m. Thereafter, O'Halloran's career was beset by ear problems, and
he retired in 1958 after failing to qualify for the 1958 British Empire
and Commonwealth Games. In 1976, O'Halloran died after tripping and
accidentally shooting himself. (more...)
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1284:
The Statute of Rhuddlan incorporated the Principality of Wales into
England.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statute_of_Rhuddlan>
1776:
American Revolutionary War: Samuel Nicholas and the Continental
Marines successfully landed on New Providence and captured Nassau in
the Bahamas.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Nassau>
1945:
A former Armia Krajowa unit massacred at least 150 Ukrainian civilians
in Pawłokoma, Poland.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paw%C5%82okoma_massacre>
1991:
Motorist Rodney King was beaten by Los Angeles policemen, causing
public outrage that increased tensions between the African American
community and the police department over the issues of police brutality
and social inequalities in the area.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodney_King>
1997:
The Sky Tower in Auckland, the tallest free-standing structure in the
Southern Hemisphere at 328 metres (1,076 ft), opened.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_Tower>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
beey (adj):
(informal, rare) Reminiscent of or containing bees
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/beey>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Those who try to combat the production of shoddy pictures are enemies
of the best art today. Those woodland lakes in a thousand sitting-rooms
with gold-tinted wallpaper belong to the profoundest inspirations of
art. It always feels tragic to see people labouring to saw off the
branch they are sitting on.
--Asger Jorn
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Asger_Jorn>
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