The history of American football can be traced to early versions of
rugby football. Among the major changes instituted by Walter Camp,
considered the "Father of American Football", in the 19th century were
the introduction of the line of scrimmage and of down-and-distance
rules. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, gameplay
developments helped take advantage of the newly introduced forward
pass. The popularity of collegiate football grew as it became the
dominant version of the sport for the first half of the twentieth
century. Bowl games, a college football tradition, attracted a
national audience for collegiate teams. Bolstered by fierce rivalries,
college football still holds widespread appeal in the US. Meanwhile,
the origin of professional football can be traced back to 1892. In
1920, the National Football League (NFL) was formed, and eventually
became the major league of American football. Football's increasing
popularity is usually traced to the 1958 NFL Championship Game, a
contest that has been dubbed the "Greatest Game Ever Played". A rival
league to the NFL, the American Football League, began play in 1960;
the pressure it put on the senior league led to a merger between the
two leagues and the creation of the Super Bowl, which has become the
most watched television event in the United States on an annual basis.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_American_football
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1488:
Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias sailed around the Cape of Good
Hope at the southern tip of Africa and landed in Mossel Bay.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartolomeu_Dias)
1509:
Turkish-Portuguese War: Portugal defeated a joint fleet of Mamlûk
Burji Sultanate of Egypt, Ottoman Empire, the Zamorin of Calicut and
the Sultan of Gujarat at the Battle of Diu off the coast of Diu,
India.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Diu_%281509%29)
1867:
Crown Prince Mutsuhito succeeded his father Kōmei as Emperor of
Japan, taking the title Meiji.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiji_period)
1959:
The Day the Music Died: A small plane crashed near Clear Lake, Iowa,
USA, killing American rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie
Valens, and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_the_Music_Died)
1966:
The Soviet spacecraft Luna 9 became the first space probe to land on
the Moon and transmit pictures from the lunar surface to Earth.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_9)
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Wiktionary's Word of the day:
fanatic: A person who is zealously enthusiastic for some cause,
especially in religion.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fanatic)
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Wikiquote of the day:
When war is waged it is for the purpose of safeguarding or increasing
one's capacity to make war. International politics are wholly involved
in this vicious cycle. What is called national prestige consists in
behaving always in such a way as to demoralize other nations by giving
them the impression that, if it comes to war, one would certainly
defeat them. What is called national security is an imaginary state of
affairs in which one would retain the capacity to make war while
depriving all other countries of it. -- Simone Weil
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Simone_Weil)
Dookie is the third studio album and major label debut by American
punk rock band Green Day. The album was the band's first collaboration
with producer Rob Cavallo. Released on February 1 1994 through Reprise
Records, Dookie became a worldwide commercial success, reaching #2 on
the U.S. Billboard 200 and charting in seven countries. The album
helped to propel Green Day into mainstream popularity, amid claims
from the punk rock community that the band had "sold out". Dookie
produced five hit singles for the band: "Longview", the re-recorded
"Welcome to Paradise", "Basket Case", the radio-only single "She" and
"When I Come Around". As of 2007, Dookie is the band's best-selling
album, selling over 15 million copies worldwide. It is Green Day's
only diamond album. Dookie won the Grammy Award for Best Alternative
Music Album in 1995.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dookie
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1536:
An expedition to the New World led by Spanish conquistador Pedro de
Mendoza founded what is now Buenos Aires, Argentina.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buenos_Aires)
1709:
Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk was rescued after spending four
years as a castaway on an uninhabited island in the Juan Fernández
archipelago in the Pacific Ocean, providing the inspiration for Daniel
Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Selkirk)
1848:
The Mexican–American War ended with the signing of the Treaty of
Guadalupe Hidalgo, granting the United States the Mexican Cession.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Guadalupe_Hidalgo)
1925:
Medical supplies to combat an outbreak of diphtheria reached Nome,
Alaska Territory on dog sleds after a five and a half-day journey,
inspiring the annual Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race (pictured in 2003)
across Alaska.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1925_serum_run_to_Nome)
1943:
World War II: The Battle of Stalingrad, one of the bloodiest battles
in human history, concluded with 91,000 tired and starving German
soldiers taken captive by the Soviet Red Army.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Stalingrad)
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Wiktionary's Word of the day:
polysemous: (linguistics) Having multiple meanings or interpretations.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/polysemous)
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Wikiquote of the day:
History, Stephen said, is a nightmare from which I am
trying to awake. -- James Joyce in Ulysses
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Joyce)