The Wales national rugby union team competes annually in the Six Nations Championship with England, France, Ireland, Italy and Scotland. The governing body, the Welsh Rugby Union, was established in 1881, the same year that Wales played their first international against England, on 19 February. They have won the Six Nations and its predecessors 26 times outright, most recently in 2013. They had many dominant teams from 1900 to 1911 and from 1969 to 1980. Wales played in the inaugural Rugby World Cup in 1987 where they achieved their best ever result of third. After the sport started allowing professionalism in 1995, Wales hosted the 1999 World Cup. They won Six Nations Grand Slams in 2005, 2008 and 2012. Their home ground is the Millennium Stadium (pictured). Eight former Welsh players have been inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame; ten were inducted into the International Rugby Hall of Fame prior to its 2014 merger into the World Rugby Hall.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wales_national_rugby_union_team
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1811:
Peninsular War: An outnumbered French force under Édouard Mortier routed and nearly destroyed the Spanish at the Battle of the Gebora near Badajoz, Spain. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Gebora
1942:
A book-burning was held and politicians were arrested in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, as part of a simulated Nazi invasion. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_Day
1965:
Colonel Phạm Ngọc Thảo of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, along with Generals Lâm Văn Phát and Trần Thiện Khiêm attempted a coup against the military junta of Nguyễn Khánh. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1965_South_Vietnamese_coup
1999:
U.S. President Bill Clinton issued a posthumous pardon to Henry Ossian Flipper, the first African American graduate of West Point, who had been accused of embezzlement in 1881. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Ossian_Flipper
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
rainmaker: 1. Someone or something that causes or attempts to cause rain to fall. 2. An African or Native American medicine man who seeks to induce rain through performing rituals. 3. A person who seeks to induce rainfall through scientific methods, such as cloud seeding. 4. (originally Canada, US, figuratively, informal) A person having the ability to generate business, raise funds, or otherwise engineer success for a company, organization, etc. 5. (baseball, informal) A batted ball that is hit very high into the air. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/rainmaker
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
Crossing that bridge, With lessons I've learned. Playing with fire, And not getting burned. I may not know what you're going through. But time is the space, Between me and you. Life carries on... it goes on. --Seal https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Seal_%28musician%29