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>
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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>
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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>
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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>