Ian Craig (1935–2014) was a cricketer who represented Australia in 11
Tests between 1953 and 1958. A teenage prodigy, he made his first-class
debut for New South Wales in 1952 at the age of 16, and soon earned
comparisons to the great batsman Don Bradman, but was never as
successful in his later career. Craig was, and remains, the youngest
Australian cricketer to score a first-class double century (against the
touring South Africa national cricket team), to represent his country in
a Test match, and to tour England (in the 1953 Ashes tour). For the
1957–58 tour of South Africa, Craig was appointed as Australian
captain, the youngest man ever to hold the position, and led the team to
an unexpected 3–0 victory despite his poor personal batting form. He
missed the 1958–59 season with hepatitis, and could not regain his
Test place when he returned the following season. Work commitments
forced him to retire from first-class cricket at 26. In later life,
Craig was the managing director of the Australian subsidiary of the
British pharmaceutical firm Boots, but continued his involvement with
cricket as a board member of the New South Wales Cricket Association,
trustee of the Sydney Cricket Ground Trust, and chairman of the Bradman
Museum.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Craig>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1381:
The first mass protest in the Peasants' Revolt began in
Blackheath, England, caused by political and socioeconomic tensions due
to the Black Death and high taxes as a result of the Hundred Years' War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peasants%27_Revolt>
1899:
The New Richmond tornado killed 117 people and injured 125
others in the northern Great Plains of the United States.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1899_New_Richmond_tornado>
1942:
On her thirteenth birthday, Anne Frank began keeping her diary
during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Diary_of_a_Young_Girl>
1987:
Cold War: During a speech at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate by the
Berlin Wall, U.S. President Ronald Reagan challenged Soviet leader
Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall!"
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tear_down_this_wall!>
2001:
Robert Edward Dyer was sentenced to 16 years' imprisonment for
conducting a six-month long letter bomb campaign against the British
supermarket chain Tesco.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesco_bomb_campaign>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
make shift:
(dated) To contrive; to invent a way of surmounting a difficulty.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/make_shift>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
A true friend is someone who is there for you when he'd rather
be anywhere else.
--Len Wein
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Len_Wein>