The 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup was the third edition of the world
championship for national teams in women's association football. Hosted
by the United States, it took place from 19 June to 10 July 1999 at
eight venues across the country. The 1999 edition was the first to field
sixteen teams and an all-female roster of referees and match officials.
It was played primarily in large American football venues, with an
average attendance of 37,319 spectators per match and total attendance
of 1.194 million, a record that stood until 2015. The final, played at
the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, was attended by 90,185 people,
setting an international record for spectators at a women's sporting
event. The United States won the tournament by defeating China in a
penalty shootout after a scoreless draw. The tournament increased
interest in women's soccer in the United States, and led to the
establishment of a professional league.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_FIFA_Women%27s_World_Cup>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1798:
Outraged by the XYZ Affair, the United States rescinded its
treaties with France, resulting in the Quasi-War, an undeclared war
fought entirely at sea.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quasi-War>
1907:
Inspired by the Folies Bergère of Paris, American impresario
Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. staged the first of his Ziegfeld Follies.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florenz_Ziegfeld_Jr.>
1954:
After the culmination of the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état,
Carlos Castillo Armas was sworn in as President of Guatemala.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Castillo_Armas>
1991:
The signing of the Brioni Agreement brought an end to the Ten-
Day War between SFR Yugoslavia and Slovenia, although the Yugoslav Wars
continued for years to come.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brioni_Agreement>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
hebdomad:
1. (obsolete) A group of seven.
2. A period of seven days; a week.
3. (Gnosticism) A group of seven world-creating archons (supernatural
beings) often regarded as somewhat hostile; also, a term of address for
the Demiurge (“a being sometimes seen as the creator of evil”).
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hebdomad>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The next level in moral behavior higher than that exhibited by
the baboon is that in which duty and loyalty are shown toward a group of
your own kind too large for an individual to know all of them. We have a
name for that. It is called "patriotism." Behaving on a still higher
moral level were the astronauts who went to the Moon, for their actions
tend toward the survival of the entire race of mankind. The door they
opened leads to the hope that H. sapiens will survive indefinitely long,
even longer than this solid planet on which we stand tonight. As a
direct result of what they did, it is now possible that the human race
will never die. Many short-sighted fools think that going to the Moon
was just a stunt. But the astronauts knew the meaning of what they were
doing, as is shown by Neil Armstrong's first words in stepping down onto
the soil of Luna: "One small step for a man, one giant leap for
mankind."
--Robert A. Heinlein
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_A._Heinlein>