The 1988 Giro d'Italia was the 71st running of this annual race in
cycling's Grand Tour. It started in Urbino on 23 May with a 9 km
(5.6 mi) individual time trial, and concluded in Vittorio Veneto on 12
June. A total of 180 riders from 20 teams entered the 21-stage race,
which was won by Andrew Hampsten of the United States, with Erik
Breukink of the Netherlands finishing second and Urs Zimmermann of
Switzerland third. It was the third time – and second successive year
– in the history of the Giro with no Italian riders in the top three
finishers. In the first half of the race, the overall classification was
headed for several days by Massimo Podenzana, who participated in a
breakaway during stage 4a and held the race leader's jersey for more
than a week. The 14th stage of the race was conducted in adverse
weather, including a snowstorm. Hampsten became the first American, and
non-European, to win the Giro. Johan van der Velde was the winner of the
points classification, and Carrera Jeans–Vagabond won the team
classification.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1988_Giro_d%27Italia>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1555:
Giovanni Pietro Carafa became Pope Paul IV and had a short, but
tumultuous papacy, during which the Papal States suffered a serious
military defeat.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Paul_IV>
1706:
War of the Spanish Succession: Led by the Duke of Marlborough,
the allied forces of England, the Dutch Republic, and Denmark–Norway
defeated the Franco-Spanish-Bavarian army in Ramillies, present-day
Belgium.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ramillies>
1873:
The North-West Mounted Police, the forerunner of the Royal
Canadian Mounted Police, was established to bring law and order to, and
assert Canadian sovereignty over, the Northwest Territories.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North-West_Mounted_Police>
1951:
Delegates of the 14th Dalai Lama and the government of the
newly established People's Republic of China signed the Seventeen Point
Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet, affirming Chinese
sovereignty over Tibet.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seventeen_Point_Agreement_for_the_Peaceful_Liberation_of_Tibet>
2013:
An oversize load struck several support beams on the bridge
carrying Interstate 5 over the Skagit River in the U.S. state of
Washington, leading to its immediate collapse (pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-5_Skagit_River_Bridge_collapse>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
veisalgia:
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/veisalgia>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Every relation, every gradation of nature is incalculably
precious, but only to the soul which is poised upon itself, and to whom
no loss, no change, can bring dull discord, for it is in harmony with
the central soul.
--Margaret Fuller
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Margaret_Fuller>