The Australian cricketer Neil Harvey toured England in 1948 as a member
of "The Invincibles" – so-called as they were undefeated in their
34 tour matches, an unprecedented feat. Aged 19, Harvey (pictured in
1953) was the youngest player of the touring party. An attacking left-
handed middle-order batsman who was the youngest Australian to score a
Test century, he struggled early in the tour. After being omitted from
the first-choice team in the first half of the tour, Harvey's
performances improved with his increasing familiarity with local
conditions and he was called into the team for the Fourth Test at
Headingley. Harvey scored 112 in a first innings counter-attack to keep
Australia in contention, and hit the winning runs in the second innings.
He retained his place for the Fifth Test, ending the series with 133
runs at a batting average of 66.50. Overall, Harvey was sixth on the
tour team's run-scoring aggregates and seventh in the batting averages.
Harvey was an acrobatic fielder, regarded as the best in the Australian
team, and took several acclaimed catches throughout the tour. He took 17
catches for the tour and claimed a solitary wicket with his occasional
off spin.
Read more:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Harvey_with_the_Australian_cricket_team_in_England_in_1948>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
708:
Pope Constantine was selected as one of the last popes of the
Byzantine Papacy; he would be the last pope to visit Constantinople
until Pope Paul VI in 1967.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Constantine>
1410:
The Yongle Emperor launched the first of his military campaigns
against the Mongols, resulting in the fall of the Mongol khan
Bunyashiri.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yongle_Emperor%27s_campaigns_against_the_Mongols>
1911:
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City killed
more than 140 sweatshop workers, many of whom could not escape because
the doors to the stairwells and exits had been locked.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_fire>
1931:
The Scottsboro Boys were arrested and charged with rape,
leading to a legal case that eventually established legal principles in
the United States that criminal defendants are entitled to effective
assistance of counsel.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottsboro_Boys>
1949:
The Soviet Union began mass deportations of over 90,000 people
from the Baltic states to Siberia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Priboi>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
in a pig's eye:
(idiomatic) Very unlikely; probably never.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/in_a_pig%27s_eye>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
All social phenomena are the result of a series of various
causes, in most cases so inwardly related that it is quite impossible
clearly to separate one from the other. We are always dealing with the
interplay of various causes which, as a rule, can be clearly recognised
but cannot be calculated according to scientific methods.
--Rudolf Rocker
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Rudolf_Rocker>