110px|Rudolf Caracciola (left) and his riding mechanic Eugen Salzer
celebrate after winning the first German Grand Prix in 1926.
Rudolf Caracciola (1901–1959) was a German racing driver who won the
European Drivers' Championship (the pre-1950 equivalent of the modern
Formula One World Championship) an unsurpassed three times, and the
European Hillclimbing Championship three times. Caracciola raced for
Mercedes-Benz during their original dominating Silver Arrows period,
and set speed records for the firm. In 1933, he established the
privateer team Scuderia C.C. with Louis Chiron, but a crash in practice
for the Monaco Grand Prix left him with multiple fractures of his right
thigh, which prevented him from racing for more than a year. He
returned to the newly reformed Mercedes-Benz racing team in 1934, with
whom he won three European Championships, in 1935, 1937 and 1938. Like
most German racing drivers in the 1930s, Caracciola was a member of the
Nazi paramilitary group NSKK, but never a member of the Nazi Party. He
returned to racing after the Second World War, but crashed in
qualifying for the 1946 Indianapolis 500. A second comeback in 1952 was
halted by another crash, in a race in Switzerland. After he retired
Caracciola worked as a Mercedes-Benz salesman targeting NATO troops
stationed in Europe. He is remembered as one of the greatest pre-1939
Grand Prix drivers, a perfectionist who excelled in all conditions.
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1580:
The Golden Hind sailed into Plymouth, England, as explorer Francis
Drake completed his circumnavigation of the globe.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Hind>
1687:
The Parthenon in Athens was partially destroyed during an armed
conflict between the Venetians under Francesco Morosini and Ottoman
forces.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthenon>
1957:
West Side Story, a musical written by Arthur Laurents, Leonard
Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim and based loosely on Shakespeare's Romeo
and Juliet, made its debut on Broadway.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Side_Story>
1983:
The racing yacht Australia II, captained by John Bertrand, won the
America's Cup, ending the New York Yacht Club's 132-year defense of the
trophy.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia_II>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
exanimate (adj):
1. Lifeless, not or no longer living.
2. Spiritless, dispirited
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/exanimate>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement.
And do not call it fixity,
Where past and future are gathered.
Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.
I can only say, there we have been: but I cannot say where
And I
cannot say, how long, for that is to place it in time.
--T. S. Eliot
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/T._S._Eliot>