Avery Brundage (1887–1975) was the fifth president of the
International Olympic Committee (IOC), serving from 1952 to 1972.
Brundage attended the University of Illinois to study engineering and
became a track star. In 1912, he competed in the Summer Olympics,
contesting the pentathlon and decathlon; both events were won by Jim
Thorpe. Following his retirement from athletics, Brundage became a
sports administrator, rising rapidly through the ranks in United States
sports groups. As leader of America's Olympic organizations, he fought
zealously against a boycott of the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Nazi
Germany. Although Brundage was successful in getting a team to the
Games, its participation was controversial, and has remained so.
Brundage was elected to the IOC that year, and quickly became a major
figure in the Olympic movement. Elected IOC president in 1952, Brundage
fought strongly for amateurism and against commercialization of the
Olympic Games. His final Olympics as president, at Munich in 1972, was
marked by controversy: at the memorial service following the murder of
11 Israeli athletes by terrorists, Brundage decried the politicization
of sports, and refusing to cancel the remainder of the Olympics,
declared "the Games must go on".
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avery_Brundage>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1781:
American Revolutionary War: General Benedict Arnold led British
forces to victory in the Battle of Groton Heights.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Groton_Heights>
1930:
Argentine President Hipólito Yrigoyen was deposed in a
military coup by José Félix Uriburu.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hip%C3%B3lito_Yrigoyen>
1946:
United States Secretary of State James F. Byrnes announced that
with regard to postwar Germany, the U.S. would from thereon follow a
policy of economic reconstruction.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restatement_of_Policy_on_Germany>
1952:
A prototype aircraft crashed at the Farnborough Airshow in
Hampshire, England, killing 29 spectators and the two on board.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1952_Farnborough_Airshow_DH.110_crash>
1966:
South African Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd, the "architect
of apartheid", was stabbed to death by Dimitri Tsafendas.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hendrik_Verwoerd>
2000:
The Millennium Summit, a meeting of world leaders to discuss
the role of the United Nations at the turn of the 21st century, opened
in New York City.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Summit>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
munificent:
Very liberal in giving or bestowing; lavish; as a munificent benefactor.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/munificent>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
There is no contradiction. There never really can be between the core
terms of monistic philosophies. The One in India has got to be the same
as the One in Greece. If it's not, you've got two. The only
disagreements among the monists concern the attributes of the One, not
the One itself. Since the One is the source of all things and includes
all things in it, it cannot be defined in terms of those things, since
no matter what thing you use to define it, the thing will always
describe something less than the One itself. The One can only be
described allegorically, through the use of analogy, of figures of
imagination and speech.
--Robert M. Pirsig
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_M._Pirsig>