Keith Johnson (1894–1972) was an Australian cricket administrator. He was the manager of the Australian Services cricket team immediately after World War II, and of the Australian team that toured England in 1948. The Australian Services team played England in a series of celebratory matches known as the Victory Tests to usher in the post-war era. The series was highly successful, with unprecedented crowds raising large amounts for war charities, and Johnson's men toured British India and Australia before being demobilised. His administration was regarded as a major factor in the success of the tour. The 1948 Australian team earned the sobriquet The Invincibles by being the first side to complete a tour of England without losing a match. Johnson's management was again lauded. However, in 1951–52, the Australian Board of Control excluded Sid Barnes from the team for "reasons other than cricket". Barnes took the matter to court, and at trial, his lawyer embarrassed Johnson, who contradicted himself several times under cross-examination. Following the trial, Johnson resigned from the board and took no further part in cricket administration.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Johnson_(cricket_administrator)
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1065:
Westminster Abbey in London, built by Edward the Confessor between 1045 and 1050, was consecrated. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westminster_Abbey
1768:
Taksin the Great was crowned king of the newly established Thonburi Kingdom in the new capital at Thonburi, present-day Thailand. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taksin
1943:
Second World War: After eight days of brutal house-to-house fighting, the 1st Canadian Infantry Division captured the Italian town of Ortona. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ortona
1973:
U.S. President Richard Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act into law, a wide-ranging environmental law designed to protect critically imperiled species from extinction as a "consequence of economic growth and development untempered by adequate concern and conservation." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endangered_Species_Act
2011:
Acting on an information that PKK militants were crossing the border in Şırnak Province, two Turkish F-16 jets fired at a group of villagers, killing 34 people. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roboski_Massacre
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
brawn: Physical strength; muscularity. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/brawn
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
 A good poem is a tautology. It expands one word by adding a number which clarify it, thus making a new word which has never before been spoken. The seed-word is always so ordinary that hardly anyone perceives it. Classical odes grow from and or because, romantic lyrics from but or if. Immature verses expand a personal pronoun ad nauseam, the greatest works bring glory to a common verb. --Alasdair Gray https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alasdair_Gray