Arthur Gilligan (23 December 1894 – 5 September 1976) was an English
first-class cricketer who captained the England cricket team nine times
in 1924 and 1925, winning four Test matches, losing four and drawing
one. In first-class cricket, he played mainly for Cambridge University
and Sussex, and captained the latter team between 1922 and 1929. A fast
bowler and hard-hitting lower order batsman, Gilligan completed the
double in 1923 and was one of Wisden's Cricketers of the Year for 1924.
As a captain, Gilligan was well-liked by players and commentators,
although many did not believe he was an effective tactician. During his
playing days, Gilligan was a member of the British Fascists, and it is
possible he helped to establish small fascist groups in Australia when
he captained the England team there during the 1924–25 tour. As the
Marylebone Cricket Club president during England's 1968–69 tour of
South Africa, he played a part in the D'Oliveira affair.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Gilligan>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1783:
George Washington resigned as commander-in-chief of the
Continental Army at the Maryland State House in Annapolis (painting
shown).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington%27s_resignation_as_commander-in-chief>
1919:
The Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act was enacted, lifting
most of the existing common-law restrictions on women in the United
Kingdom.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_Disqualification_%28Removal%29_Act_1919>
1984:
An engine fire caused Aeroflot Flight 3519 to crash shortly
after takeoff from Krasnoyarsk, USSR, killing all but one of the 111
people on board.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeroflot_Flight_3519>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
run someone ragged:
(originally US, idiomatic) To exhaust; to demand excessive effort or
work from somebody.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/run_someone_ragged>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Laws, wisely administered, will secure men in the enjoyment of
the fruits of their labour, whether of mind or body, at a comparatively
small personal sacrifice; but no laws, however stringent, can make the
idle industrious, the thriftless provident, or the drunken sober. Such
reforms can only be effected by means of individual action, economy, and
self-denial; by better habits, rather than by greater rights. The
Government of a nation itself is usually found to be but the reflex of
the individuals composing it. The Government that is ahead of the people
will inevitably be dragged down to their level, as the Government that
is behind them will in the long run be dragged up. In the order of
nature, the collective character of a nation will as surely find its
befitting results in its law and government, as water finds its own
level. The noble people will be nobly ruled, and the ignorant and
corrupt ignobly. Indeed all experience serves to prove that the worth
and strength of a State depend far less upon the form of its
institutions than upon the character of its men. For the nation is only
an aggregate of individual conditions, and civilization itself is but a
question of the personal improvement of the men, women, and children of
whom society is composed.
--Samuel Smiles
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Samuel_Smiles>