Shergar (1978–1983) was an Irish-bred, British-trained Thoroughbred
racehorse. In 1981 Shergar ran in six races, winning five of them. In
June that year he won the 202nd Epsom Derby by ten lengths—the longest
winning margin in the race's history. Three weeks later he won the Irish
Sweeps Derby by four lengths; a month after that he won the King
George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes by four lengths. He was retired to
the Ballymany Stud in County Kildare, Ireland, but was stolen by an
armed gang in February 1983. In 1999 Sean O'Callaghan, a former member
of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, published details of the theft
and said it was an operation to raise money for arms. An investigation
by The Sunday Telegraph concluded that the horse was shot four days
after the theft. No arrests were made for the theft, and Shergar's body
was never recovered. In his honour the Shergar Cup was inaugurated in
1999.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shergar>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1812:
Napoleonic Wars: The French Grande Armée under Napoleon
crossed the Neman river, marking the start of their invasion of Russia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_invasion_of_Russia>
1880:
"O Canada" (audio featured), today the national anthem of
Canada, was first performed in Quebec City, during a Saint-Jean-Baptiste
Day banquet.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_Canada>
1939:
The first of the Thai cultural mandates was issued, officially
changing the country's name from Siam to Thailand.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_cultural_mandates>
1994:
A United States Air Force B-52 Stratofortress crashed at
Fairchild Air Force Base in Spokane County, Washington, killing all four
crew members, and later providing a case study on the importance of
compliance with safety regulations.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_Fairchild_Air_Force_Base_B-52_crash>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
adynaton:
(rhetoric) A form of hyperbole that uses exaggeration so magnified as to
express impossibility; an instance of such hyperbole.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/adynaton>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Idiot, n. A member of a large and powerful tribe whose influence in
human affairs has always been dominant and controlling. The Idiot's
activity is not confined to any special field of thought or action, but
"pervades and regulates the whole." He has the last word in everything;
his decision is unappealable. He sets the fashions and opinion of taste,
dictates the limitations of speech and circumscribes conduct with a
dead-line.
--Ambrose Bierce
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ambrose_Bierce>