The 1930 FIFA World Cup was the inaugural world championship for
international association football teams – the FIFA World Cup. It was
played in Uruguay from 13 July to 30 July. Fédération Internationale de
Football Association (FIFA) selected Uruguay as host nation as the
country would be celebrating the centenary of its independence, and the
Uruguay national football team had successfully retained their football
title at the 1928 Summer Olympics. All matches were played in the
Uruguayan capital, Montevideo, the majority at the Estadio Centenario,
which was built for the tournament. Thirteen teams, seven from South
America, four from Europe and two from North America entered the
tournament. The teams were divided into four groups, with the winner of
each group progressing to the semi-finals. Lucien Laurent of France
scored the first goal in World Cup history. Argentina, Uruguay, the US
and Yugoslavia each won their respective groups to qualify for the
semi-finals. In the final, hosts and pre-tournament favourites Uruguay
defeated Argentina 4–2 in front of a crowd of 93,000 people, and became
the first nation to win a World Cup.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1930_FIFA_World_Cup>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1789:
French Revolution: Jacques Necker was dismissed as Director-General of
Finances of France, sparking public demonstrations in Paris that led to
the Storming of the Bastille three days later.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Necker>
1921:
The Irish War of Independence ended with a truce between the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the Irish Republican Army,
resulting in negotiations that eventually led to the Anglo-Irish Treaty
and the establishment of the Irish Free State.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_War_of_Independence>
1960:
American author Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird, featuring
themes of racial injustice and the destruction of innocence in the
American Deep South, was first published.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Kill_a_Mockingbird>
1995:
Bosnian Genocide: Bosnian Serb forces began the Srebrenica massacre in
the region of Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, eventually killing an
estimated total of 8,000 Bosniaks.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srebrenica_massacre>
2006:
A series of seven bombs exploded over a period of 11 minutes on the
Suburban Railway in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, killing 209 people and
injuring over 700 others.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/11_July_2006_Mumbai_train_bombings>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
profligate (adj):
1. Inclined to waste resources or behave extravagantly.
2. Immoral; abandoned to vice
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/profligate>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
I can never join with my voice in the toast which I see in the papers
attributed to one of our gallant naval heroes. I cannot ask of heaven
success, even for my country, in a cause where she should be in the
wrong. Fiat justitia, pereat coelum. My toast would be, may our country
always be successful, but whether successful or otherwise, always
right.
--John Quincy Adams
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Quincy_Adams>