The Ashes is a biennial Test cricket contest played between England
and Australia. The series is named after the trophy, which is a small
wooden urn said to contain the burnt bails from an 1882 game at The
Oval. Each Ashes series typically consists of five Test matches, and
the series alternate between the two countries. In the cricketing
world, the Ashes is regarded as one of the sport's most famous and
fierce rivalries. Particularly notable Ashes series took place in
1932/33 (the Bodyline tour), 1948 (Sir Donald Bradman's "Invincibles"
Australian side) and 1981 (in which an England team spearheaded by Ian
Botham won a thrilling series).
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ashes
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1298:
Edward I of England defeated William Wallace's Scottish rebels at
the Battle of Falkirk.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Falkirk_%281298%29)
1831:
In Brussels, Leopold I was inaugurated as the first King of the
Belgians.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_I_of_Belgium)
1861:
The First Battle of Bull Run, the first major battle in the American
Civil War, began.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_Bull_Run)
1970:
The Aswan High Dam in Egypt was completed after 11 years of
construction.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aswan_Dam)
1995:
The Chinese People's Liberation Army began firing missiles into the
waters north of Taiwan, starting the Third Taiwan Strait Crisis.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Taiwan_Strait_Crisis)
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Wikiquote of the day:
"We've arranged a civilization in which most crucial elements
profoundly depend on science and technology. We have also arranged
things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This
is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for awhile,
but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is
going to blow up in our faces." -- Carl Sagan
(
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan)