The Olympic Games are considered to be the world's foremost sports competition and more than 200 nations participate. The Games are held biennially, with Summer and Winter Olympic Games alternating, so that each of these is held every four years. Originally, the ancient Olympic Games were held in Olympia, Greece, from the 8th century BC to the 4th century AD. Baron Pierre de Coubertin founded the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1894, which is still the governing body of the games. The 20th and 21st centuries have seen several changes to the games, such as the creation of the Winter Games for ice and winter sports, the Paralympic Games for athletes with a physical disability, and the Youth Olympic Games. The Olympics have shifted away from the pure amateurism envisioned by Coubertin to allow participation of professional athletes. The growing importance of the mass media has created issues around corporate sponsorship and commercialization of the Games. World Wars led to the cancellation of the 1916, 1940, and 1944 Games. Large boycotts during the Cold War limited participation in the 1980 and 1984 Games.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_Games
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
30 BC:
Cleopatra VII Philopator, the last ruler of the Egyptian Ptolemaic dynasty, committed suicide, allegedly by means of an asp bite. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleopatra_VII
1121:
Forces led by David the Builder decisively won the Battle of Didgori, driving Ilghazi and the Seljuk Turks out of Georgia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Didgori
1877:
American astronomer Asaph Hall discovered Deimos, the smaller of the two moons of Mars. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deimos_(moon)
1944:
After a week of indiscriminate killing of civilians in Wola, Warsaw, Poland, SS General Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski ordered that any remaining Poles be sent to labour or concentration camps. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wola_massacre
1950:
Korean War: Members of the North Korean People's Army executed 75 captured U.S. Army prisoners of war. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Gulch_massacre
1990:
American paleontologist Sue Hendrickson found the most complete skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus ever discovered near Faith, South Dakota, US. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sue_(dinosaur)
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
repechage: (sports) A heat (as in rowing or fencing) in which the best competitors who have lost in a previous round compete for a place or places yet left in the next round. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/repechage
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
The important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win, but to take part; the important thing in Life is not triumph, but the struggle; the essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well. To spread these principles is to build up a strong and more valiant and, above all, more scrupulous and more generous humanity. --Pierre de Coubertin https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pierre_de_Coubertin