Tom Simpson (1937–1967) was one of Britain's most successful
professional cyclists. He began his career track cycling, specializing
in pursuit races. In this discipline he won a bronze medal at the 1956
Summer Olympics and a silver at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth
Games. In 1959 Simpson moved to France and turned professional in road
racing. In the 1962 Tour de France he became the first British rider to
wear the yellow jersey. In 1965 he became Britain's first world road
race champion. He won three Monument classic races: the 1961 Tour of
Flanders, the 1964 Milan–San Remo and the 1965 Giro di Lombardia. At
the 1967 Tour de France, he collapsed and died during the ascent of Mont
Ventoux. He was 29 years old. The post-mortem examination found that he
had mixed amphetamines and alcohol. He was known to have taken
performance-enhancing drugs during his career, when no doping controls
existed. Despite this, he is held in high esteem by many cyclists for
his character and will to win.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Simpson>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
917:
Liu Yan declared himself emperor, establishing the Southern Han
state in southern China, at his capital of Panyu (present-day
Guangzhou).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liu_Yan_(emperor)>
1697:
War of the Grand Alliance: A French warship captured York
Factory, a trading post of the Hudson's Bay Company in present-day
Manitoba, Canada.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hudson%27s_Bay>
1914:
World War I: The First Battle of the Marne began with French
forces engaging the advancing German army at the Marne River near Paris.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_the_Marne>
1945:
Cold War: Soviet cipher clerk Igor Gouzenko defected to Canada
with over 100 documents on Soviet espionage activities and sleeper
agents.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igor_Gouzenko>
1975:
Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, a devotee of Charles Manson,
attempted to assassinate U.S. President Gerald Ford.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynette_Fromme>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
thebacon:
Dihydrocodeinone enol acetate, a semisynthetic opioid that is similar to
hydrocodone and manufactured from thebaine.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/thebacon>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Before we can build a stable civilization worthy of humanity as a
whole, it is necessary that each historical civilization should become
conscious of its limitations and it's unworthiness to become the ideal
civilization of the world.
--Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sarvepalli_Radhakrishnan>