[Daily article] May 10: Zimbabwe women's national field hockey team at the 1980 Summer Olympics

The 1980 Zimbabwe women's national field hockey team won the gold medal at that year's Summer Olympics in Moscow in the Soviet Union. The 16 teammates, all from Zimbabwe's white minority, were assembled less than a month before the Olympics, after an American-led boycott reduced the number of teams competing. It was the first time the women's field hockey event had been held at the Olympics. After beating Poland and the Soviet Union and drawing with Czechoslovakia and India, the Zimbabweans secured the gold on the final day with a 4–1 victory over Austria. Their victory was considered a huge upset, particularly considering the short time the team had to prepare. Won at a time of great transition in Zimbabwe—as Rhodesia, the country had been barred from the previous three Olympics—the gold medal was the nation's first Olympic medal of any colour. The players were dubbed the "Golden Girls" by the Zimbabwean press and were briefly national celebrities. Zimbabwe did not win another Olympic medal until 2004.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbabwe_women%27s_national_field_hockey_team_at_the_1980_Summer_Olympics

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1503:

Christopher Columbus and his crew became the first Europeans to visit the Cayman Islands, naming them Las Tortugas after the numerous sea turtles there. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cayman_Islands

1837:

Banks in New York City suspended specie payments, triggering a seven-year recession in the United States. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1837

1857:

The Sepoy Mutiny against the company rule by the British East India Company began. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Rebellion_of_1857

1940:

British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain resigned and formally recommended Winston Churchill as his successor. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neville_Chamberlain

1994:

American serial killer John Wayne Gacy was executed by lethal injection for the murders of twelve teenage boys and young men in a series of killings committed between 1972 and 1978. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wayne_Gacy

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

cymotrichous: (anthropology) Having wavy hair. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cymotrichous

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.   --Abraham Lincoln https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln