The history of Stoke City F.C., an English association football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, covers the years from the club's formation to the present day. The Stoke Ramblers were formed in 1863, playing their first documented match on 17 October 1868 at the Victoria Cricket Club ground. In 1878 the club moved to the Victoria Ground, its home for the next 119 years, and merged with Stoke Victoria Cricket Club to become Stoke Football Club. The club joined the Football League upon its formation in 1888, making it the second oldest club in the Football League. The club moved in 1997 to the Britannia Stadium, a 28,383 all-seater stadium; the Victoria Ground was demolished later that year. In the 2007–08 season, Stoke won promotion from the Football League Championship, the second tier of English football, and as of 2008-2009 are playing in the top flight (currently English Premier League) for the first time since 1985, when they were relegated with just 17 points, a record low unsurpassed for 21 years. Stoke's only major trophy was the 1972 League Cup, won by beating Chelsea 2–1 in the final before a crowd of 97,852.
Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Stoke_City_F.C.
________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
456:
Magister militum Ricimer defeated Emperor Avitus at Piacenza and became master of the Western Roman Empire. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricimer)
1813:
The Sixth Coalition attacked Napoleon and the First French Empire in the Battle of Leipzig, the largest conflict in the Napoleonic Wars with over 500,000 troops involved. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Leipzig)
1843:
William Rowan Hamilton first wrote down the fundamental formula for quaternions, carving the equation into the side of Broom Bridge in Cabra, Dublin, Ireland. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quaternion)
1940:
World War II: Nazi Governor-General Hans Frank established the Warsaw Ghetto, the largest Jewish ghetto in occupied Poland. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Ghetto)
1978:
Karol Józef Wojtyła, a cardinal from Kraków, Poland, became Pope John Paul II, the first non-Italian pope since the 16th century and the first ever from a Slavic country. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_John_Paul_II)
________________________ Wiktionary's Word of the day:
accrete: (v) To grow together, combine. (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/accrete)
_________________ Wikiquote of the day:
A nuclear war does not defend a country and it does not defend a system. I've put it the same way many times; not even the most accomplished ideologue will be able to tell the difference between the ashes of capitalism and the ashes of communism. --John Kenneth Galbraith (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Kenneth_Galbraith)