The 1998 FIFA World Cup final was the final match of the 32-team 1998 FIFA World Cup, played on 12 July at the Stade de France (pictured) in Paris, France, between defending champions Brazil and hosts France. Before the match, speculation surrounded the fitness of striker Ronaldo, who was at first left out of Brazil's starting line-up, only to be restored before kick-off. France took the lead shortly before the half- hour mark, when Zinedine Zidane outjumped Leonardo to connect with a header from an in-swinging corner from the right taken by Emmanuel Petit. Zidane scored again, with another header from a corner, shortly before half-time to give France a 2–0 lead. Petit then added a third goal in second-half injury time, striking the ball low into the net following a pass by Patrick Vieira, to complete a 3–0 win for France, giving them their first World Cup title. Zidane was named the man of the match, while Ronaldo was awarded the Golden Ball as FIFA's outstanding player of the tournament.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_FIFA_World_Cup_final
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1537:
The Honourable Artillery Company, now the oldest surviving regiment in the British Army, was granted a royal charter by Henry VIII. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honourable_Artillery_Company
1875:
Matthew Webb became the first person to swim across the English Channel, doing so in approximately 21 hours 40 minutes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Webb
2001:
American singer Aaliyah and several members of her record company were killed when their overloaded aircraft crashed shortly after taking off from Marsh Harbour Airport in the Bahamas. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_Marsh_Harbour_Cessna_402_crash
2012:
The NASA space probe Voyager 1 became the first man-made object to enter interstellar space. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_1
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
storm: 1. (impersonal, chiefly US) Preceded by the dummy subject it: to have strong winds and usually lightning and thunder, and/or hail, rain, or snow. 2. (transitive) 3. To make (someone or something) stormy; to agitate (someone or something) violently. 4. (figurative) 5. To disturb or trouble (someone). 6. To use (harsh language). 7. (chiefly military) To violently assault (a fortified position or stronghold, a building, etc.) with the aim of gaining control of it. 8. (figurative, often poetic) To assault or gain control or power over (someone's heart, mind, etc.). 9. (Britain, dialectal, agriculture) To protect (seed-hay) from stormy weather by putting sheaves of them into small stacks. 10. (intransitive) 11. Of the weather: to be violent, with strong winds and usually lightning and thunder, and/or hail, rain, or snow. 12. To be exposed to harsh (especially cold) weather. 13. (figurative) 14. To move noisily and quickly like a storm (noun sense 1), usually in a state of anger or uproar. 15. (by extension, chiefly military) To move quickly in the course of an assault on a fortified position or stronghold, a building, etc. 16. To be in a violent temper; to use harsh language; to fume, to rage. 17. Any disturbed state of the atmosphere causing destructive or unpleasant weather, especially one affecting the earth's surface involving strong winds (leading to high waves at sea) and usually lightning, thunder, and precipitation; a tempest. 18. (by extension) A heavy fall of precipitation (hail, rain, or snow) or bout of lightning and thunder without strong winds; a hail storm, rainstorm, snowstorm, or thunderstorm. 19. (by extension) Synonym of cyclone (“a weather phenomenon consisting of a system of winds rotating around a centre of low atmospheric pressure”) 20. (by extension, Canada, Scotland, US, dated) A period of frosty and/or snowy weather. 21. (meteorology) A disturbed state of the atmosphere between a severe or strong gale and a hurricane on the modern Beaufort scale, with a wind speed of between 89 and 102 kilometres per hour (55–63 miles per hour; 10 on the scale, known as a "storm" or whole gale), or of between 103 and 117 kilometres per hour (64–72 miles per hour; 11 on the scale, known as a "violent storm"). 22. (figurative) 23. A heavy expulsion or fall of things (as blows, objects which are thrown, etc.). 24. A violent agitation of human society; a domestic, civil, or political commotion. 25. A violent commotion or outbreak of sounds, speech, thoughts, etc.; also, an outpouring of emotion. 26. (pathology) Chiefly with a qualifying word: a violent attack of diease, pain, physiological reactions, symptoms, etc.; a paroxysm. 27. (Canada, US, chiefly in the plural) Ellipsis of storm window (“a second window (originally detachable) attached on the exterior side of a window in climates with harsh winters, to add an insulating layer of still air between the outside and inside”). https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/storm
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
The nature of man remains ever the same: in the ten thousandth year of the World he will be born with passions, as he was born with passions in the two thousandth, and ran through his course of follies to a late, imperfect, useless wisdom. We wander in a labyrinth, in which our lives occupy but a span; so that it is to us nearly a matter of indifference, whether there be any entrance or outlet to the intricate path. --Johann Gottfried Herder https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Johann_Gottfried_Herder