Bill Brown (31 July 1912 – 16 March 2008) was an Australian cricketer. A right-handed opening batsman, he played 22 Tests between 1934 and 1948, captaining his country in one of them. His partnership with Jack Fingleton in the 1930s is regarded as one of the finest in Australian Test history. In the 1938 tour of England, Brown had 1,854 runs, including an unbeaten 206 that saved Australia from defeat in the second Test, and was honoured as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year. The outbreak of the Second World War cost Brown his peak years as a player, time that he spent in the Royal Australian Air Force. After the war, he was a member of Don Bradman's Invincibles, who toured England in 1948 without defeat. He performed reasonably well in the tour matches, but struggled while batting out of position in the middle order during the first two Tests, and was dropped from the Test team.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Brown_%28cricketer%29

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1777:

The Second Continental Congress passed a resolution allowing French nobleman the Marquis de Lafayette to enter the American revolutionary forces as a major general. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_du_Motier,_Marquis_de_Lafayette

1954:

A team of Italian climbers became the first to reach the summit of K2, the world's second-highest mountain. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K2

1975:

The Troubles: In a botched paramilitary attack, three members of the popular Miami Showband and two Ulster Volunteer Force gunmen were killed in County Down, Northern Ireland. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami_Showband_killings

1991:

Soviet Special Purpose Police Unit troops killed seven Lithuanian customs officials in Medininkai in the most serious attack of their campaign against Lithuanian border posts. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_OMON_assaults_on_Lithuanian_border_posts

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

adret: (geography) The sun-facing side of a mountain. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/adret

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

A country is considered the more civilised the more the wisdom and efficiency of its laws hinder a weak man from becoming too weak and a powerful one too powerful.   --Primo Levi https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Primo_Levi