Maurice Richard (1921–2000) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. He played 18 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Montreal Canadiens between 1942 and 1960. A prolific scorer, he was the first player in NHL history to score 50 goals in one season and the first to reach 500 career goals. An eight-time Stanley Cup champion, he won the Hart Trophy as most valuable player in 1947 and played in 13 consecutive All-Star Games. Richard was a cultural icon for Quebec's Francophone population, as recounted in the short story The Hockey Sweater, which elevated him to a pan-Canadian hero. His 1955 suspension for striking an official precipitated the Richard Riot; some historians consider the incident a violent manifestation of Francophone Quebec's dissatisfaction over its place within Canada and a precursor to the Quiet Revolution. Richard was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1961 and was named to the Order of Canada in 1967. The Canadiens retired his jersey number, 9, in 1960, and in 1998 donated the Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy to the NHL, awarded annually to the league's regular season leading goal-scorer.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Richard

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1783:

A cataclysmic eruption of Mount Asama, the most active volcano in Japan, killed roughly 1,400 people and exacerbated a famine, resulting in another 20,000 deaths. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Asama

1914:

First World War: Adhering to the terms in the 1839 Treaty of London, the United Kingdom declared war on Germany in response to the latter's invasion of Belgium. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_London_(1839)

1964:

A second US Navy destroyer was reportedly attacked by North Vietnamese forces in the Gulf of Tonkin, leading Congress to authorize the use of military force in Southeast Asia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_of_Tonkin_incident

1983:

A coup d'état organised by Blaise Compaoré and supported by Libya made Thomas Sankara President of the Republic of Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Sankara

2006:

Sri Lankan Civil War: Seventeen employees of the French INGO ACF International were massacred in Muttur. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Trincomalee_massacre_of_NGO_workers

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

periplus: 1. A circumnavigation; a sea voyage around a coastline. 2. A record of such a voyage. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/periplus

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

America has changed over the years. But these values that my grandparents taught me — they haven’t gone anywhere. They’re as strong as ever, still cherished by people of every party, every race, every faith. They live on in each of us. What makes us American, what makes us patriots is what’s in here. That’s what matters. … And that’s why we can take the food and music and holidays and styles of other countries, and blend it into something uniquely our own. That’s why we can attract strivers and entrepreneurs from around the globe to build new factories and create new industries here. That’s why our military can look the way it does — every shade of humanity, forged into common service. That’s why anyone who threatens our values, whether fascists or communists or jihadists or homegrown demagogues, will always fail in the end. That is America. That is America. Those bonds of affection; that common creed. We don’t fear the future; we shape it. We embrace it, as one people, stronger together than we are on our own.   --Barack Obama https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Barack_Obama