A cricket match on 11 and 12 February 1851, played by teams from Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) and Port Phillip District (now Victoria), was the first between two Australian colonies, recognised in later years as the initial first-class cricket match in Australia. It took place at the Launceston Racecourse (pictured in 2009). The match was one of the celebratory events marking the separation of the Port Phillip District from New South Wales in 1851 as the colony of Victoria. The team representing Port Phillip was drawn from the Melbourne Cricket Club; the Van Diemen's Land team consisted of players from Launceston and Hobart. The visiting Port Phillip team was expected to have an advantage but had difficulties with the batting conditions and the opposition's unusually slow bowling. Batting first, Port Phillip scored 82; Van Diemen's Land replied with 104, assisted by a large number of extras. Batting again, the Victorian team scored 57; the Tasmanian team needed 36 to win, which they accomplished on the second day to record a three-wicket victory. Following this match, intercolonial cricket became increasingly widespread.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Diemen%27s_Land_v_Port_Phillip,_1851

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

AD 55:

Britannicus, son of Claudius and heir to the Roman emperorship, died under mysterious circumstances in Rome, apparently poisoned at a dinner party. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britannicus

1826:

University College London (Main Building pictured) was founded as the first secular university in England. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_College_London

1938:

The BBC aired an adaptation of Karel Čapek's play R.U.R., the first science fiction television programme ever broadcast. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R.U.R.

1968:

After two black employees were killed on the job, black sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee, U.S., agreed to begin a strike that lasted over two months. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memphis_sanitation_strike

2008:

Rebel East Timorese soldiers invaded the homes of President José Ramos-Horta and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão, seriously wounding the former. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_East_Timorese_assassination_attempts

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

agonic: 1. (geometry) Lacking an angle. 2. (cartography, navigation) Having a magnetic deviation of zero. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/agonic

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Suppose Germany had developed two bombs before we had any bombs. And suppose Germany had dropped one bomb, say, on Rochester and the other on Buffalo, and then having run out of bombs she would have lost the war. Can anyone doubt that we would then have defined the dropping of atomic bombs on cities as a war crime, and that we would have sentenced the Germans who were guilty of this crime to death at Nuremberg and hanged them? But, again, don't misunderstand me. The only conclusion we can draw is that governments acting in a crisis are guided by questions of expediency, and moral considerations are given very little weight, and that America is no different from any other nation in this respect.   --Leó Szilárd https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Le%C3%B3_Szil%C3%A1rd