Michael Jordan is a retired American professional basketball player. Widely considered one of the greatest basketball players of all time, he became one of the most effectively marketed athletes of his generation and was instrumental in popularizing the NBA (National Basketball Association) around the world in the 1980s and 1990s. Jordan joined the NBA's Chicago Bulls in 1984 and quickly emerged as one of the stars of the league. His leaping ability, illustrated by performing slam dunks from the foul line at Slam Dunk Contests, earned him the nicknames "Air Jordan" and "His Airness." Jordan's individual accolades and accomplishments include five NBA MVP (Most Valuable Player) awards, ten All-NBA First Team designations, nine All-Defensive First Team honors, fourteen NBA All-Star Game appearances and three All-Star MVPs, ten scoring titles, three steals titles, six NBA Finals MVP awards, and the 1988 NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award. He holds the NBA record for highest career regular season scoring average with 30.1 points per game, as well as averaging a record 33.4 points per game in the playoffs. In 1999, he was named the greatest North American athlete of the 20th century by ESPN, and was second to Babe Ruth on the Associated Press's list of athletes of the century.

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_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1002: St. Brice's Day massacre: King Ethelred II ordered the massacre of all Danes in England. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethelred_the_Unready)

1642: First English Civil War: The Royalist army engaged the much larger Parliamentarian army at the Battle of Turnham Green near Turnham Green, Middlesex. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Turnham_Green)

1954: Great Britain defeated France at the Parc des Princes in Paris to win the first Rugby League World Cup. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rugby_League_World_Cup)

1970: The Bhola tropical cyclone hit the densely populated Ganges Delta in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), killing an estimated 500,000 people. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970_Bhola_cyclone)

1982: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Constitution Gardens in Washington, D.C. was dedicated. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_Veterans_Memorial)

1985: The volcano Nevado del Ruiz erupted, causing a volcanic mudslide that buried Armero, Colombia and killed approximately 23,000 people. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevado_del_Ruiz)

2000: Joseph Estrada became the first President of the Philippines to be impeached after he was accused of taking a sum of 400 million pesos in bribes from illegal gambling sources. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Estrada)

_____________________ Wiktionary's Word of the day:

deleterious: Harmful or hurtful to physical, mental, or moral health. (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/deleterious)