Hobey Baker (1892–1918) was an American amateur athlete of the early twentieth century, widely regarded by his contemporaries as one of the best athletes of his time. He excelled at ice hockey and football at Princeton University, where he was a member of three national championship teams, and became a noted amateur hockey player for the St. Nicholas Club in New York City, helping the club win a national amateur championship. Baker graduated in 1914 and worked for J.P. Morgan Bank until he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Service. During World War I he served with the 103rd and 13th Aero Squadrons before being promoted to captain and named commander of the 141st Aero Squadron. Baker died in December 1918 after a plane he was test-piloting crashed, hours before he was due to return to America. In 1921, Princeton named its new hockey arena the Hobey Baker Memorial Rink. He was one of the first nine inductees in the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1945 and was also inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1975, making him the only person to be in both Halls of Fame. The Hobey Baker Award is presented annually to the best collegiate hockey player in the United States.

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

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1777:

The Republic of New Connecticut declared its independence from several jurisdictions and land claims of the British colonies of New Hampshire and New York. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermont_Republic

1885:

American photographer Wilson Bentley took the first known photograph of a snowflake (example pictured) by attaching a bellows camera to a microscope. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilson_Bentley

1937:

Spanish Civil War: Nationalists and Republican forces both withdrew after suffering heavy losses, ending the Second Battle of the Corunna Road. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_the_Corunna_Road

1975:

Portugal signed the Alvor Agreement with UNITA, the MPLA, and the FNLA, ending the Angolan War of Independence. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angolan_War_of_Independence

1981:

Hill Street Blues, one of American television's most critically acclaimed shows, aired its pilot episode, "Hill Street Station". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hill_Street_Station

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

floccinaucinihilipilificate: (colloquial) To describe or regard something as worthless. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/floccinaucinihilipilificate

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Of what consequence to you, reader, is my obscure individuality? I live, like you, in a century in which reason submits only to fact and to evidence. My name, like yours, is truth-seeker. My mission is written in these words of the law: Speak without hatred and without fear; tell that which thou knowest.   --Pierre-Joseph Proudhon https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pierre-Joseph_Proudhon