The Australian women's national wheelchair basketball team played in the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London. The wheelchair basketball team, known as the Gliders, included nine Paralympic veterans, Bridie Kean, Amanda Carter, Sarah Stewart, Tina McKenzie, Kylie Gauci, Katie Hill, Cobi Crispin, Clare Nott and Shelley Chaplin (pictured), along with three newcomers, Amber Merritt, Sarah Vinci and Leanne Del Toso. The team had won silver in Sydney and Athens, but never gold. The Gliders faced a formidable task just to make the finals, as their round-robin pool included Brazil, Great Britain, Canada and the Netherlands. After a narrow victory over Brazil, and an easier one against Great Britain, the Gliders were defeated by Canada, but won their final match against the Netherlands to finish at the top of their pool. They went on to win the quarterfinal against Mexico and the semifinal against the United States, but lost to Germany in the final, winning silver. Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia_women%27s_national_wheelchair_basketball_team_at_the_2012_Summer_Paralympics> _______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries: 1934: A referendum supported the recent merging of the posts of Chancellor and President of Germany, consolidating Adolf Hitler's assumption of supreme power. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1934_German_referendum> 1964: More than 17,000 fans saw the Beatles at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California, on the opening date of the group's first nationwide U.S. tour. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatlemania#First_visit_to_the_US_and_Ed_Sullivan_Show_performances> 2002: The single deadliest helicopter crash took place when a team of Chechen separatists brought down a Russian Mil Mi-26 with a man-portable air-defense system, resulting in 127 deaths. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Khankala_Mi-26_crash> 2017: Around 250,000 farmed non-native Atlantic salmon were accidentally released into the wild near Cypress Island, Washington. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cypress_Island_Atlantic_salmon_pen_break> _____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day: Palladian: 1. (Greek mythology, rare) Of or relating to Pallas, an epithet of Athena, the goddess of wisdom. 2. (by extension, rare) Of or relating to knowledge, study, or wisdom. [...] 3. (architecture) In the style of the Italian neoclassical architect Andrea Palladio. 4. (architecture) An architect who designs buildings in the Palladian style. 5. (architecture) A building or an architectural element (for example, a window) designed in the Palladian style. <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Palladian> ___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:   I am forced, as I have often said, to try to make myself laugh, that I may not cry: for one or other I must do.   --Samuel Richardson <https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Samuel_Richardson>