Hedley Verity (1905–43) was a professional cricketer who played for Yorkshire and England between 1930 and 1939. He was named as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1932 and is regarded by critics as one of the most effective slow left-arm bowlers to have played cricket. In 1932, he took all 10 wickets in an innings against Nottinghamshire while conceding just 10 runs. These bowling figures remain, as of 2013, a record in first-class cricket for the fewest runs conceded while taking all 10 wickets. Verity was never lower than fifth in the national bowling averages and took over 150 wickets in every year except his first, assisting Yorkshire to the County Championship seven times in his ten seasons with the club. He played regularly for England and achieved the best performance of his career when he took 15 wickets against Australia in a Test match at Lord's Cricket Ground in 1934. The outbreak of the Second World War ended his career and he joined the Green Howards in 1939, achieving the rank of captain. During the Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943, Verity was severely wounded and captured by the Germans. Taken to Italy, he died in Caserta from his injuries and was buried there.

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

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1703:

English writer Daniel Defoe was placed in a pillory for seditious libel after publishing a pamphlet politically satirising the High Church Tories. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Defoe

1917:

First World War: The Battle of Passchendaele began near Ypres in West Flanders, Belgium, with the Allied Powers aiming to force German troops to withdraw from the Channel Ports. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Passchendaele

1941:

The Holocaust: Under instructions from Adolf Hitler, Hermann Göring ordered SS General Reinhard Heydrich to handle "the final solution of the Jewish question". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Solution

1975:

The Troubles: In a botched paramilitary attack, three members of the popular Miami Showband and two Ulster Volunteer Force gunmen were killed in County Down, Northern Ireland. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami_Showband_killings

1991:

Soviet Special Purpose Police Unit troops killed seven Lithuanian customs officials in Medininkai in the most serious attack of their campaign against Lithuanian border posts. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_OMON_assaults_on_Lithuanian_border_posts

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

coppice: A grove of small growth; a thicket of brushwood; a wood cut at certain times for fuel or other purposes, typically managed to promote growth and ensure a reliable supply of timber. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/coppice

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

The free man will ask neither what his country can do for him nor what he can do for his country. He will ask rather "What can I and my compatriots do through government" to help us discharge our individual responsibilities, to achieve our several goals and purposes, and above all, to protect our freedom? And he will accompany this question with another: How can we keep the government we create from becoming a Frankenstein that will destroy the very freedom we establish it to protect? Freedom is a rare and delicate plant. Our minds tell us, and history confirms, that the great threat to freedom is the concentration of power. Government is necessary to preserve our freedom, it is an instrument through which we can exercise our freedom; yet by concentrating power in political hands, it is also a threat to freedom. Even though the men who wield this power initially be of good will and even though they be not corrupted by the power they exercise, the power will both attract and form men of a different stamp.   --Milton Friedman https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Milton_Friedman