The D'Oliveira affair was a controversy over the inclusion of Basil D'Oliveira, a mixed-race cricketer of South African origin, in the England cricket team selected to tour apartheid-era South Africa in 1968–69. D'Oliveira had moved to England primarily because apartheid restricted his cricketing career; he played Test cricket for England from 1966. The English cricketing authorities wished to maintain traditional links with South Africa and have the tour go ahead without incident; the South Africans publicly indicated that D'Oliveira could play, but secretly worked to prevent this. D'Oliveira's omission from the tour party, ostensibly on cricketing merit, prompted a public outcry in Britain; when he was then chosen to replace an injured player, the South Africans alleged political motivations behind England's team selection. Following abortive attempts at compromise, the English cancelled the tour before it began. Sporting boycotts of South Africa were already under way but this controversy was the first to have a serious impact on South African cricket. South Africa was almost totally isolated from international cricket from 1971 to 1991.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%27Oliveira_affair

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1329:

Pope John XXII issued a papal bull that some of the works of German theologian and mystic Meister Eckhart were heretical. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meister_Eckhart

1782:

Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, a leading British Whig Party statesman, began his second non-consecutive term as Prime Minister of Great Britain. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Watson-Wentworth,_2nd_Marquess_of_Rockingham

1915:

Typhoid Mary (pictured), the first person to be identified as an asymptomatic carrier of typhoid fever, was placed into quarantine, where she spent the rest of her life. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoid_Mary

1945:

World War II: The United States Army Air Forces began Operation Starvation, laying naval mines in many of Japan's vital water routes and ports to disrupt shipping. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Starvation

1975:

Construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, an oil pipeline spanning the length of Alaska, began. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Construction_of_the_Trans-Alaska_Pipeline_System

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

fan death: The urban legend originating in South Korea that if an electric fan is left running overnight in a closed room it can cause the death of those inside. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fan_death

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

I did not think; I investigated. … It seemed at first a new kind of invisible light. It was clearly something new, something unrecorded.   --Wilhelm Röntgen https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wilhelm_R%C3%B6ntgen