Thomas A. Spragens (1917–2006) was an American administrator who was the 17th president of Centre College in Danville, Kentucky. A graduate of the University of Kentucky, Spragens worked for the state and federal government early in his career before joining the staff at Stanford University as a presidential advisor. He was the president of Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri, for a five-year term, and left Stephens for Centre in 1957. He was an effective fundraiser and was instrumental in the school's integration; Centre admitted its first black student in 1962 and hired its first black faculty member in 1971. While in office, he helped to facilitate the founding of what is now the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference, and he attended the 1968 Democratic National Convention as a delegate to support Senator Eugene McCarthy. He resigned in 1981, at which point Centre's enrollment and faculty numbers had both nearly doubled and its endowment had grown.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_A._Spragens

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1644:

First English Civil War: The combined forces of Scottish Covenanters and English Parliamentarians defeated Royalist troops at the Battle of Marston Moor. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Marston_Moor

1941:

A German SS unit arrived in Vilnius, Lithuania, and began the systematic execution of up to 100,000 people over the next three years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponary_massacre

2008:

Israeli–Palestinian conflict: An Arab man rammed a loader into traffic in Jerusalem, killing three people and injuring 40 others (damage pictured). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Jerusalem_bulldozer_attack

2013:

The International Astronomical Union announced that the fourth and fifth moons of Pluto to be discovered would be named Kerberos and Styx, respectively. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Styx_%28moon%29

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

look as if one has been dragged through a hedge backwards: (intransitive, Britain, simile, humorous, informal) To look extremely disheveled. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/look_as_if_one_has_been_dragged_through_a_hedge_backwards

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn't part of ourselves doesn't disturb us.   --Hermann Hesse https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hermann_Hesse