The Ashes is a biennial Test cricket contest played between England and Australia. The series is named after the trophy, which is a small wooden urn said to contain the burnt bails from an 1882 game at The Oval. Each Ashes series typically consists of five Test matches, and the series alternate between the two countries. In the cricketing world, the Ashes is regarded as one of the sport's most famous and fierce rivalries. Particularly notable Ashes series took place in 1932/33 (the Bodyline tour), 1948 (Sir Donald Bradman's "Invincibles" Australian side) and 1981 (in which an England team spearheaded by Ian Botham won a thrilling series).

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ashes

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1298: Edward I of England defeated William Wallace's Scottish rebels at the Battle of Falkirk. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Falkirk_%281298%29)

1831: In Brussels, Leopold I was inaugurated as the first King of the Belgians. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_I_of_Belgium)

1861: The First Battle of Bull Run, the first major battle in the American Civil War, began. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_Bull_Run)

1970: The Aswan High Dam in Egypt was completed after 11 years of construction. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aswan_Dam)

1995: The Chinese People's Liberation Army began firing missiles into the waters north of Taiwan, starting the Third Taiwan Strait Crisis. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Taiwan_Strait_Crisis)

_____________________ Wikiquote of the day:

"We've arranged a civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology. We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for awhile, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces." -- Carl Sagan (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan)