Bernard Bosanquet (1877–1936) was an English cricketer best known for inventing the googly, a delivery designed to deceive the batsman. He played first-class cricket for Middlesex County Cricket Club and appeared in seven Test matches for England as an all-rounder. While playing a tabletop game, Bosanquet devised a new technique for delivering a ball, later named the "googly", which he practised while attending Oriel College, Oxford. He first used it in cricket matches around 1900, but it was not until 1903, when he had a successful season as a bowler, that his new delivery began to attract attention. He was selected in 1903–04 to tour Australia with England and made his Test debut. Although his batting was unsuccessful, he performed well as a bowler and troubled all the opposing batsmen. His career with the ball peaked when he bowled England to victory in the first Test against Australia in 1905, but he remained an inconsistent performer. In subsequent years, he bowled infrequently and played little first-class cricket.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Bosanquet_(cricketer)

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1812:

War of 1812: British troops and Mohawk warriors repelled an American invasion from across the Niagara River at the Battle of Queenston Heights near Queenston, Ontario. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Queenston_Heights

1881:

Determined to bring about the revival of Hebrew as a spoken language as a way of unifying Jews, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda had what is believed to be the first modern conversation in Hebrew while living in Paris. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revival_of_the_Hebrew_language

1911:

Prince Arthur, a son of Queen Victoria, became the only Governor General of Canada of royal descent. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Arthur,_Duke_of_Connaught_and_Strathearn

1921:

The Soviet republics of Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia signed the Treaty of Kars with the Grand National Assembly of Turkey to establish the contemporary borders between Turkey and the South Caucasus states. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Kars

1958:

The first book featuring the English children's literature character Paddington Bear "from darkest Peru" was published. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paddington_Bear

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

purple prose: Extravagant or flowery writing, especially in a literary work. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/purple_prose

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

I write from instinct, from inexplicable sparkle. I don't know why I'm writing what I'm writing. Usually, I sit and I let my hands wander on my guitar. And I sing anything. I play anything. And I wait till I come across a pleasing accident. Then I start to develop it. Once you take a piece of musical information, there are certain implications that it automatically contains — the implication of that phrase elongated, contracted, or inverted or in another time signature. So you start with an impulse and go to what your ear likes. --Paul Simon https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Paul_Simon