Don Tallon (1916–1984) was an Australian cricketer who played 21 Test matches as a wicket-keeper between 1946 and 1953. He was widely regarded by his contemporaries as Australia's finest ever wicket-keeper and one of the best in Test history, with an understated style, an ability to anticipate the flight, length and spin of the ball and an efficient stumping technique. Tallon toured England as part of Don Bradman's Invincibles of 1948 and was recognised as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1949 for his performances during that season. During his Test career, Tallon made 58 dismissals comprising 50 catches and 8 stumpings. His early cricket was played in Bundaberg where he was selected to represent Queensland Country against the England cricket team during the infamous Bodyline tour. Following the Second World War and the retirement or unavailability of other candidates, he was finally given an opportunity to play Test cricket, making his debut against New Zealand in 1946 aged 30. Following the Invincibles tour, poor health dogged Tallon, causing him to miss the 1949–50 tour of South Africa. He retired from first-class cricket in 1953 and returned to Bundaberg, assisting his brother in running a corner store. He died in Bundaberg aged 68.

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_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1774:

British scientist Joseph Priestley discovered oxygen gas, corroborating the prior discovery of this element by German-Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/oxygen

1834:

Slavery was officially abolished in the majority of the British Empire as the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 came into force. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_Abolition_Act_1833

1927:

In the Nanchang Uprising, the first major engagement in the Chinese Civil War, Communist forces seized control over the entire city of Nanchang from the Kuomintang. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanchang_Uprising

1944:

World War II: The Polish Home Army began the Warsaw Uprising in Warsaw against the Nazi occupation of Poland, a rebellion that lasted 63 days until it was quelled by the Germans. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Uprising

1981:

The American cable television network MTV made its debut with the music video for the song "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MTV

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

sphericon (n): (geometry) A solid constructed by slicing a 90-degree bicone through a plane containing both apices, rotating one half by 90 degrees, and reconnecting the two halves http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sphericon

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks. But in each event — in the living act, the undoubted deed — there, some unknown but still reasoning thing puts forth the mouldings of its features from behind the unreasoning mask. --Herman Melville http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Herman_Melville