The Boat Races 2017 took place on 2 April. Held annually, the Boat Race
is a side-by-side rowing race between crews from the universities of
Oxford and Cambridge along a 4.2-mile (6.8 km) tidal stretch of the
River Thames in south-west London. For the second time in the history of
the event, the men's, the women's and both reserves' races were all held
on the Tideway on the same day. In the men's reserve race, Cambridge's
Goldie were beaten by Oxford's Isis, and in the women's reserve race,
Cambridge's Blondie defeated Oxford's Osiris. In the women's race,
Cambridge won by a large margin following a disastrous start by the
Oxford boat. This win, their second in ten years, took Cambridge's
advantage in the overall standings to 42–30. The Oxford men's boat won
their race after leading from the start, their fourth victory in five
years, taking the overall record in the event to 82–80 in Cambridge's
favour. The races were watched by around a quarter of a million
spectators live, including, for the first time, on YouTube.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boat_Races_2017>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1513:
Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León reached Florida,
becoming the first European known to do so, purportedly while searching
for the Fountain of Youth in the New World.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Ponce_de_Le%C3%B3n>
1863:
In Richmond, Virginia, U.S., about 5,000 people, mostly poor
women, rioted in protest of the exorbitant price of bread.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_bread_riots>
1973:
The Liberal Movement broke away from the Liberal and Country
League in South Australia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_Movement_(Australia)>
1992:
Bosnian War (Yugoslav Wars): At least 48 civilians were killed
in the town of Bijeljina.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bijeljina_massacre>
2002:
Operation Defensive Shield: Approximately 200 Palestinian
militants fled the advancing Israel Defense Forces into the Church of
the Nativity in Bethlehem, starting a month-long standoff.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_the_Church_of_the_Nativity_in_Bethlehem>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
beer o'clock:
(slang, humorous) The time of the first beer (or alcoholic beverage) of
the day.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/beer_o%27clock>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
I attacked those Western playwrights who use their influence and
affluence to preach to the world the nihilistic doctrine that life is
pointless and irrationally destructive, and that there is nothing we can
do about it. Until everyone is fed, clothed, housed and taught, until
human beings have equal leisure to contemplate the overwhelming fact of
mortality, we should not (I argued) indulge in the luxury of "privileged
despair."
--Kenneth Tynan
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kenneth_Tynan>
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