The history of Aston Villa Football Club since 1961 includes a European Cup victory in 1982 and a loss in the 2018 English Football League Championship play-off Final. After a change of ownership and management for the club and successive relegations, they returned in the 1971–72 season to the Second Division as champions with a record 70 points. In 1974 Ron Saunders was appointed manager, and by 1975 he had led the club back into the First Division and into European competition. The club won the league in the 1980–81 season, and the European Cup final in the next season. They were one of the founding members of the Premier League in 1992, and finished runners-up to Manchester United in the inaugural season. They reached the FA Cup Final for the first time since 1957 in 2000. The arrival of a new manager and Randy Lerner as owner in 2006 marked the start of sweeping changes throughout the club. After several years of narrowly avoiding the drop, Villa were relegated at the end of the 2015–16 season. ( Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Aston_Villa_F.C._%281961%E2%80%93present%29> _______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries: 1822: The deadliest fire in Norwegian history took place at a church in Grue, Norway, with at least 113 deaths. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grue_Church_fire> 1865: American Civil War: General Edmund Kirby Smith negotiated the surrender of his army, the only significant Confederate Army force remaining in the war. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Kirby_Smith> 1940: Second World War: The mass evacuation of British, French and Belgian troops cut off by the German army during the Battle of Dunkirk began (pictured). <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunkirk_evacuation> 1999: Manchester United won the UEFA Champions League to become the first English football club to win three major championships in the same season. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998%E2%80%9399_Manchester_United_F.C._season> _____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day: facticity: 1. (uncountable) The quality or state of being a fact. 2. (uncountable, specifically, philosophy) In existentialism, the state of being in the world without any knowable reason for such existence, or of being in a particular state of affairs which one has no control over. 3. (countable) A fact that is not changeable or that is assumed to be true without further evaluation. <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/facticity> ___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:   A wiki is always in the process of being organized. But for every hour spent organizing, two more hours are spent adding new material. So the status quo for a wiki is always partially organized.   --Ward Cunningham <https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ward_Cunningham>