Ice hockey tournaments have been staged at the Olympic Games since
1920. The men's event was introduced at the 1920 Summer Olympics and
was transferred permanently to the Winter Olympic Games programme in
1924. In July 1992, the IOC approved women's hockey as an Olympic
event; it was first held at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano. The
Olympic Games were originally intended for amateur athletes, and until
1998, the players of the National Hockey League and other men's
professional leagues were not allowed to compete. In the men's
tournament, Canada was the most successful team of the first three
decades, winning six of seven gold medals. The Soviet Union first
participated in 1956 and overtook Canada as the dominant international
team, winning seven of the nine tournaments in which they participated.
The United States won gold in 1960 and again in 1980, which included
the "Miracle on Ice" upset of the Soviet Union. Other nations to win
gold in the men's event include Great Britain in 1936, Sweden in 1994
and 2006 and the Czech Republic in 1998. Finland, Germany, Russia and
Switzerland have also won medals in the sport. In the women's event,
Canadian and American teams have both dominated the event. The United
States won the first tournament in 1998, while Canada won in 2002 and
2006.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_hockey_at_the_Olympic_Games>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
881:
Pope John VIII crowned Charles the Fat as Holy Roman Emperor.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_the_Fat>
1502:
Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama set sail from Lisbon, Portugal, on
his second voyage to India with the object of enforcing Portuguese
interests in the Far East.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasco_da_Gama>
1541:
Spanish Conquistador Pedro de Valdivia founded Santiago, Chile, as
Santiago del Nuevo Extremo.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santiago%2C_Chile>
1818:
Chile formally declared its independence from Spain.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilean_Declaration_of_Independence>
1855:
Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan, was founded as
the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the United States'
first agriculture college.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_State_University>
1909:
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, one of
the oldest and most influential civil rights organizations in the
United States, was founded to work on behalf of the rights of African
Americans.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Association_for_the_Advancement_of_Colored_People>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
finagle (v):
1. To obtain, arrange, or achieve by indirect and usually deceitful
methods.
2. To cheat or swindle; to use crafty, deceitful methods
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/finagle>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the
right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the
work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who
shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all
which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves
and with all nations.
--Abraham Lincoln
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln>
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