[Wikipedia] October 20: England national rugby union team

[Faraaz Damji]

   The England national rugby union team is a sporting side that
   represents England in rugby union.  Currently world champions, they
   compete annually in the Six Nations Championship with France, Ireland,
   Scotland, Italy, and Wales.  They have won this championship on
   twenty-five occasions, twelve times winning the Grand Slam.  England
   also compete for the Calcutta Cup—which they currently hold—with
   Scotland as part of the Six Nations.  They are currently ranked third
   in the world.  The history of the team extends back to 1871 when the
   English rugby team played their first official Test match.  England
   dominated the early Home Nations Championship (now the Six Nations)
   which started in 1883.  England players traditionally wear white
   shorts, navy socks with white tops, and a white shirt with a red rose
   embroidered on it.  Their home ground is Twickenham Stadium where they
   first played in 1910.  The team is administered by the Rugby Football
   Union.  Four former players have been inducted into the International
   Rugby Hall of Fame.

Read the rest of this article:
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England_national_rugby_union_team


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Today's selected anniversaries:

1740:
   Maria Theresa assumed the throne of the Habsburg Monarchy in
   Austria, following the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713.
   (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Theresa_of_Austria)

1818:
   The United Kingdom and the United States signed the Treaty of 1818,
   which settled the Canada–United States border on the 49th parallel for
   most of its length.
   (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_1818)

1827:
   An allied British, French, and Russian naval force destroyed a
   combined Turkish and Egyptian fleet at the Battle of Navarino, a
   decisive moment in the Greek War of Independence.
   (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Navarino)

1941:
   World War II: German soldiers began a massacre of thousands of
   civilians in Kragujevac in Nazi-occupied Serbia.
   (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kragujevac_massacre)

1973:
   Queen Elizabeth II, in her capacity as Queen of Australia, formally
   opened the Sydney Opera House on Bennelong Point in Sydney Harbour.
   (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Opera_House)


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Wiktionary's Word of the day:

   churlish: Of or pertaining to a serf, peasant, or rustic.
   (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/churlish)


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Wikiquote of the day:

   I'm learning to fly, but I ain't got wings Coming down is the hardest
   thing.  -- Tom Petty
   (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tom_Petty)