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Cliff Thorburn (born 16 January 1948) is a Canadian retired professional snooker player. Nicknamed "the Grinder" because of his slow, determined style of play, he won the 1980 World Snooker Championship, becoming the first world champion in snooker's modern era from outside the United Kingdom. He remains the sport's only world champion from the Americas. Ranked world number one during the 1981–82 season, he was the first non-British player to top the world rankings. In 1983, Thorburn became the first player to make a maximum break in a World Championship. He is the first player to win the Masters three times (in 1983, 1985, and 1986) and the first to retain the title. He retired from the main professional tour in 1996. Inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 2001 and the Snooker Hall of Fame in 2014, he competed in Snooker Legends events and on the World Seniors Tour, winning the 2018 Seniors Masters. He retired from competitive snooker after the 2022 UK Seniors Championship. (Full article...)

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Disabled British tanks at Cambrai

... that the story of a lone German artillery officer disabling up to 16 British tanks (examples pictured) on the first day of the 1917 Battle of Cambrai was encouraged by the German Nazi Party?
... that Sybil Thorndike was known as Britain's leading tragedienne?
... that a 1987 march attended by about 20,000 protestors in Forsyth County, Georgia, has been called one of the largest civil rights demonstrations since the civil rights movement?
... that the ferry General Joe Potter at Walt Disney World is named in honor of Major General William Everett Potter?
... that Japanese bookstore employees recommended Candy Color Paradox as one of the best yaoi manga titles in 2016?
... that Will Arbery's view that the media shallowly examined supporters of Donald Trump after the 2016 presidential election crystallized Arbery's desire to write a play?
... that the relatively low death toll of 100 of the 1997 Bojnurd earthquake was attributed to a foreshock and most residents being outdoors?
... that the Los Angeles Salsa, from the United States, attempted to join a Mexican soccer league?

In the news

The aircraft involved in the accident

A plane crash (aircraft pictured) in Pokhara, Nepal, kills at least 68 of the 72 people on board.
Supporters of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro invade the National Congress, the Supreme Federal Court, and the Palácio do Planalto.
Michael Smith wins the PDC World Darts Championship.
Croatia adopts the euro and joins the Schengen Area.

On this day

January 16: Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the United States (2023)

Frank McGee

1537 – Sir Francis Bigod began an armed rebellion against King Henry VIII and the English Parliament.
1780 – American Revolutionary War: The Royal Navy gained their first major naval victory over their European enemies in the war when they defeated a Spanish squadron in the Battle of Cape St. Vincent.
1883 – The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, establishing the United States Civil Service, is enacted by the U.S. Congress.
1905 – Despite being blind in one eye, ice hockey player Frank McGee (pictured) set the record for most goals in a Stanley Cup game when he scored 14 against the Dawson City Nuggets.
2016 – After gunmen took hostages the previous night at a restaurant in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, government commandos stormed the premises to bring the situation to an end.

John C. Breckinridge (b. 1821)
Osip Brik (b. 1888)
Lorna Kesterson (d. 2012)

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Ava DuVernay

Selma, a 2014 American historical drama film, received awards and nominations in a variety of categories, with particular praise for its direction by Ava DuVernay (pictured), David Oyelowo's portrayal of civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr., and the song "Glory" by John Legend and Common. The film follows the events leading up to and during the Selma to Montgomery marches, and the resulting establishment of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which prohibited racial discrimination in voting in the United States. At the 87th Academy Awards, Selma won for Best Original Song for "Glory" and also received a nomination for Best Picture, becoming the first film directed by a black female director to achieve this feat. The film received four nominations at the 72nd Golden Globe Awards, winning the Best Original Song award for "Glory". At the 46th NAACP Image Awards, it won Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture for Oyelowo, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture for Common, and Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture for Carmen Ejogo. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

Macracantha is a genus of orb-weaver spider containing the species M. arcuata. M. arcuata is found in India and China and through Southeast Asia to Indonesia. The females of this genus have tough, shell-like abdomens armed with three pairs of spines. The middle spines project upward and outward, curving in toward each other along their length, and have a length of 20 to 26 millimetres (0.79 to 1.02 in), whereas the abdominal width is only 8 to 9 millimetres (0.31 to 0.35 in). The female's front and rear spines are short and roughly equal in length. The male of the species measures only 1.5 millimetres (0.059 in), with stout, conical spines. This photograph shows a female M. arcuata spider in Kaeng Krachan National Park, Thailand.

Photograph credit: Rushen

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