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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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Did you know ...

Talabaw soup

... that the talabaw soup (pictured), which consists primarily of bamboo shoots, is the essential dish of Myanmar's Karen people, who use it to supplement rice?
... that Lord Cottenham resigned from MI5 during the Second World War, as he did not support the war with Germany?
... that the BK inequality was used to identify implausibly lucky Florida Lottery winners, whose involvement in illegal activities was later confirmed by investigations?
... that after Deutsche Bahn built Berlin's central railway station according to plans that had been altered against the original architect Meinhard von Gerkan's wishes, he sued them, and won?
... that the Argentina and Netherlands national football teams have played each other at every other FIFA World Cup since 1998?
... that Don Luce led a group of Americans to a secret part of a South Vietnamese prison where inmates were kept in squalor in what were called "tiger cages"?
... that the Blemyomachia is an epic poem describing a historical clash between the Roman Empire and the Blemmyes in the Nile valley?
... that the city of Palo Alto, California, is named after a big tree?

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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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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