Sports Fact and Book Rec of the Day 1/15/2008

Martin Luther King Jr.'s Birthday

1/15/2005:
Michelle Kwan wins her ninth U.S. Figure Skating championship with a bravura performance at the Rose Garden in Portland, Oregon. Offering a near-flawless exhibition while skating to the music of Bolero, Kwan earns four perfect (6.0) scores from the judges for her four-minute program, easily besting runner-up Sasha Cohen. Her ninth title ties the feat of legendary Maribel Vinson (Owen), 1928-37, who died in 1961 with the rest of the U.S. figure skating team in a plane crash in Belgium.

Birthdays:
Bobby Grich b. 1949
Ernie DiGregorio b. 1951
Delino DeShields b. 1969
Mary Pierce b. 1975
Drew Brees b. 1979

1995:
The San Diego Chargers edged the Pittsburgh Steelers, 17-13, in the AFC Championship Game. Linebacker Junior Seau led San Diego to the first Super Bowl appearance in franchise history.

"Seau is an intense player, perhaps the NFL's most rabid defensive star since Ronnie Lott. On this day he was more than intense. From his first tackle on Barry Foster to his 16th and final stop of the day, Seau played like a man who had spent the morning mainlining ginseng. -Michael Silver, January 23, 1995

INSPIRING HISTORY

After 24 years, Taylor Branch has finally completed his monumental three-part work on Martin Luther King Jr. Part history, part biography, the books examine a period of national upheaval, using Dr. King’s life as the organizing principle of the narrative. At Canaan’s Edge begins with the gripping story of the Selma, Alabama, voting rights march and ends with King’s assassination. In between, Lyndon Johnson pushes through the Voting Rights Act and escalates the war in Vietnam, the Watts riots explode in Los Angeles, and Stokely Carmichael breaks with King’s principle of nonviolence. Branch shows us, masterfully, how and why King’s movement forever changed America.

AT CANAAN’S EDGE: AMERICA IN THE KING YEARS 1965-68, by Taylor Branch (Simon & Schuster, 2006)