Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 4/11/2011

4/11/1980:
Eleven days past his 52nd birthday, Gordie Howe plays his last game as his Hartford Whalers lose in overtime to the Montreal Canadiens, 4-3, in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Howe played all 80 games during the regular season, scoring 15 goals and 26 assists, as well as all three playoff games. His son Mark played with him on the 1979-80 Whalers, scoring 24 goals.

Birthdays:
Jake Gaither b. 1903
Bret Saberhagen b. 1964
Jason Varitek b. 1972
Trot Nixon b. 1974
Kelvim Escobar b. 1976

Packers Fact:
In 2005, Nick Collins was the first Packers' rookie in 17 years to start at safety on Kickoff Weekend.

ON THE FAMED BRITISH HISTORIAN EDWARD GORILLA

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Weakest Link host Anne Robinson: Which author of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire shares his name with a long-armed ape?

Contestant: Gorilla.

(The correct answer, of course, is Gibbon.)

“Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.”

—JOHN WOODEN, American basketball coach

EICHMANN IN BUENOS AIRES

Fifty years ago today, Adolf Eichmann went on trial in Jerusalem for committing, as “architect of the Holocaust,” crimes against humanity. Hunting Eichmann is the story of how, after Eichmann spent 15 years on the run, hiding and evading capture, he was finally hunted down and abducted on a deserted road in a lower-class area of Buenos Aires and flown to Israel to face justice at last. Fascinating and disturbing.

HUNTING EICHMANN: HOW A BAND OF SURVIVORS AND A YOUNG SPY AGENCY CHASED DOWN THE WORLD’S MOST NOTORIOUS NAZI, by Neal Bascomb (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009)