obtuse adjective: 1. Slow or unwilling to understand. 2. Dull or indistinct, as a sound, pain, or sensation. 3. Blunt; not sharp or pointed. 4. Of an angle: measuring more than 90° and less than 180°.
☰Thought of the Day
"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." - Henry David Thoreau, from Walden, ch 2.
- Johann Nikolaus Hanff, German organist and composer, born in Wechmar, Electorate of Saxony (d. 1711)
- Henry Pelham, British Prime Minister (Whig: 1743-54) who introduced the Gin Acts, born in Laughton, England (d. 1754)
- William Michael Rossetti, English writer and civil servant, born in London, England (d. 1919)
- Nahman Avigad, Israeli archaeologist (Discovering Jerusalem), born in Zavaliv, Ukraine (d. 1992)
- Lilian Ngoyi, South African machinist, anti-apartheid activist, and first woman elected to the executive committee of the African National Congress, born in Pretoria, Union of South Africa (d. 1980)
- Frederick Wilhelm Sternfeld, Austrian musicologist, born in Vienna, Austria (d. 1994)
- Hansie Cronje, South African cricket batsman and captain (68 Tests, 3,714 runs, 43 wickets; 188 ODIs; life ban for match-fixing 2000), born in Bloemfontein, South Africa (d. 2002)
- Matt Hasselbeck, American football player, born in Boulder, Colorado
- Operation Market Garden ends in Allied failure as the last British and Polish paratroopers are evacuated from Oosterbeek near the city of Arnhem
- Transatlantic telephone cable goes into operation from Newfoundland to Oban
- 413 spectators, the smallest Yankee Stadium crowd, watch the White Sox win 4-1
- The Rolling Stones begin their sixth US tour at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia
- American basketball player Vince Carter steals the ball and jumps over 7 foot 2 inch Frédéric Weis at the 2000 Summer Olympics, known in France as "le dunk de la mort" (the dunk of death)
- Lu Xun, Chinese writer of modern Chinese literature, born in Shaoxing, Zhejiang, Qing dynasty China (d. 1936)
- Red Smith, American sportscaster and columnist (Pulitzer 1976, Fight Talk), born in Green Bay, Wisconsin (d. 1982)
- Sergei Bondarchuk, Soviet director (Destiny of a Man, War and Peace), born in Belozerka, Ukraine (d. 1994)
- Remy C. van de Kerckhove, Flemish poet, born in Mechelen, Antwerp, Belgium (d. 1958)
- Matt Carle, American ice hockey player, born in Anchorage, Alaska
