Maurice Garin wins the first Tour de France.

The Tour de France is one of the most prestigious and well-known cycling races in the world. It is an annual men’s multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, though it often passes through neighboring countries.

History

First Race: The Tour de France was first organized in 1903 by the newspaper L’Auto to increase sales.
Frequency: It has been held annually, except for interruptions during the two World Wars.

Format

Stages: The race typically consists of 21 day-long stages over a 23-day period, covering around 3,500 kilometers (about 2,200 miles).
Types of Stages: The stages include flat stages, mountain stages, time trials, and occasionally individual time trials.
Route: The route changes every year but usually finishes on the Champs-Élysées in Paris.

Jerseys

Yellow Jersey (Maillot Jaune): Worn by the overall race leader.
Green Jersey (Maillot Vert): Worn by the leader in points classification, awarded for sprints.
Polka Dot Jersey (Maillot à Pois): Worn by the best climber in the mountains classification.
White Jersey (Maillot Blanc): Worn by the best young rider (under 26) in the general classification.

Teams and Riders

Teams: Professional cycling teams, often sponsored by corporations, compete in the race. Each team usually has nine riders.
Riders: Cyclists from all over the world participate, and notable winners include legends like Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, and more recently, Chris Froome and Tadej Poga?ar.

Significance

Global Audience: The race is broadcast to millions of viewers worldwide.
Cultural Impact: It is a major event in France, with significant cultural and economic impacts.

Challenges

Physical Demands: The Tour de France is one of the most physically demanding sporting events, requiring immense endurance and strength.
Tactics: Teams use various tactics, including drafting and protecting their lead rider, to gain an advantage.

The world’s first Global Positioning System (GPS) signal was transmitted from Navigation Technology Satellite 2 (NTS-2) and received at Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, at 12:41 a.m. Eastern time (ET).

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based navigation system that provides location and time information to users anywhere on or near the Earth’s surface. It was developed and is operated by the United States Department of Defense (USDOD). GPS was primarily designed for military use but has since become a crucial tool for civilian applications, ranging from navigation and mapping to scientific research and everyday consumer devices.

Satellites: The GPS system consists of a constellation of at least 24 satellites orbiting the Earth at about 20,200 kilometers (12,550 miles) above the surface. These satellites are spread across six orbital planes to ensure global coverage.

Ground Control Stations: On the Earth’s surface, there are several ground control stations that monitor and maintain the GPS satellite constellation. These stations keep track of the satellites’ positions and health, and they make adjustments to the satellites’ orbits when necessary.

User Receivers: GPS receivers are devices that the general public, as well as various industries and sectors, use to access and utilize GPS signals. These receivers process signals from multiple satellites to calculate the receiver’s precise location, speed, and time.

Triangulation: GPS receivers determine their position by triangulating their distance from at least four satellites in the GPS constellation. By measuring the time it takes for signals from multiple satellites to reach the receiver, the device can calculate its distance from each satellite and pinpoint its position accurately.

Accuracy: The accuracy of GPS varies depending on the number of satellites in view and the quality of the GPS receiver. Most consumer-grade GPS receivers can provide a location accuracy within a few meters, while advanced military and scientific-grade receivers can achieve centimeter-level accuracy.

Selective Availability (SA): Historically, the military introduced SA to intentionally degrade the accuracy of civilian GPS signals for security reasons. However, in 2000, the U.S. government discontinued SA, resulting in a significant improvement in the accuracy of GPS for civilian use.

GPS has become an integral part of modern life, with applications in various sectors, including:

Navigation: GPS is widely used for personal navigation in smartphones, car navigation systems, aviation, marine navigation, and more.
Mapping and Surveying: GPS enables accurate mapping, surveying, and geographical information systems (GIS) applications.
Emergency Services: GPS helps emergency services locate and respond to distress calls more effectively.
Timing and Synchronization: Many critical systems, such as financial transactions, telecommunications, and power distribution, rely on GPS for precise timing and synchronization.
Agriculture: GPS is used in precision agriculture for optimized planting, irrigation, and harvesting.
Geocaching and Outdoor Activities: GPS is used by geocachers and outdoor enthusiasts for treasure hunting and location-based gaming.

Opening of the Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland.

In a private meeting with U.S. President Ronald Reagan, French President François Mitterrand reveals the existence of the Farewell Dossier, a collection of documents showing the Soviet Union had been stealing American technological research and development.

Korean politician Lyuh Woon-hyung is assassinated.

Maurice Garin wins the first Tour de France

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Maurice Garin wins the first ever Tour de France.

Maurice Garin won the first Tour de France, on July 19th, 1903, by a margin of almost three hours.
Products of the bicycling craze of the 1890s in France included an army regiment mounted on bicycles and numerous flourishing bicycle-connected businesses as well as a public appetite for races. Besides track events in ‘velodromes’, there were long-distance road races, from Paris to Vienna and St Petersburg, for instance, and from Paris to Rome. The Tour de France, which began as a newspaper circulation-booster, was an unexpected by-product of the Dreyfus Affair. In 1899 the bicycle newspaper Le Vélo , which sold 80,000 copies a day, ran a pro-Dreyfus piece that caused a fierce falling out with a major advertiser, the bicycle manufacturer Comte Dion. With other manufacturers, including Clément and Michelin, Dion started a rival sports sheet called L’Auto. The editor was Henri Desgranges, winner of the world one-hour record in 1893. When one of his assistants suggested a race round France, Desgranges saw the possibilities.

The first race in 1903 took nineteen days in six formidable stages, from Paris to Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Nantes and back to Paris. The stages varied in length from 274km to as much as 467km, with a total distance of just over 2400km. A parade of cars, festooned with advertising and throwing free samples to spectators, travelled two hours ahead of the cyclists. Of sixty competitors from France, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland, including professional team riders and freelance amateurs, twenty-one finished the gruelling course and the race was won by a Frenchman, Maurice Garin, ‘the Little Chimney-Sweep’, by a margin of close to three hours. The last finisher came in two days behind.

Garin also won the second race in 1904, but he and the next three finishers were all disqualified for cheating. The early races were notorious for mayhem. Riders strewed broken glass and nails in the road to cause punctures behind them, competitors were given drinks that made them sick, many got surreptitious tows from cars or motorbikes, some were held up and delayed by hired thugs. The excitement was intense and L’Auto’s circulation more than doubled. Le Vélo went bankrupt.

A dam collapses resulting in the death of 268 people in Val di Stava, Italy.

The 1952 Summer Olympic Games were opened in Helsinki, Finland. The games were officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad. A total 69 nations with 4955 athletes took part in 149 events in 17 sports. The Olympic flame was lit by the Finnish runner Paavo Nurmi. These Olympics were the first competed in by the Soviet Union, Israel and China. Taiwan withdrew in protest at China’s inclusion. The USA, Soviet Union and Hungry won the most medals.