Harry Firth, Australian race car driver and manager (b. 1918)
Henry Leslie Firth (18 April 1918 – 27 April 2014) was an Australian racing driver and team manager. Firth was a leading race and rally driver during the 1950s and 1960s and continued as an influential team manager with first the Ford works team and then the famed Holden Dealer Team (HDT) well into the 1970s. Firth’s nickname was "the fox", implying his use of cunning ploys as a team manager.Firth won the Bathurst 500, including its predecessor at Phillip Island, four times (twice in the final two races held at the Island and twice at Bathurst). He also won the Southern Cross Rally and the Australian Rally Championship. He was inducted into the Supercars Hall of Fame in 2007.
Firth has often been described as a 'bush engineer', someone who could probably build a race winning engine from nothing more than a roll of wire, while leading Australian Motoring journalist and former part-time racer Bill Tuckey once wrote of Firth that as a driver, engineer and team manager, he was "As cunning as an outhouse rat".
On 27 April 2014, Firth died in his sleep surrounded by his family, he was aged 96.
2014Apr, 27
Harry Firth
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Treaty on the Adoption of the Republic of Crimea to Russia
The parliaments of Russia and Crimea sign an accession treaty. - 21Apr
Flint water crisis
The American city of Flint, Michigan switches its water source to the Flint River, beginning the ongoing Flint water crisis which has caused lead poisoning in up to 12,000 people, and 15 deaths from Legionnaires disease, ultimately leading to criminal indictments against 15 people, five of whom have been charged with involuntary manslaughter. - 9Aug
Shooting of Michael Brown
Michael Brown, an 18-year-old African American male in Ferguson, Missouri, was shot and killed by a Ferguson police officer after reportedly assaulting the officer and attempting to steal his weapon, sparking protests and unrest in the city. - 18Sep
Scottish independence referendum, 2014
Scotland votes against independence from the United Kingdom. - 30Oct
International recognition of the State of Palestine
Sweden is the first European Union member state to officially recognize the State of Palestine.