One-legged wonder
The Paralympic Games began in 1960 and can trace its origins to the 1948 International Wheelchair Games, held for ex-servicemen at Stoke Mandeville hospital in 1948. Before that, however, a disabled German-American gymnast, George Eyser, put in a remarkable performance at the 1904 Olympic Games in St Louis.
— Eyser, who emigrated to the US aged 14 in 1884, had lost his left leg when run over by a train in his childhood, and competed with a wooden leg.
— Having put in a mediocre performance in the opening events, he won six medals in a single day, with gold on the parallel bars, the long-horse vault and a long-since discontinued event, the 25ft rope-climb.
— Eyser went on to win other athletics events over the next few years, though his later life is obscure.
Melting point
The coverage of sea ice measured in the Arctic fell to its lowest level in 33 years.
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