By Annabella Ramirez
FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
Sabrina Elaine Ionescu (/jəˈnɛskjuː/ yə-NESS-kew; born December 6, 1997) is an American professional basketball player for the New York Liberty of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA). She played college basketball for the Oregon Ducks and is considered one of the greatest collegiate players of all time.
Ionescu attended Miramonte High School in Orinda, California, where she was named MVP of the McDonald’s All-American Game. Rated the fourth-best player in her class by ESPN, she became the highest-rated recruit to ever commit to Oregon. As a junior, she led the Ducks to their first Final Four appearance and won the John R. Wooden Award and Wade Trophy as the top player in NCAA Division I. In her senior season, Ionescu was the consensus national player of the year and led Division I in assists. She is the Division I career leader in triple-doubles and holds the Pac-12 Conference all-time assists record.
Ionescu was selected first overall by the New York Liberty in the 2020 WNBA draft. She has been selected to three consecutive WNBA All-Star games and has thrice made the All-WNBA Team. In 2023, Ionescu set the WNBA single-season record in three-pointers and the WNBA Three-Point Contest record. In the same season, she helped the Liberty reach the WNBA Finals and win their first Commissioner’s Cup.
A two-time youth gold medalist with the United States, Ionescu made her senior national team debut at the 2022 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup, where she won a gold medal. She was named to the 2024 Summer Olympics team for USA and won the gold medal at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Ionescu was born in Walnut Creek, California, to Romanian-American parents. Her father, Dan Ionescu, escaped communist Romania around the time of the 1989 revolution, seeking political asylum in the United States. He hoped that his then-wife, Liliana Blaj, and their son Andrei could join them in a few months, but they were unable to move to the US until 1995. By that time, Dan owned a limousine service in Northern California, where he had chosen to settle because he had several extended family members in that area.
TODAY’S ALMANAC
St. Nicholas (whose feast day is December 6) was likely a fourth-century bishop of Myra in what is now Turkey. Known for his generosity, he is said to have given a purse filled with gold as a dowry to each of three destitute young ladies so that they could be married. St. Nicholas’s life eventually merged with folklore, and the legend of Santa Claus was born. Learn more about St. Nicholas Day here.
Question of the Day
Why is El Nino named for the Christ child?
The Spanish name El Nino (literally, “the son”) was coined by the fishermen of Ecuador and Peru to denote the warming of the coastal surface waters that often occurs in that area around Christmastime. Although this was a fairly regular seasonal event, the name later took on the larger meaning of any general warming trend and recently has come to mean the unseasonably warm weather patterns that occur two or three times a decade.
Advice of the Day
Home Hint of the Day
Word of the Day
Puzzle of the Day
Died
- Jefferson Davis (served as the first and only President of the Confederate States of America in the American Civil War) –
- Roy Orbison (musician) –
- Don Ameche (actor) –
- Phillip Berrigan (priest who fought Vietnam War and nuclear weapons) –
Born
- Ira Gershwin (lyricist) –
- Agnes Moorehead (actress) –
- Steven Wright (comedian & actor) –
- Nick Park (filmmaker & animator) –
- Janine Turner (actress) –
- Sabrina Ionescu (basketball player) –
Events
- First international football game –
- Monongah, West Virginia, coal mine disaster killed 362 men. One of the worst in U.S. history –
- Ship explosion devastated Halifax, Nova Scotia –
- The Anglo-Irish Treaty is signed, giving Ireland dominion status and establishing Irish Free State –
- President Truman dedicated Everglades National Park in Florida –
- The Burl Ives narrated holiday classic Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer made its television debut –
- Kitty Hambleton reached 512.71 mph land speed –
- Gunman kills 14 women at University of Montreal –
Weather
- Five inches of snow, Savannah, Georgia –
- A windstorm on this day toppled the national Christmas tree on the grounds of the White House –
- Strong storms spread 60 mph winds throughout northeast Indiana and northwest Ohio –
COURTESY www.almanac.com
