Joe Gaetjens

Joseph Edouard Gaetjens (/ˈɡeɪdʒɛnz/ GAY-jenz; born March 19, 1924, Port-au-Prince, Haiti; presumed dead July 10, 1964, Haiti) was a Haitian soccer player who played for the United States national team in the 1950 FIFA World Cup, scoring the winning goal in the 1–0 upset of England. He also played one match for Haiti in a World Cup qualifier against Mexico.

Early life

Joe Gaetjens was born in Haiti to a Haitian mother and a German father. His great-grandfather Thomas, a native of Bremen, had been sent to Haiti by Frederick William III, the King of Prussia, as a business emissary. The family was quite prosperous, and although by the time of Joe's birth their wealth had decreased significantly, they were still among the Haitian elite. When Gaetjens was born, his father registered the birth certificate with the German embassy, in case Joe ever wanted to gain German citizenship.

Club career

Gaetjens joined Etoile Haïtienne at the age of 14 and won two Ligue Haïtienne championships in 1942 and 1944. However, he could not make a living from professional soccer, so he went to New York City in 1947 to study accounting at Columbia University on a scholarship from the Haitian government, and played for Brookhattan of the American Soccer League, winning the league's scoring title. He also worked for the Brookhattan owner's restaurant as a dishwasher.

World Cup

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Athletics

Badminton

Bandy

Baseball and softball

Basketball

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Football

American football

Association football

England

England ⁱ/ˈɪŋɡlənd/ is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west. The Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south. The country covers much of the central and southern part of the island of Great Britain, which lies in the North Atlantic; and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight.

The area now called England was first inhabited by modern humans during the Upper Palaeolithic period, but takes its name from the Angles, one of the Germanic tribes who settled during the 5th and 6th centuries. England became a unified state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery, which began during the 15th century, has had a significant cultural and legal impact on the wider world. The English language, the Anglican Church, and English law – the basis for the common law legal systems of many other countries around the world – developed in England, and the country's parliamentary system of government has been widely adopted by other nations. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the world's first industrialised nation.

United States

Coordinates: 40°N 100°W / 40°N 100°W / 40; -100

The United States of America (USA), commonly referred to as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a federal republic composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major territories and various possessions. The 48 contiguous states and Washington, D.C., are in central North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwestern part of North America and the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. At 3.8 million square miles (9.842 million km²) and with over 320 million people, the country is the world's third or fourth-largest by total area and the third most populous. It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries. The geography and climate of the United States are also extremely diverse, and the country is home to a wide variety of wildlife.

Flag of England

The flag of England is derived from St George's Cross (heraldic blazon: Argent, a cross gules). The association of the red cross as an emblem of England can be traced back to the Middle Ages, and it was used as a component in the design of the Union Flag in 1606; however, the English flag has no official status within the United Kingdom. Since the 1990s it has been in increasingly wide use, particularly at national sporting events.

Origins

In 1188 Henry II of England and Philip II of France agreed to go on a crusade, and that Henry would use a white cross and Philip a red cross. 13th-century authorities are unanimous on the point that the English king adopted the white cross, and the French king the red one (and not vice versa as suggested by later use). It is not clear at what point the English exchanged the white cross for the red-on-white one.

There was a historiographical tradition claiming that Richard the Lionheart himself adopted both the flag and the patron saint from Genoa at some point during his crusade. This idea can be traced to the Victorian era; Perrin (1922) refers to it as a "common belief", and it is still popularly repeated today, even though it cannot be substantiated as historical.