10thIn 1892 the entire Hong Kong National Cricket Team died in a shipwreck off Taiwan when the SS Bokhara sank in a typhoon, 125 people perished all told. The team had played an Interport cricket match against Shanghai a few days earlier and were returning home aboard the SS Bokhara.  The English journalist Murray Walker was born today in 1923, well-known as a Formula 1 commentator, his excitable style of commentary and many gaffs have become legendary. Also born on this day, in 1946, larger than life Wrestling star Giant Haystacks, (real name Martin Austin Ruane), billed as standing 6 ft 11 in (2.11 m) tall and weighing 48 stone 13 lb (685 lb; 311 kg) at his heaviest, he was best known for TV fights with Big Daddy and Kendo Nagasaki in the 1970s The 18th Olympics opened in Tokyo in 1964. More than 5000 competitors from 93 nations took part in the Games which ended with the United States and Soviet Union topping the medal table, followed by the host nation in third with 16 golds. It was the first time that sex tests for women athletes were used at the Games. The Arsenal and England defender Tony Adams was born in 1946. He came through the junior ranks at Arsenal, eventually breaking into the first team in the 1980s when the club was re-establishing itself at the top of the first division. He has won FA Cup, League Cup and League Championship honours with the Gunners and in 1987 was picked for England. The inaugural meeting soccer’s newly formed Premier League was held in 1991 with the former first division clubs seeking to formulate its and constitution.

                                   

11thBorn today in 1887, Willie Hoppe, billiards champion. Hoppe won 51 world titles between 1906 and 1952. He was also known for various long-standing high runs, including scoring 2,000 contiguous points in straight rail and a run of 25 points in three-cushion. He once made a tournament average of 1.333, a world record at that time. Sadly in 1917, Harry Trott, Australian cricketer who captained his national side and played in 24 Tests between 1888 and 1898 passed away. On this day in 1902 the first Test Cricket match between South Africa and Australia began. One of England’s most prolific goal scorers, Bobby Charlton was born on this day in 1937. The scorer of 49 goals for England, he played for his country 106 times. Bobby played 644 Football league games for Manchester United and Preston and was the United captain the day they beat Benfica to become the first English winners of the European Cup. At the end of his playing days he became manager of Preston North End. Brazilian born tennis player Maria Bueno was born in 1939. The ‘Darling’ of the centre court in the 1960s, she first won Wimbledon as a 20-year-old in 1959. She retained the title in 1960 and regained it in 1964. She also won the US title four times. British hurdler Alan Pascoe was born on this day in 1947. He was the European 400m hurdles champion in 1974. He won a silver medal in the relay at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Henry Morris of East Fife scored the first goal by a British player in a World Cup match, in 1949. The match, between Scotland and Northern Ireland at Belfast, was a qualifier for the 1950 tournament. Morris completed a hat-trick in the match and yet never played for Scotland again! Scotland won the game 8-2.

 

12th Czechoslovak-born tennis player Jaroslav Drobny was born in 1921. His first success in sport came in 1948 when he won a silver medal with the Czech ice hockey team at the Winter Olympics. His career as a tennis player flourished after he sought and gained political asylum in Egypt in 1949. He first played at Wimbledon in 1938, was beaten finalist in 1949 and 1952 and, finally, in 1954, won the title. The final, against Australian Ken Rosewall, was a marathon four-setter, 13-11, 4-6, 6-2, 9-7. He also won the French Open title twice, in 1951 and 1952. The 19th Olympic Games opened at Mexico City in 1968. In 1975, Jacqueline Hansen runs a women’s world record marathon time of 2hrs 38mins 19secs at Eugene in Oregon. Born in 1975 disgraced track and field athlete Marian Jones, who was stripped of her 5 Olympic medals from the 2000 Games after admitting to steroid use but she did retain her three gold medals as a world champion from 1997 and 1999. At the Sunrise Gold Club, Las Vegas, in 1991 Chip Beck equalled the US PGA Tour record for 18 holes, set by Al Geiberger 14 years earlier, by shooting 59 in the third round of the Las Vegas Invitational. Michael Schumacher wins the 2003 Formula 1 Championship by two points. In 2008, Anna Kournikova and Andy Roddick beat Martina Navratilova and Jesse Levine in a match for charity, rasing over $400,000 for the Elton John AIDS Foundation and Atlanta AIDS Partnership Fund.

 

13th – On the day in 1894 Everton and Liverpool played the first ever Merseyside ‘Derby’, at Goodison Park. Everton won the match 3-0. Benny Lynch retained his world flyweight title at Clyde’s Shawfield Stadium in 1937 with a 13th-round knockout of fellow-Briton Peter Kane. The contest is regarded as one of the finest flyweight contests of all time. On this day in 1954 Britain’s Chris Chataway knocked a staggering five seconds off the world 5000m record, clocking a time of 13 minutes 5.6 seconds in beating the great Russian Vladimir Kuts at London’s White City. The 9th LPGA Championship was won by Mickey Wright in 1963. Cuban high-jumper Javier Sotomayor was born in 1967. The 1992 Olympic gold medal winner was the first man to clear eight feet (2.44m), in 1989. In 1982, the IOC Executive Committee approves the reinstatement of Jim Thorpe’s gold medals from the 1912 Olympics, 30 years after his death. Thorpe became the first Native American to win a gold medal for his home country. Considered one of the most versatile athletes of modern sports, he won Olympic gold medals in the 1912 pentathlon and decathlon, played American football (collegiate and professional), and also played professional baseball and basketball. He lost his Olympic titles after it was found he had been paid for playing two seasons of semi-professional baseball before competing in the Olympics, thus violating the amateurism rules that were then in place. John Lowe made the first nine-dart finish in a major championship at Slough during the quarter-finals of the British Open darts championship in 1984, to collect a records prize of £102,000. His score of 501 was achieved with six treble-20s, treble-17, treble-18 and double-18. The West Indies scored a cricket World Cup record 360-4 against Sri Lanka at Karachi in 1987. In the match Viv Richards scored a World Cup best individual innings of 181. Rene Lacoste, French tennis player, died aged 92 in 1996. He was nicknamed “the Crocodile” by the press after they learned of a wager Lacoste made with the French Davis Cup captain, who promised Lacoste a crocodile-skin handbag if Lacoste won, he is also known worldwide as the creator of the Lacoste tennis shirt, which he introduced in 1929.

 

14thBorn on this day in 1873 was American track and field athlete Ray Ewry, who won ten gold medals at  Olympic Games between 1900 and 1908, for the ‘standing’ long jump, high jump and triple jump events, putting him among the most successful Olympians of all time. In 190o Games he won gold medals in all three standing jumps. Incidentally, all three finals were held on the same day (July 16). All this is made even more remarkable because as a child he contracted polio and was confined to a wheelchair and it was feared he would be paralysed for life. Ewry did his own exercises and overcame the illness. The first football match to be played under floodlights was staged on the day in 1878 at Bramhall Lane, Sheffield, between two local teams. Two portable generators provided power for four beams which gave out light equivalent to 30,000 candles. A crowd of 2000 watched the game. Steve Cram, the British middle-distance runner, was born in 1960. He set world records at 2000m and one mile. He was the first man to run 1500 m under 3 minutes and 30 seconds His mile record of 3 minutes 46.32 seconds set at Oslo in 1985 stood for eight years. Matt Le Tisser, English footballer was born on this day in 1968. In 1986, The IOC decides to stagger the Winter and Summer Olympic schedule.

 

15th– Heavyweight boxing champion John L Sullivan, known as ‘The Boston Strong Boy’, was born in 1858. The world bare-knuckle champion from 1882 to 1892, he failed in his attempt to become the first heavyweight champion under Queensberry rules, losing to James J Corbett by a knockout in the 21st round at New Orleans in 1892. On this day in 1887 Preston North End established the highest score in senior English soccer when they beat Hyde United 26-0 in a first round FA Cup tie. Centre-forward Jimmy Ross scored with goals. In 1951, Roscoe Tanner, American tennis player and Wimbledon finalist of 1979 was born. Tanner was famous for his big left-handed serve, which was clocked at 153 mph at Palm Springs in 1978 during the final against Raúl Ramírez. He is also known for winning the men’s singles title at the first of two Australian Open tournaments held in 1977. Millions of British TV viewers watched David Hemery win the Olympic 400m hurdles title to the strains of an excited David Coleman on this day in 1968. Born today in 1980 was Belgian cyclist Tom Boonen. Nelson Piquet takes the 34th Formula 1 championship by two points in 1983. Nick Faldo beat Ian Woosnam by one hole to win the Suntory World Matchplay championship at Wentworth in 1990. Faldo gave his £100,000 winnings, the largest prize in a British gold tournament, to a children’s charity.   On the same day on 1990, UEFA announced that Wrexham had to set off 24 hours before their Cup-winners’ Cup tie with Manchester United to comply with UEFA rules, although the journey up the M56 would take about 45 mins by coach! Sweden’s Annika Sorenstam wins the LPGA World Championship of Women’s Golf today in 1995.

 

16thJockey Gordon Richards has his first ride, at Linfield Park in 1920. In a 21,843-race career that lasted until 1954, he won a record 4870 races, 14 of them Classics, and was champion jockey a record 26 times. Popular Welsh snooker player Terry Griffiths was born in 1947. He beat his great friend and rival Dennis Taylor to win the world championship in 1979. Griffiths remained near the top of the world rankings since that surprise win at the time was one of the biggest money-winners in the sport. It was quite a day in the track and field events at the 1968 Olympics: Britain’s Lillian Board was pipped by the France’s Colette Besson in the 400m final: US sprinters Tommy Smith and John Carlos gave their ‘Black Power’ salute on the winners rostrum: and in the most thrilling pole vault contest seen at the Olympics, the three medallists – Bob Seagreen of the US and the Germans Claus Schilprowski and Wolfgang Nordwig – all registered the same height, 5.40m (17 feet 7 inches) Born today in 1973, David Unsworth English footballer. On this day in 1978, Indian cricketer Kapil Dev made his Test debut against Pakistan at Faisalabad. Dev would go on to captain the Indian cricket team which won the 1983 Cricket World Cup. Named by Wisden as the Indian Cricketer of the Century in 2002, Kapil Dev is one of the greatest all-rounders of all time. He was also India’s national cricket coach for 10 months between October 1999 and August 2000. Frederic Michalak, French Rugby star and British sprinter Craig Pickering were born today in 1973 and 1986 respectively. On this day in 2004, a 17 year old Lionel Messi makes his league debut for Barcelona against Espanyol.