11th

  • Born today in 1800, William Henry Fox Talbot, the photography pioneer, who produced the first book with photographic illustrations – The Pencil of Nature.
  • On this day in 1928 the 2nd Winter Olympic Games opened in St Moritz, Switzerland.
  • John Surtees, the only man to win a world title on two and four wheels was born on this day in 1934. After winning four 500cc and three 350cc motor cycling world titles between 1956 and 1960, Surtees switched to the four-wheeled branch of motor sport. In 1964, driving a Ferrari, he captured the world title. Surtees won six races in 111 starts, including the first victory for Honda in Formula 1, the 1967 Italian Grand Prix. He formed his own team later, but failed to register a win in 118 starts.
  • Today in 1976 British figure skater John Curry won Olympic gold, the first gold in the sport for a British man as well as GB’s first medal at a winter Games for 12 years. Female figure skater Jeanette Altwegg won bronze in 1948 at the St Moritz Games and gold in Oslo in the 1952 Games. Before the winning performance, Britain’s highest place in the men’s figure skating had been fourth. Skating before a crowd of 10,000 in Innsbruck’s Olympic Eisstadion, Curry took to the ice leading the field after the first two stages of the men’s figure skating. His five minute performance was described by The Times as “masterly in its cool beauty of movement”. He executed three immaculate triple jumps, but it was his artistic interpretation of the music that put his performance above those of his rivals. The nine judges awarded him a forest of 5.9s for both technical merit and artistic impression. The Soviet judge was a bit tougher with 5.8 and 5.9 and the Canadian judge gave him two 5.8s. The 26-year-old from Birmingham was showered with carnations as he paused on the ice at the end of his performance to give his mother a wave across the stadium. Another British skater, Robin Cousins, finished 10th and Glyn Jones finished 16th. On 4 March 1976 Curry won the World Championships – the first British man to do so for 37 years. Graham Sharp was the only other Briton to win since the event was first contested in 1896 – but Curry was the first man to take the European, Olympic and World medals in one season. He repeated his Olympic programme – but this time scoring one six for presentation, the other judges awarding 5.9. Once again it was the artistry of his performance which won him the gold medal. He went on to create a company of ice dancers which put on shows like Symphony on Ice at the Albert Hall, the first time the venue had been used for an ice show. Prior to the world championships, John Curry was revealed to be gay by a German tabloid newspaper, Bild-Zeitung. In December 1987 he was diagnosed with HIV. He later spoke openly about his sexuality and the disease and admitted he had had to fight against prejudice in the skating world. He developed Aids and died in 1994.
  • Ellen van Dijk was born today in 1987, a Dutch professional road racing cyclist riding for Team Sunweb. Besides road cycling she was also a track cyclist until 2012. Van Dijk is known as a time trial specialist and is five times world champion. She won her first world title on the track in the scratch race in 2008. She became Road World Champion in 2012, 2013 and 2016 with her respective trade teams in the team time trial and in 2013 also in the individual time trial. In 2015 she won the time trial at the first European Games and the silver medal in the team time trial at the world championships. Van Dijk started as a speed skater and as part of her skating training she undertook cycling as part of cross-training in summer. She excelled at both, competing nationally at junior level. After becoming a national cycling champion for the fifth time in 2007, she quit speed skating and became a full-time cyclist. Along with her world title successes, Van Dijk has also twice been European track champion, twice European time trial champion and has won six World Cup races. In 2012 she competed in three disciplines at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, where she helped Marianne Vos win the gold medal in the road race, finished eighth in the time trial and sixth in the team pursuit.
  • On this day in 1995 Britain’s Mark Foster swam a world record time for the 50m butterfly, hitting the timing pads at 23.55s.
  • Ken Fletcher, Australian tennis player, whose greatest success came in 1963, when he became the only man to win a calendar year Grand Slam in mixed doubles, partnering fellow Australian Margaret Court.  He reached the final of the Australian Open in 1963, losing to Roy Emerson, died at the age of 65 on this day in 2006.
  • Dutch equestrian Jaap Rijks died on this day in 2017. Born in August 1919, his father, Jacob, father, was a Dutch national champion in combined driving, but Jaap himself preferred to ride the horses. In 1948, he co-organized the first edition of the Concours Hippique CHIO in Rotterdam, which is still held annually. Jaap himself competed, and helped the Dutch win the team event. Later that year, he also competed in the London Olympics, but failed to finish the competition. He then became an administrator, serving in the organization of CHIO, the Dutch federation (KNHS) and the International Equestrian Federation (FEI), where he was the treasurer from 1982 to 1989. At the 1984 and 1988 Olympics, Jaap was a judge. In 1982, he received the Dutch award “Equestrian of the Year”

12th

  • Bobby Peel, English professional cricketer who played first-class cricket for Yorkshire between 1883 and 1897 was born on this day in 1857. Primarily a left-arm spin bowler, Peel was also an effective left-handed batsman who played in the middle order. Between 1884 and 1896, he was regularly selected to represent England, playing 20 Test matches in which he took 101 wickets. Over the course of his career, he scored 12,191 runs and took 1,775 wickets in first-class cricket. A match-winning bowler, particularly when conditions favoured his style, Peel generally opened the attack, an orthodox tactic for a spinner at the time, and was highly regarded by critics. Peel began playing for Yorkshire in 1883 but, after a successful debut, was overshadowed in the team by Edmund Peate and often played only a minor role with the ball. Improvements in his batting and his excellence as a fielder kept him in the team and when Peate was sacked for drunkenness in 1887, Peel became Yorkshire’s main spinner. He had already played for England, touring Australia with two professional teams, although he did not play a Test in England until 1888. Over the following years he regularly took over 100 wickets in each season and often played in the prestigious Gentlemen v Players matches. His best season in county cricket came in 1896, when he recorded the double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets, and made his highest first-class score of 210. Among his notable feats in Tests, he bowled England to victory after they had followed on in Australia in 1894–95 and took six for 23 in his final Test. The first English cricketer to reach 100 wickets against Australia, in 1894–95 he also became the first player to fail to score in four successive Test innings. As a player, Peel was very popular and admirers often entertained him socially; he became well known for liking alcohol. On the morning of the match that England won after following on, Peel was intoxicated and had to be sobered up. In 1897, he was suspended by Yorkshire for drunkenness during a match. Although it is unclear what exactly happened—Peel said he slipped when fielding, but Hirst later recalled that he came on the field drunk and when asked to leave, bowled a ball in the wrong direction, he never played for the county again. Decades later, a widely circulated story suggested that Peel urinated on the pitch before being sent away. Historians consider the story unlikely, and attribute it to a misunderstanding by its reporter. Peel continued to play and coach cricket for most of his life and in later years became associated with Yorkshire once again. Among his other jobs, he became the landlord of a public house and worked in a mill. He died in 1941 at the age of 84.
  • In 1861 football teams from neighbouring Sheffield and Hallam clubs met at Sheffield to play the first inter-club game of football.
  • The Russian prima ballerina and choreographer Anna Pavlova was born on this day in 1881. She was a principal artist of the Imperial Russian Ballet and the Ballets Russes of Sergei Diaghilev. Pavlova is most recognized for the creation of the role The Dying Swan and, with her own company, became the first ballerina to tour ballet around the world. After leaving Russia, Pavlova moved to London, settling, in 1912, at the Ivy House on North End Road, Golders Green, north of Hampstead Heath, where she lived for the rest of her life. The house had an ornamental lake where she fed her pet swans, and where now stands a statue of her by the Scots sculptor George Henry Paulin. The house was featured in the film Anna Pavlova. It is now the London Jewish Cultural Centre, but a blue plaque marks it as a site of significant historical interest being Pavlova’s home. While in London, Pavlova was influential in the development of British ballet, most notably inspiring the career of Alicia Markova. The Gate pub, located on the border of Arkley and Totteridge (London Borough of Barnet), has a story, framed on its walls, describing a visit by Pavlova and her dance company. Pavlova was introduced to audiences in the United States by Max Rabinoff during his time as managing director of the Boston Grand Opera Company from 1914 to 1917 and was featured there with her Russian Ballet Company during that period. While touring in The Hague, Pavlova was told that she had pneumonia and required an operation. She was also told that she would never be able to dance again if she went ahead with it. She refused to have the surgery, saying “If I can’t dance then I’d rather be dead.” She died of pleurisy, in the bedroom next to the Japanese Salon of the Hotel Des Indes in The Hague, three weeks short of her 50th birthday. Victor Dandré wrote that Anna Pavlova died a half hour past midnight on Friday, January 23, 1931, with her maid Marguerite Letienne, Dr. Zalevsky and himself at her bedside. Her last words were, “Get my ‘Swan’ costume ready. In accordance with old ballet tradition, on the day she was to have next performed, the show went on as scheduled, with a single spotlight circling an empty stage where she would have been. Anna Pavlova was cremated, and her ashes placed in a columbarium at Golders Green Crematorium, where her urn was adorned with her ballet shoes (which have since been stolen).
  • Today in 1964 saw the end of Richie Benaud’s 63-Test Cricket career.
  • British athlete Steve Backley was born in 1969. He emerged as the finest male javelin thrower produced by Britain, first breaking the world record in July 1990 and in 1992 becoming the first man to throw 300ft (91m) with the modified javelin now used in competition. Despite his world record achiev ements, Backley disappointed in the 1990 Olympics, winning only a bronze medal.
  • The Dutch boxer Bep van Klaveren died on this day in 1992 aged 84. He won the gold medal in the featherweight division at the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam. Van Klaveren remains the only Dutch boxer to have won an Olympic gold medal. His younger brother Piet competed as a boxer at the 1952 Olympics.
  • On this day in 1994 the 17th Winter Olympic Games opened in Lillehammer, Norway and on the same date in 2010 saw the opening of the 21st Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada.
  • David Eugene Clark, American pole vaulter and Olympian died today in 2018.  Born on 28th April 1936 he competed in the pole vault at the 1960 Olympics. He finished third at the USA 1960 Olympic Trials, and at the Games themselves came 18th with a vault of 4:30m. He competed for North Texas State College and was a two-time Missouri Valley Conference pole vault champion in 1959 and 1960. He later earned a masters degree in education, and coached and worked as a teacher for 38 years. He stayed active by running marathons. He was inducted into the North Texas Athletic Hall of Fame in 1988, and in 2015 was inducted into the Texas Track and Field Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

13th

  • Born today in 1867 Harold Mahony, Scottish-born Irish tennis player who is best known for winning the singles title at the Wimbledon Championships in 1896. His career lasted from 1888 until his death in 1905. Mahony was born in Scotland but lived in Ireland for the majority of his life; his family were Irish including both of his parents, the family home was in County Kerry, Southwestern Ireland. He was the last Scottish born man to win Wimbledon until the victory of Andy Murray at the 2013 championships, (Andy’s brother Jamie was also born on this day, see below)
  • On this day in 1912 England regain the Ashes. 
  • Today in 1948 West Indian batsman Andy Ganteaume scores 112 for the West Indies in his only Test Cricket innings.
  • The 11th Winter Olympics, which were held at Sapporo, Japan, came to a close on this day in 1972. 
  • Born on this day in 1986, Scottish and British professional tennis player Jamie Murray . He is a six-time Grand Slam doubles winner and a Davis Cup champion, currently the world No. 7 doubles player and a former doubles world No. 1. Murray is the elder brother of Britain’s former world No. 1 singles tennis player Andy Murray. He has won six Grand Slam titles and  had an early career partnership with Eric Butorac, winning three titles in 2007. Having split with Butorac at the end of 2007, he subsequently played with 43 partners over the next  5½ years, his following seven ATP finals came with six different partners. In 2013, he began a new partnership with John Peers, winning six ATP tournaments, and reaching two Grand Slam men’s doubles finals. After the partnership split up, Murray joined with Bruno Soares for the 2016 Tour, the new pair enjoying almost immediate success after winning only their second ATP tournament playing together.  This turned out to be a good indicator of more success to come the pair going on to win the Australian Open, US Open and Jamie reaching the world no. 1 doubles ranking. Murray was in the Great Britain team that won the Davis Cup in 2015, the nation’s first success in the tournament for 79 years. With his brother Andy, he won the doubles matches in Britain’s quarter-final, semi-final and final victories. The Davis Cup team was awarded the 2015 BBC Sports Personality Team of the Year Award. Brad Gilbert, who coached Andy Murray, gave Jamie the name ‘Stretch’ because of his 6-foot 3 inch height and long arms.
  • In 1988 the 15th Winter Games of Calgary, Canada came to a close.
  • German athlete Heike Dreschler long jumped a then world indoor record of 7.37m today in 1988.
  • Sergei Bubka claimed another one of his many pole vault world records today in 1993 when he cleared 6.14m indoors.
  • In 1989 the Pakistan cricketer Shoaib Mohammad took a staggering 12 hours to score 163 runs against New Zealand at Wellington, it took him a record 11.5 hours to reach 150.
  • The popular BBC television commentator Ron Pickering died in 1991 at the age of 60. A renowned coach, he guided Lynn Davies to the 1964 Olympic long jump gold medal.
  • Liverpool signed the biggest shirt deal sponsorship deal to date in Football League history on this day in 1992 when they signed a four-year contract worth £4million with brewers Carlsberg.
  • Today in 2010 21 year old Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili died in a fatal crash during a training run for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, hours before the opening ceremonies. He became the fourth athlete to have died during Winter Olympics preparations, after British luger Kazimierz Kay-Skrzypeski, Australian skier Ross Milne (both 1964 Innsbruck), and Swiss speed skier Nicolas Bochatay (1992 Albertville), and the seventh athlete to die in either a Summer or Winter Olympic Games.
  • Danish ballet dancer, choreographer and teacher Nini Arlette Theilade died today in 2018 at the grand age of 102. Nini was born in Purwokerto, Dutch East Indies on 15th June 1915, her mother, Joanna Catarina, was of Polish, German, and French extraction, while her father, Hans Theilade, was an engineer. In 1926, on the family’s return to Denmark, she attended Asta Mollerup’s ballet school in Copenhagen. After she was refused entry to the Royal Ballet’s school when she was 12, her mother took her to Paris, hoping the best teachers of the time would ensure her development. Although Nini soon appeared in Carina Ari’s performances in Montreux with the Opéra Comique ballet company, her mother was more ambitious. She decided to place her with the highly reputed Paris school run by Lubov Egorova who trained the stars of the Ballets Russes. In 1929, aged 14, she appeared in The Hague in a solo programme of various pieces choreographed by Asta Mollerup. She was such a success that she went on tour in the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, France, Sweden and Finland. In 1931, she was a guest performer at the Royal Theatre, Copenhagen before touring the United States. From 1931, under Max Reinhardt, she appeared in Berlin, Vienna, Salzburg and Florence. She also starred both as a dancer and actress in Reinhardt’s Hollywood film A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 1935. From 1938-40, she played many leading roles in the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. In the 1950s, she was invited back to Copenhagen as a choreographer.  From 1969 to 1978, she founded a ballet academy in Thurø with a ballet company that toured Europe. She also began her involvement as ballet instructor at Odense Theatre’s school which was to last 30 years. After running into financial difficulties at Thurø, she and her second husband, Arne Buchter-Larsen, accepted an invitation to set up a three-year course of study in Lyon, the Académie de Ballet Nini Theilade. She left Lyon in 1990 at the age of 75 to return to Denmark where she continued to be active in drama and dance productions, she was to work for a further 20 years as dance instructor at Oure Folk School on the island of Funen.

14th

  • England dismissed South Africa for 30 runs at Port Elizabeth in 1896, George Lohmann took eight wickets for seven runs. The innings stood as the lowest in a Test match until 1955 when New Zealand were dismissed by England for just 26 runs in Auckland.
  • American jockey Johnny Longden was born at Wakefield in Yorkshire in 1907. He rode Court Fleet to victory in the US Triple Crown, that is the Kentucky Derby, the Belmont Stakes and the Preakness Stakes, in 1943. During 40 years as a jockey he rode 6032 winners and was the first man to pass the 6000th mark.
  • In 1925, in a Rugby League Northern Cup (now the Challenge Cup) match, Wigan beat Cumberland amateurs Flimby and Fothergill 116-0. Full-back Jim Sullivan kicked a then record 22 goals.
  • Former England footballer Kevin Keegan was born today in 1951. He started his career with Scunthorpe, and then moved to Liverpool where he became a favourite with the Kop – until he left for Hamburg in 1977! He returned to the UK to play for first Southampton followed by Newcastle United. He went on to manage Newcastle United, Fulham and Manchester City, winning promotion as champions in his first full season at all three clubs. He also managed the England national team.
  • Two Winter Olympics Games opened on this day in different years – in 1952, the 6th Games held in Oslo, Norway and in 1980, the 13th Games held in Lake Placid, NY.
  • Today in 1984 has a very special place in the hearts of all British fans of Ice-dancing, for it was on this day that Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean were crowned the Olympic ice skating champions after scooping gold in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. More than 24 million people watched the British couple score maximum points at the Zetra Stadium for their slow and sensuous free dance performance set to Ravel’s Bolero. The couple from Nottingham received a standing ovation from the 8,500 spectators in the arena and flowers rained onto the ice after they completed their stirring four-minute performance. They scored 12 out of 18 possible sixes for their free dance and the maximum possible of nine sixes for artistic impression.
  • In 1989 Peter Scudamore became only the third jockey after Stan Mellor amd John Francome, to ride 1000 National Hunt winners.
  • Bob Paisley, Liverpool’s famous manager died on this day aged 77 in 1996.
  • On this day in 2010 Alexandre Bilodau wins the gold medal in the freestyle skiing men’s moguls event thus becoming the first Canadian to win a Gold Medal during a Canadian-hosted Olympics.
  • Dick Francis died aged 89 today in 2010, he was a British steeplechase jockey and crime writer, whose novels centre on horse racing in England. After wartime service in the RAF, Francis became a full-time jump-jockey, winning over 350 races and becoming champion jockey of the British National Hunt. He came to further prominence in 1956 as jockey to Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, riding her horse Devon Loch when it fell, for unexplained reasons, while close to winning the Grand National. He then retired from the turf and became a professional journalist and novelist. All his novels deal with crime in the horse-racing world, some of the criminals being outwardly respectable figures. The stories are narrated by one of the key players, often a jockey, but sometimes a trainer, an owner, a bookie, or someone in a different profession, peripherally linked to racing. This person is always facing great obstacles, often including physical injury, from which he must fight back with determination. More than forty of these novels became international best-sellers.

15th

  • On this day in 1921 Australian cricketer Arthur Mailey, in the second innings of the fourth Test of the 1920/21 Ashes series at Melbourne, he took nine wickets for 121 runs, which is still the Test record for an Australian bowler. Later In first-class cricket at Cheltenham during the 1921 tour, he took all ten Gloucestershire wickets for 66 runs in the second innings. His 1958 autobiography was accordingly titled Ten for 66 and All That (an allusion to the humorous book of English history, 1066 and All That).
  • Graham Hill, one of the best known personalities in motor-racing was born in 1929. World champion with BRM in 1962, he lifted the title a second time, in 1968, with Lotus. He won the Monaco Grand Prix five times. He also had success in endurance races, in 1966 winning the Indianapolis 500, and in 1972 the Le Mans 24-hour race. He was killed in a plane crash in 1975.
  • Today in 1932 the 3rd Winter Olympic Games came to a close at Lake Placid in NY, on this closing day US bobsled team member Eddie Eagan becomes the only athlete to win Gold in both Summer and Winter Olympics, after winning a boxing Gold in 1920 at the men’s Light-heavyweight division. (NB – Gillis Grafström, the Swedish figure skater, won gold in both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games but it was in the same event, because in 1920, prior to the Winter Olympics, figure skating was part of the Summer Olympics. Grafström has the further distinction of being the only person to have won an individual gold medal in both the Summer (1920) and Winter Olympics (1924, 1928), although Eagan remains the only one to have managed the feat in different disciplines).
  • In the fifth test at Melbourne in 1932 Australia and South Africa play the shortest completed Test — all over in 5 hours 53 minutes. South Africa were bowled out for 45, following their 36 in the first innings – the shortest in the history of Test cricket. Despite playing the match, Don Bradman did not bat, and Clarrie Grimmett did not bowl.
  • Today in 1936 saw Norway’s Sonja Henie win her third consecutive Olympic figure staking Gold. She also won the World Championships ten times and was crowned European Champion six times; in fact she won more Olympic and World titles than any other ladies’ figure skater. She turned professional and appeared in live shows, at the height of her acting career, she was one of the highest paid stars in Hollywood.
  • In 1960 Australian wicketkeeper Wally Grout made a name for himself while playing for Queensland at Brisbane by dismissing eight batsman in one innings, a world-record in first-class cricket.
  • In 1976 the 12th Winter Olympic Games came to an end at Innsbruck in Austria.
  • 20 years to the day after Grout (above) was breaking records, another wicketkeeper, Bob Taylor of England, equalled the Test record by dismissing seven Indian batsmen, all caught, at Bombay.
  • On this day in 2014 Renaud Lavillenie, the French champion pole vaulter, broke the previous height record, held by athlete Sergey Bubka, at the Pole Vault Stars meet in Donetsk, Ukraine; Lavillenie reached 6.16m, indoors, exceeding Bubka’s world record of 6.15m indoors achieved in 1993.
  • American rodeo cowboy and world champion Lewis Feild died on this day in 2016. Lewis competed on the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association(PRCA) circuit. He was the World All-Around Cowboy Champion in 1985-87 at the National Finals Rodeo (NFR). He was also the World Bareback Riding Champion from 1985-1986. The ProRodeo Hall of Fame inducted him in 1992 in the all-around category.

16th 

  • England beat Australia by six wickets tow in the fourth test match at Brisbane in 1933 and thus regain the Ashes in the infamous ‘Bodyline’ series.
  • The 4th Winter Olympic Games held at Garmisch-Partenkirchen were closed on this day in 1936.
  • Ian Craig makes his NSW cricket debut aged 16 years 249 days in 1952. 
  • The brilliant but temperamental tennis star John McEnroe was born in 1959. He won the singles at Wimbledon in 1981, 1983 and 1984 and also captured the doubles title five times.
  • Cathy Freeman, Australian former 400m sprinter was born today in 1973. She would occasionally compete in other track events, but 400m was her main event. Her personal best of 48.63 currently ranks her as the sixth fastest woman of all time, set while finishing second to Marie-Jose Perec’s number-three time at the 1996 Olympics. She famously became the 400m Olympic champion at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, at which she lit the Olympic Flame. Freeman was the first Australian Indigenous person to become a Commonwealth Games gold medallist at age 16 in 1990. 1994 was her breakthrough season. At the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Canada, Freeman won gold in both the 200m and 400m. She also won the silver medal in the 1996 Olympics and came first at the 1997 World Championships, in the 400 m event. In 1998 Freeman took a break from running due to injury. She returned from injury in form with a first place in the 400 m at the 1999 World Championships. She announced her retirement from athletics in 2003.
  • On this day in 1984 Bill Johnson becomes the first American to win Olympic downhill skiing Gold.
  • speed skater Hein Vergeer becomes the World All-round champion for the second time on this day in 1986. 
  • Theresa Goh Singaporean swimmer and Paralympic medallist was born in 1987 with a bronze in the SB4 100m breaststroke at the 2016 Summer Paralympics. She holds the world records for the SB4 50m and 200m breaststroke events. Due to congenital spina bifida, she does not have use of her legs. Nonetheless, she started swimming at the age of five years, and began taking part in competitions at age 12. She soon established herself as a top competitor, winning medals at, among others, the ASEAN ParaGames (2001, 2003, 2005 and 2008), Far East and South Pacific Games Federation for the Disabled (FESPIC) Games (now known as the Asian Para Games) (2002), International Stoke Mandeville Wheelchair Sports Federation (ISMWSF) World Wheelchair Games (2003), National Swimming Championships (2004), and International Paralympic Committee (IPC) World Swimming Championships (2006).
  • At Leeds in 1991, Great Britain beat France 60-4 to register their biggest win in a rugby league international.
  • Martina Navratilova beat Jana Novotna in the Chicago Virginia Slims in 1992 to become the most successful Tennis player of all-time, it was the 158th title of her career.
  • On this day in 2011 Lance Armstrong announced his official retirement from professional cycling.
  • In 2013 Lionel Messi scored his 14th consecutive goal in La Liga and his 300th goal in 365 appearances for Barcelona.
  • Ronnie Blackman, English footballer, born on 2nd April 1925, died on this day in  2016. He played a vital role in the Reading team that finished second in the 1951–52 Third Division, narrowly missing out on promotion. Towards the end of that season, within the space of three weeks, he scored a total of 10 goals at Elm Park – including five goals against Southend United and four against Bournemouth to end the season on a high note. He scored 39 league goals that season and another goal in the FA Cup, a league club record which has yet to be equalled six decades later, although Trevor Senior edged ahead by scoring 41 goals in all competitions in 1983–84. A minute’s applause was held in his honour before Reading’s FA Cup tie with West Bromwich Albion on 19th February 2016.

17th

  • On this day in 1818 Baron Karl von Drais de Sauerbrun, German inventor, patents a ‘draisine’ A form of early bicycle also nicknamed the dandy horse. This incorporated the two-wheeler principle that is basic to the bicycle and motorcycle and was the beginning of mechanized personal transport. Drais also invented the earliest typewriter with a keyboard in 1821, later developed into an early stenograph machine, a meat grinder, and a wood-saving cooker using a hay chest.
  • In 1882 the first Test Cricket match was played at the Sydney Cricket Ground. 
  • The first telecast of a sporting event in Japan took place today in 1931 – a baseball game.
  • American basketball player Michael Johnson was born in 1963. A leading scorer among his contemporaries he accumulated 32,292 points with an average of 30.1 during his career.
  • Jean-Claude Killy of France, one of the greatest Alpine skiers of all time, won his third gold medal at the 1968 Olympics at Grenoble. Victorious in the downhill, the giant slalom and finally, in the slalom, he equalled Toni Sailer’s record of winning three gold medals at one Games.
  • On this day in 1971, England regained the Ashes with a 2-0 series win.
  • 49 people tragically lost their lives in a stampede for seats at a football match in Cairo, Egypt today in 1974. The so called Zamalek disaster happened when fans were crushed before friendly match at the Zamalek Stadium between Zamalek SC of Egypt and Dukla Prague of Czechoslovakia. Following a change of venue for the match, many supporters thought they would not be able to enter the newly chosen stadium, as the previously intended venue, Nasser Stadium, was much larger. In the ensuing rush the walls crumbled and many people were left dead. According to reports, up to 80,000 people tried to access the stadium, despite the capacity at the time being just 40,000.
  • In 1982 the first Test Cricket match between Sri Lanka and England commenced.
  • British swimmer Mark Foster set a new 50m world record on this day in 1993 of 21.60s.
  • On this day in 1998 the USA Women’s Ice Hockey Team beat Canada to win the first Olympic Gold medal. Approximately 70 ancient Olympic artefacts were stolen from the Archaeological Museum of Greece. Robbers broke into a museum in Olympia, the birthplace of the Olympics, tied and gagged a museum guard, and fled with stolen artifacts. The two men raided the Museum of the History of the Olympic Games, a smaller building close to the main Archaeological Museum of Olympia, just after 7:30 a.m. local time, said Athanassios Kokkalakis, a police spokesman. The robbers “approached the museum’s guard, tied her hands and bound her mouth and then went into the museum, where they took small clay and brass small statues, and a gold ring, and put them in a bag and left.”   Today in 2013 Australia beat the West Indies by 114 runs, to win the Women’s Cricket World Cup. 
  • Russ Prior, Canadian weightlifter, who was born on 11th July 1949, died on this day in 2017 aged 67. He first became interested in weightlifting at the age of 15, after reading about the lifting performance of a local resident in a newspaper. His father built a gym in their house’s basement, and he won multiple events at the CANUSA Games. Three times – in 1970, 1974, and 1978 – he also won gold medals at the Commonwealth Games, along with those titles, he won three Pan American Games gold medals. After not being able to compete at the 1972 Olympics due to a back injury, he won the bronze medal in the 110kg snatch at the 1976 World Weightlifting Championships, lifting 167.5kg. He participated at the 1976 Games in the 110kg event, and is credited with a ninth-place finish. In 1978, he became the Commonwealth record-holder in the 110+ kg clean and jerk, by successfully lifting 210.5kg.  He retired from the sport and moved to Winnipeg, where he became a school teacher