16th – Born on this day in 1876 was Claude Percy Buckenham, an Essex and England cricketer. A tall and gangling figure with a toothcomb moustache, Buckenham was a fast bowler and useful lower order batsman who played for Essex between 1899 and 1914. In his obituary in Wisdens it stated that he was more expensive that he perhaps deserved having suffered from a lot of slipshod fielding – his career average of more than 25 is high for that era. The 1906 season was the first in which he took more than 100 wickets, and he played several representative matches over the next few English seasons without breaking into the Test match team in England. He was picked in the squad for the fifth Test at The Oval against the 1909 Australians, but was then left out of the team: his omission was described by Sydney Pardon, editor of Wisden, as “a fatal blunder” and the selectors’ decision not to include a fast bowler at all “touched the confines of lunacy”. Buckenham’s only Test experience came on the 1909-10 tour to South Africa. In four Tests, he took 21 wickets at 28 runs apiece, including five for 115 in the first South African innings of the third Test at Johannesburg. But though he had his most productive season in 1911, with 134 first-class wickets, he was considered too old for the 1911-12 tour to Australia. Buckenham was a good amateur footballer and played county soccer for Essex. He played right-back for the Upton Park F.C. team that won the inaugural Olympic football tournament in 1900. Buckenham retired in 1914 to become professional at the Scottish club Forfarshire and after serving with Royal Garrison Artillery in the First World War he became cricket coach at Repton School. Eric Liddell, Scottish athlete, rugby union international player and missionary, who chose his religious beliefs over competing in an Olympic race held on a Sunday, was born today in 1902. At the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, Liddell refused to run in the heats for his favoured 100m because they were held on a Sunday. Instead he competed in the 400m, held on a weekday, a race that he won. He returned to China in 1925 to serve as a missionary teacher. Aside from two furloughs in Scotland, he remained in China until his death in a Japanese civilian internment camp in 1945. One of the best-known names on the American Indy Car circuit, A J Foyt, was born in 1935. In 1977 he became the first man to win the Indianapolis 500 endurance race four times, having won it previously in 1961, 1964 and 1967. Canadian snooker player Cliff Thorburn was born in 1948. He captured a thrilling world title at the Crucible Theatre in 1980 when he beat Alex Higgins 18-16. He also made history in 1983 when he became the first man to compile a maximum break in the world championship. In 1989, he became the first man to register two official maximum breaks in tournament play. Anatoli Boukreev, Russian/Kazakhstani mountaineer was born on this day in 1958.  He made ascents of 10 of the 14 eight-thousander peaks, i.e., peaks above 8,000m (26,247ft), without supplemental oxygen. From 1989 to 1997, he made 18 successful ascents of peaks above 8,000m. Boukreev had a reputation as an elite mountaineer in international climbing circles for summiting K2 in 1993 and Mount Everest via the North Ridge route in 1995, but became more widely known for his role in saving climbers during the 1996 Mount Everest disaster. In 1997, Boukreev was killed in an avalanche during a winter ascent of Annapurna in Nepal. Boukreev’s companion, Linda Wylie, edited his memoirs and published them in 2002 under the title, Above the Clouds: The Diaries of a High-Altitude Mountaineer. Arthur Darby, British rugby union player who competed in the 1900 Summer Olympics died on this day in 1960. Before representing Britain in the Olympics, Darby was selected to represent England as part of the 1899 Home Nations Championship while playing club rugby for Cambridge University. Darby played in only the one game for England in a period viewed as very poor for the national team. The next year Darby played for the British rugby union team, which won the silver medal. Philippe Thys, Belgian cyclist, died on this day in 1971, aged 81.   He was a three times winner of the Tour de France. In 1910, Thys won Belgium’s first national cyclo-cross championship. The following year he won the Circuit Français Peugeot, followed by stage races from Paris to Toulouse and Paris to Turin. He turned professional to ride the Tour de France. Thys won the Tour in 1913 despite breaking his bicycle fork and finding a bicycle shop to mend it. The repair cost him a 10-minute penalty but he won by just under nine minutes. Another broken fork by a rival on the way to Nice gave Thys the lead again but drama continued when he fell on the penultimate stage from Longwy to Dunkirk. Despite being knocked out and being penalised for help from teammates to repair his bike, he won by 8:37secs over Gustave Garrigou. In 1914, he took his first stage victory, to Le Havre, holding the race from start to finish despite a 30-minute penalty for an unauthorised wheel change on the penultimate stage. His victory looked uncertain, his lead cut to less than two minutes ahead of Henri Pélissier. Ironically, on the final stage from Dunkirk to Paris, the Frenchman’s supporters along the route who were expecting victory over the Belgian were the reason he was prevented from launching a breakaway. He won the stage but Thys finished on his wheel to win the Tour. In 1917, Thys won Paris–Tours and the Giro di Lombardia. In 1918, he also won the second and last Tours–Paris. After World War I, Thys won the Tour a third and final time in 1920. He led from the second stage, Henri Desgrange writing “France is not unaware that, without the war, the crack rider from Anderlecht would be celebrating not his third Tour, but his fifth or sixth”. Not until 1955 did Louison Bobet equal Thys’s record, and not until 1963 did Jacques Anquetil break it with four wins. Thys also rode in the 1922 Tour, winning five stages, and in the 1924 Tour, winning two stages. Born today in 1987, Charlotte Henshaw, British Paralympic swimmer, who competes in the SB6, SM8 and S8 category events. She represented Great Britain in both the 2011 IPC World Championships and the 2012 Paralympics, winning a silver medal in both championships.

 

17th Today in 1773 Captain James Cook becomes the first person to cross the Antarctic Circle. In 1916 Rodman Wanamaker organised a lunch to discuss forming a golfers association at the Taplow Club, Martinique Hotel, New York City. This association would later become known as the PGA. On this day in 1933 the MCC received a telegram from the Australian Cricket Board complaining about the excessive use of ‘bodyline’ bowing by Harold Larwood in the infamous Test series. The English pace bowler’s tactics of aiming deliveries at the batsman’s body sparked a fierce controversy and caused a lot of ill-feeling between the two nations. One of the world’s best-known sportsmen Muhammad Ali, was born in 1942.  He was widely regarded as one of the most significant and celebrated sports figures of the 20th century. From early in his career, Ali was known as an inspiring, controversial, and polarizing figure both inside and outside the ring. As Cassius Clay he won the Olympic light-heavyweight title in 1960. This achievement is reputed to have meant so much to him that he kept his medal around his neck, even when in the bath, for weeks after winning the title! However, an equally famous story from his 1975 autobiography goes that shortly after his return from the Rome Olympics, he threw his gold medal into the Ohio River after he and a friend were refused service at a “whites-only” restaurant and fought with a white gang. The story was later disputed and several of Ali’s friends, including Bundini Brown and photographer Howard Bingham, denied it. Thomas Hauser’s later biography of Ali stated that Ali was refused service at the diner but that he lost his medal a year after he won it.  Ali received a replacement medal at a basketball intermission during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, where he lit the torch to start the games. He turned professional shortly after his Olympic triumph and in Miami in 1964 he caused a sensation by defeating the seemingly invincible Sonny Liston for the world heavyweight title. In the return bout he beat Liston with a first round knockout and defended his crown successfully in the ring until stripped of it by the authorities in 1967 for refusing to be drafted into the US Army. He was systematically denied a boxing license in every state and stripped of his passport. As a result, he did not fight from March 1967 to October 1970—from ages 25 to almost 29—as his case worked its way through the appeals process before his conviction was overturned in 1971. During this time of inactivity, as opposition to the Vietnam War began to grow and Ali’s stance gained sympathy, he spoke at colleges across the nation, criticizing the Vietnam War and advocating African American pride and racial justice. He regained the title in 1974, beating George Foreman, for a further four years before losing it to Leon Spinks. Seven months later he beat Spinks to become the first man to twice regain the title. He made an unsuccessful attempt to regain it a third time against Larry Holmes in 1980. Ali retired in 1982 following a points defeat by Trevor Berbick. Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson’s syndrome in 1984, a disease that sometimes results from head trauma from activities such as boxing. Ali was hospitalized in Scottsdale on June 2, 2016, with a respiratory illness. Though his condition was initially described as “fair”, it worsened and he died the following day, at the age of 74, from septic shock.  The first division match between Manchester United and Arsenal in 1948 drew a then Football League record crowd of 83,260. The game was played at Manchester City’s Maine Road ground because war damage had put Old Trafford put of action. The game ended in a 1-1 draw. Maureen Connolly beat Julia Sampson to take the Australian Championships (6-3, 6-2) on this day in 1953. In 1983 people in the UK began switching on the televisions a little earlier than usual as the BBC launched the first breakfast news programme. The BBC’s new Breakfast Time programme went on air at 6:30am, presented by Nationwide’s Frank Bough and former ITN news reader Selina Scott. In 2013, after stripping Lance Armstrong of his seven Tour de France titles, the IOC takes away the cyclists bronze medal from the 2000 Olympics, after he was found guilty of doping.

 

18th England beat Wales 2-1 at Kennington Oval in 1879 in the first football international between the two countries. On this day in 1886 modern field hockey was born with the formation of The Hockey Association. The modern sport grew from English public schools in the early 19th century, the first club was circa 1862 at Blackheath, London but the modern rules evolved from a version played by Middlesex cricket clubs for winter sport. Teddington Hockey Club formed the modern game by introducing the striking circle and changing the ball to a sphere from a rubber cube. The first international competition took place in 1895 (Ireland 3,Wales 0) and the International Rules Board was founded in 1900. Today in 1911 aviator Eugene Ely performs his first successful take-off and landing from a ship in San Francisco. Herman Brockmann died on this day in 1936, Dutch rower who competed in the 1900 Olympics. He was part of the Dutch boats Minerva Amsterdam, which won the gold medal in the coxed pairs, the silver medal in the coxed fours and the bronze medal in the eights. He also competed in the semi-final of the coxed pairs competition. However, his 60kg weight was seen as a considerable disadvantage and he was replaced by an unknown local boy of 33kg. The crew went on to win the final narrowly beating the French team. Despite not racing the final Brockmann is considered a gold medallist by the IOC and is listed in their medal database. National Hunt jockey Richard Dunwoody was born in 1964. In the 1991-92 season he won a then National Hunt record £923,974 in prizemoney. He rode West Tip to win 1986 Grand National. Josep “Pep” Guardiola Sala was born today in 1971, the Spanish professional football coach and former player is the current manager of Manchester City. Lewis Marnell, Australian professional skateboarder died on this day in 2013 aged 30. He was Slam Magazine’s 2008 “Skater of the Year” and died following complications related to type 1 (juvenile) diabetes, a condition that was diagnosed when he was 10 years old. Numerous tributes were published following Marnell’s death and his longtime skateboard deck sponsor, Almost Skateboards, continues to use the hashtag “#LewisMarnellForever. On this day in 2014 a new world record was achieved by UKs Lewis Clarke of Bristol, when the 16 year-old became the youngest person to trek to the South Pole.

 

19th – In 1902 the magazine ‘L’Auto’ announced the new Tour de France. Captain Matthew Webb, the first recorded person to swim the English Channel without the use of artificial aids was born on this day in 1848. Magda Tagliaferro, Brazilian pianist was born today in 1893. Her father, who had studied piano with Raoul Pugno in Paris, was a voice and piano professor in São Paulo Conservatory. He was her first teacher. The cellist Pablo Casals heard Tagliaferro play in São Paulo when she was eleven, and he encouraged her to study at the Conservatoire de Paris. She went to Paris with her parents. Her father arranged for her to play for Pugno, who was impressed and recommended her to Antonin Marmontel at the Conservatoire. She entered the conservatoire in 1906 in Marmontel’s class and was awarded the Premier Prix (the highest examination award for performance) in 1907. Subsequently, she studied with Alfred Cortot and the two remained friends for the rest of his life. During her studies at the Conservatoire, the director, Gabriel Fauré invited her on a short tour with him. Later, she performed many of his compositions. During her career, her recital engagements took her to the musical centre of more than 30 countries in Europe, Africa, America, and Asia. She was also very active as a soloist, performing with many leading orchestras and performed with many distinguished conductors. Tagliaferro also had a distinguished career as a pedagogue. She taught in the Paris Conservatoire from 1937 to 1939, where Polish pianist Władysław Kędra was among her students, invited by her when she heard him play as she judged the III International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in February–March, 1937. She also created her own school in Paris and later in Rio de Janeiro and in São Paulo. Great Britain rugby league coach Mal Reilly was born in 1948. He spent his playing career with Castleford and Manly (Australia) before returning to ‘Cas’ as coach in 1974. As a player he won most of the game’s top honours including two challenge cup winners’ medals. In 1969 he won the Lance Todd Trophy. Sweden’s top lawn tennis player Stefan Edberg was born in 1966. He captured the Wimbledon title in 1988 when he beat Boris Becker in four sets. The two contested the 1989 final which Becker won in straight sets. Edberg regained the title the following year after a five-set marathon. He won his first Grand Slam event in 1985 when he took the Australian title. The Estonian chess player Sergei Zjukin was born today in 1972. He was awarded the International Master title in 2000 and played for Estonia in Chess Olympiads . Since 2004 he has been working as a chess coach in Tallinn’s Tinu Truusa chess club and chess club Lasnamäe Noorte. Today in 1990 police in Johannesburg armed with batons and dogs broke up a demonstration against the rebel cricketers who were defying a ban on playing in segregated South Africa. Several hundred protesters, many waving placards saying “Apartheid is not cricket” and “Ban racist tours” had gathered in the arrivals hall at Jan Smuts airport to wait for the 15 England tourists led by former England captain Mike Gatting. The cricketers were three hours late – by which time the police had moved in waving batons, setting the dogs on protesters and firing tear gas. The tour was organised by managing director of the South African Cricket Union, Dr Ali Bacher, and was opposed by the ANC and the mainly black National Sports Congress. They threatened to disrupt matches and interrupt play as part of their on-going campaign for the intensification of sanctions against South Africa. The rebel tour had to be abandoned early because of disruption. Organisers feared for the players’ safety after an explosion at the second Test venue, Capetown’s Newlands, before the match. Twenty-five days of demonstrations – plus the change in political climate following the release on 11 February of Nelson Mandela – convinced Dr Bacher the tour could not continue. A second tour planned for the following winter was also cancelled. The players were reported to have been paid in full. Gatting served a three-year Test ban and was recalled to the England side for the tour of India and Sri Lanka in 1992-93. In the rugby union international championship of 1991 England had their first win in Cardiff for 28 years. On the same day Serge Blanco, playing for France against Scotland, became the most capped rugby union player to date. Today in 2013 Lance Armstrong admits to doping in all seven of his Tour de France victories. American skier Lindsey Vonn wins her 63rd World Cup today in 2015, thus setting a new record after 35 years; the previous record of 62 wins was held by Austrian skier Annemarie Moser-Proell

 

20th – The first game of basketball was played at the YMCA Training School, Springfield, Massachusetts in 1892. The game had been devised a month previously by Dr James Naismith. On this day in 1930 Charles Lindbergh arrived in New York, setting a cross country flying record of 14.75 hours. Carol Heiss, American figure skater and former actress, was born today in 1940. She is the 1960 Olympic Champion in Ladies Singles, 1956 Olympic silver medallist and five-time World Champion (1956–1960). After the 1956 Winter Olympics, Heiss had offers to turn professional and skate in ice shows. But her mother, Marie Heiss, was quite ill with cancer at the time, and before her death in October, 1956, she asked Carol to stay an amateur to win a gold medal for her. She took the Olympic Oath as representative of the organizing country to open the 1960 games. By winning the 1960 World Championships held after the Olympics, Heiss became one of three women to have won five consecutive World Championships. She retired thereafter. Following her retirement from figure skating in 1960, Heiss played the female lead in the 1961 film Snow White and the Three Stooges. She married Hayes Alan Jenkins, who had won the 1956 Winter Olympic gold medal in men’s figure skating, and whose brother David Jenkins had won the men’s figure skating gold medal in 1960. Although Heiss briefly skated in ice shows after the Squaw Valley Winter Olympics, she retired from the sport in 1962. However, in the late 1970s, she returned to coach several skaters in her hometown area, Akron, Ohio where she became a prominent figure skating coach and is now coaching in Lakewood, Ohio. Some of her students include Timothy Goebel, Tonia Kwiatkowski and Miki Ando. Heiss was known as a very athletic skater for her time. In 1953, she became the first female skater to land a double axel jump. Carol Heiss’s younger sister and brother, Nancy Heiss and Bruce Heiss, were also elite figure skating competitors. During the 1950s, the three skating Heiss siblings were featured in publications such as Life magazine. Christopher Martin-Jenkins was born on this day in 1945, also known as CMJ, he was a British cricket journalist and a President of the MCC. He was also the longest serving commentator for Test Match Special (TMS) on BBC Radio, from 1973 until diagnosed with terminal cancer in January 2012, he passed away on 1st January 2013. Today in 1958 members of the team attempting the first surface crossing of the Antarctic joined up at the South Pole. New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary – who had already conquered Mount Everest – had arrived with his team 17 days previously. Early on the afternoon of the 20th, Sir Edmund welcomed the British team led by Dr Vivian “Bunny” Fuchs to the South Pole. The British and New Zealand teams were members of a joint Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic expedition but set off from opposite ends of the continent last November. They reached Scott camp on 2 March 1958 after a journey of 99 days and more than 2,000 miles across the Antarctic. Dr Fuchs’ achievement was rewarded by an immediate knighthood and he returned home to Britain as Sir Vivian. In 1974 Millwall and Fulham met at The Den in the first Football League game to be played on a Sunday. Millwall won 1-0 with a goal by Brian Clark. Today in 1980 US President Jimmy Carter announced the American boycott of the Moscow Olympics. Swimmer Johnny Weissmuller died in 1984. He was the first man to swim 100m in under a minute which he did in 1922. He won both the 100m and 400m freestyle gold medals at the 1924 Paris Olympics. He retained his 100m title in Amsterdam four years later. He also won gold in the relay at both Games. In 1928 he was a member of the US Water Polo team that took the bronze medal. When his swimming career ended, he went to Hollywood where he made, in 1934, the first of 12 Tarzan movies that would keep him in the public eye. He was the first of four Olympic medallists to play the title role, the others being Buster Crabbe, Herman Brix and Glenn Morris. Freddie Williams, Welshmotorcycle speedway rider died on this day in 2013. He was World Champion on two occasions, the winner of the Speedway World Championship in 1950 and 1953 and runner-up in 1952. Williams grew up in Port Talbot, where he was a classmate of Richard Burton, and they played together in the school rugby team. In 1941 he moved to Portsmouth where he started an apprenticeship in the dockyards as an engineer-fitter. He was a despatch rider in World War II, and began his speedway career as the war ended, after initially competing in grass-track. After attending training sessions at Rye House, he was signed by Alec Jackson for the Wembley Lions, and in 1948 got a regular place in the team after injuries to George Wilks and Bill Kitchen. Williams rode for the Wembley Lionsfor his entire career, from 1947 until 1956. He became the first British rider to win two World titles (in 1950 and 1953), a feat only matched by Peter Craven a decade later. Williams represented England in test match series, gaining his first cap in 1949. In 1952 he married Olympic skater Pat Devries. His two younger brothers, Ian and Eric, were also speedway riders, and Freddie acted as Eric’s mechanic at the 1957 World Final. Williams died aged 86 following a stroke the previous day. As of the 2014 World Championship, Williams is one of only seven British riders, and the only Welshman, to win speedway’s ultimate individual prize.

 

21st – The inaugural Monte Carlo Rally, one of the best-known long-distance motor car races, got underway on this day in 1911. On this day in 1920 Australasia beat Great Britain in the 14th Davis Cup (4-1) held in Sydney. Jack Nicklaus, one of the greatest golfers of modern times, was born in 1940. A professional since 1961 he has won 18 professional majors as well as producing 19 second-place and 9 third-place finishes in them, over a span of 25 years. His first win was the US Open in 1962, a tournament that he has won four times. He has five PGA championship wins to his name as well as three British Open titles and six US Masters, the last being in 1986 at the age of 46. Since joining the Seniors’ Tour in 1990 he has continued on his winning ways, with 8 titles. Today in 1950 the acclaimed author George Orwell died after a three-year battle against tuberculosis. In 1966 the future of the Monte Carlo Rally was thrown into doubt when the first four cars to cross the finishing line were disqualified. Timo Makinen (Finland) driving a British Motor Corporation Mini-Cooper, followed by Roger Clark (Ford Lotus Cortina), and Rauno Aaltonen and Paddy Hopkirk, both also driving BMC Minis. They were all ruled out of the prizes – with six other British cars for alleged infringements of complex regulations about the way their headlights dipped. The official winner was announced as Pauli Toivonen, a Finn, driving a Citroen. BMC and Ford lodged protests but they were rejected by the race organisers. After the race, a British official said: “This will be the end of the Monte Carlo rally. Britain is certain to withdraw.” They boycotted the official farewell dinner held at the International Sporting Club. Prince Rainier of Monaco showed his anger at the disqualifications by leaving the rally before attending the prize-giving which he had always done in previous years. On 13 October 1966, the supreme motor racing and rally tribunal upheld the disqualifications. The Federation Internationale de l’Automobile in Paris said the iodine quartz headlights fitted on the British cars were not standard. The Citroen declared the official winner, which had similar lamps, was approved because the bulbs were fitted as standard on some models. Pauli Toivonen never drove for Citroen again. In 1986, his son Henri won the Monte Carlo rally. Today in 1990 saw John McEnroe become the first player since 1963 to be expelled from a Grand Slam tournament when he was disqualified from the Australian Open. Playing against Sweden’s Mikael Pernfors he won the first set easily but Pernfors lifted the level of his game to win the second set. After the players traded service breaks in the third, McEnroe led 2-1. During the changeover, he stopped in front of a lineswoman he thought had made a bad call, glaring at her while bouncing a ball on his racket. The chair umpire, Gerry Armstrong, gave McEnroe a conduct code violation for unsportsmanlike conduct. Bigger trouble began in the seventh game of the fourth set, with McEnroe leading overall 6-1, 4-6, 7-5, 2-4. Hitting a forehand wide to go down 15-30, McEnroe threw his racket to the ground, where it bounced on the court’s hard surface. Another wide McEnroe forehand prompted another racket smash, this one cracking the racket’s head. Armstrong called another code violation, for racket abuse, and McEnroe started swearing at him, demanding the intervention of Ken Farrar, the Grand Slam chief of supervisors. Farrar arrived and spoke with McEnroe, whose continued complaints and swearing were audible to spectators and TV viewers. With Farrar’s authorization, Armstrong called a third and final code violation: “Default Mr. McEnroe. Game, set, match……” The crowd of 150,000 rose to their feet, booing and chanting their support for McEnroe, as McEnroe himself stood with his hands on his hips, stunned. The last player to be disqualified from a Grand Slam for misconduct had been Willie Alvarez of Spain, in the 1963 French Open, 17 years earlier. Mrinalini Sarabhai, Indian classical dancer, choreographer and instructor died today in 2016 at the age of 97. She was the founder of the Darpana Academy of Performing Arts, an institute for imparting training in dance, drama, music and puppetry, in the city of Ahmedabad. She received many awards and citations in recognitions of her contribution to art. She trained over 18,000 students in Bharatnatyam and Kathakali.

 

22nd – On this day in 1552 Sir Walter Raleigh was born, he died in 1618. Henri Pélissier, French cyclist was born today in 1889. He was the 1923 Tour de France champion and in addition to his 29 career victories, he was also known for his long-standing feud with Tour founder Henri Desgrange and for protesting against the conditions endured by riders in the early years of the Tour. Pélissier was one of four brothers, three of whom became professional cyclists. He began racing professionally in 1911 and amassed important victories before the First World War, including the 1912 Milan–San Remo and three stages in the 1914 Tour de France. After the war he resumed competition, winning Paris–Roubaix in 1919 and the second (and final) running of the Circuit des Champs de Bataillein 1920. He entered the Tour de France in 1920 and for the next four years. Before the 1921 Paris–Roubaix, Pélissier and his brother Francis demanded their sponsor pay them more than racers usually received. Their request was rebuffed and they rode as individuals without team support. Desgrange vowed that they would never again appear on the front page of his newspaper L’Auto, only to eat his words when Pélissier emerged the champion. Pélissier rode his last Tour de France in 1925. He did not finish. He stopped racing in 1927. He did nothing for two years after ending his career, then returned as a motorcycle-pacer and team manager. He had little success at either. In 1932 he wrote his impressions of the Tour de France for Paris-Soir. He remained bitter about those he believed treated cyclists as little better than slaves, said the broadcaster Jean-Paul Brouchon, while forgetting that cycling had made him rich. Pélissier’s first wife, Léonie, shot herself in 1933. Three years later Pélissier took a lover, Camille Tharault whom he called Miete, who was 20 years his junior. He threatened her with a knife at least once and on 1 May 1935, he and Camille had a row and Pélissier lunged at her with a knife, cutting her face. She ran to the bedroom, opened a drawer and pulled out the revolver with which Léonie had shot herself. She ran back to the kitchen and found Pélissier waiting with the knife. At that moment both saw the other as threatening and Camille pulled the trigger five times. Pélissier fell to the floor. Next day, Paris-Soir‘s headline was: THE TRAGIC END OF HENRI PÉLISSIER surprises no-one at Dampierre‘If I’d had the money I would have left him long ago’ the murderess said yesterdayCamille’s trial opened a year later, almost to the day. She pleaded self-defence and on 26 May 1936, she was handed a year’s suspended jail sentence. It was as close as the court could come to acquitting her. Former Everton and England centre-forward Dixie Dean was born on this day in 1907. In the 1927-28 season he scored a record 60 goals in a Football League season, he also scored 18 goals in 16 appearances for England. Dean died on 1 March 1980 at age 73 after suffering a heart attack at Goodison Park whilst watching a Merseyside Derby. It was the first time that Dean had visited Goodison Park in several years, due to ill health. “He belongs to the company of the supremely great, like Beethoven, Shakespeare and Rembrandt“, said Bill Shankly. His funeral took place at St. James’ Church on Laird Street (the street where he was born) in Birkenhead. Dean was survived by his four children: William, Geoffrey, Ralph and Barbara; he outlived his wife Ethel, who died of a heart attack in 1974 after 43 years of marriage. The man who guided England to World Cup glory in 1966, Sir Alf Ramsey, was born in 1920. He was appointed England manager in 1963, a year after talking Ipswich to the first division title. Former heavyweight boxer George Foreman was born in 1949. He won the title by beating Joe Frazier in 1973 and made two successful defences before losing to Muhammad Ali in Kinshasa, Zaire in 1974. He came out of retirement in the 1980s to have another crack at the world crown and in 1991, at the age of 43, was beaten on points by Evander Holyfield. Joe Davies complied the first official maximum snooker break of 147 in 1955, playing against Willie Smith at the Leicester Square Hall. On this day in 1956 Betsy Rawls wins the LPGA Tampa Golf Open. Britain’s first world moto-racing champion, Mike Hawthorn, died in 1959 when the Jaguar he was driving went out of control on the Guilford by-pass. British Olympic swimmer Nick Gillingham was born in 1967. He also represented GB in FINA world championships and European championships, and England in the Commonwealth Games and participated in three consecutive Olympics, starting in 1988. In August 1989, he equalled the existing world record in the long-course 200m breaststroke, only to co-hold it for a single day before the other record co-holder, American Mike Barrowman, lowered the record again. At the 1988 Olympics in Seoul he won a silver medal in the 200m followed by a bronze medal in the same event four years later at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. He also won the world title at the first inaugural 1993 FINA Short Course World Championships in Palma de Mallorca. He broke three world, ten European, nine Commonwealth and seventeen British records during his career and won 17 major championships. Gillingham was awarded the MBE in 1993 for ‘services to swimming’ and retired from full-time competitive sport in 1996.Today in 1988 saw Brian Lara make his first class cricket debut for Trinidad and Tobago against Leeward Islands.