21st Today in 1783, Jean de Rozier and the Marquis d’Arlandes make the first free-flight ascent in a balloon to over 500ft in Paris. On this day in 1905, the first ever game was played in the Australasian Championships, now known as the Australian Open. The competition lasted until 27th November and consisted of men’s singles and doubles. The singles event had a field of 17 players and was won by Australian Rodney Heath, who defeated his fellow countryman Albert Curtis 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4. The tournament was played on grass at the Warehouseman’s Cricket Ground in Melbourne.   The Cunard liner Mauritania sets a new speed record for steamship travel, 624 nautical miles in a one-day run, on this day in 1907. Born today in 1919, Gert Fredriksson, considered the world’s greatest canoeist. Swedish-born Fredriksson dominated the sport between 1948 and 1960, winning seven world championships in kayaking and a record eight Olympic medals, including six golds. In 1942 that chirpy little bird and arch enemy of Sylvester – Tweety Pie made his debut in ‘Tale of Two Kitties’. Felice Bonetto, Italian racing driver lost his life on this day in 1953. Considered a courageous driver he was nicknamed ‘Il Pirata’ (The Pirate), he started his racing career in the 1930s and enjoyed a brief spell in Formula 1, including a win in the non-Championship Grande Premio do Jubileu in 1953 and was winner of the 1952 Targa Florio, but sadly he was killed when he hit a lamp post whilst leading the 1953 Carrera Pananericana in Mexico. On this day in 1967 Phillip and Jay Kunz flew a kite to a record 28,000 thousand feet. Eesha Karavade, Indian Chess player, was born on this day in 1987. She holds the titles of Woman Grandmaster and International Master. She played for India in the Chess Olympiads of 2010, 2012 and 2014. The proceedings of the House of Commons were televised live for the first time today in 1989. The first proceedings to be televised were the Debate on the Address and the first televised speech was by Ian Gow, a Conservative opponent of the experiment. Initially broadcasters could only show a close-up of each speaker or a wide shot, but this was relaxed after a few weeks to allow reaction shots. Televised proceedings led to a substantial increase in the number of news reports featuring the Commons, and in July 1990 the House agreed to make the experiment permanent. In 1990 the 250-1 chance Equinoctal won at Kelso to confound the bookies and go into the records books at the longest shot ever to win a horse race in Britain. Today in 2012, the then Chelsea manager Roberto Di Matteo was sacked and replaced by Rafa Benitez. As caretaker manager Di Matteo steered Chelsea to double title success, winning both the FA Cup and the club’s first UEFA Champions League title earlier in the year.

 

22ndToday in 1910, Arthur Knight patents the steel shaft golf club, he is also credited with the invention of the Schenectady putter. The National Hockey League (NHL) was formed in Montreal in 1917. Spare a thought for Billy Minter of St Albans City. On this day in 1922, he scored seven goals in an FA Cup tie against Dulwich Hamlet but still ended up on the losing side, Dulwich won 8-7. Clapton Orient played Brentford in a Football League game on this day in 1930. It was the first of only two Football League games (excluding present day end of season play-offs) ever played at Wembley Stadium. One of the finest women tennis players of all time, Billie-Jean King, was born in 1943. She won 39 Grand Slam titles, including 12 singles, 16 women’s doubles, and 11 mixed doubles titles. King won the singles title at the inaugural WTA Tour Championships. King often represented the United States in the Federation Cup and the Wightman Cup. She was a member of the victorious United States team in seven Federation Cups and nine Wightman Cups. For three years, King was the United States’ captain in the Federation Cup. She is an advocate for gender equality. In 1973, at age 29, she won the Battle of the Sexes tennis match against the 55-year-old Bobby Riggs, and was the founder of the Women’s Tennis Association, World Team Tennis (with former husband Larry King), and the Women’s Sports Foundation. The 16th Modern Olympic Games opened this day in 1956 in Melbourne, Australia. German tennis player Boris Becker was born on this day in 1967. He won the Wimbledon title in 1985 and was the youngest-ever men’s champion, at 17 years and seven months. He retained his title in 1986 and won again in 1989, the year of his first US Open title. The Beatles release “Beatles” (White Album), their only double album in 1968. Today marks the Test Cricket debuts of both Gordon Greenidge and Viv Richards at Bangalore in 1974. Mike Tyson became the youngest world heavyweight boxing champion in 1986 when he beat Trevor Berbick for the WBC title at Las Vegas, he was 20 years and six months old at the time, virtually 18 months younger that the previous youngest champion Floyd Patterson. A momentous occasion today in 2003 for English Rugby Union as the national side wins the Webb Ellis Rugby World Cup trophy. Beating Australia 20-17 in Sydney, the game was won with just 26 seconds left on the clock with a breath-taking drop goal by Newcastle fly-half and youngest member of the squad Johnny Wilkinson. Microsoft released the Xbox 360 Video game today in 2005.

 

23rdThomas Lord, the man who gave cricket the Lord’s Ground was born in 1755. He developed his first ground in 1787 before moving to a second site at North Bank in 1809, and in 1814 to the present-day sire at St John’s Wood. The jukebox made its debut at the Palais Royale Saloon in San Francisco today in 1889. On this day in 1904 the 3rd Olympic Games closed in St Louis. Australian tennis champion Lew Hoad was born in 1934. He won the Wimbledon title in 1956, the same year he completed three legs of the Grand Slam, and in 1957. The US title was the one that eluded him in 1956, fellow Australian Ken Rosewall beating him in the final. Another top Australian sport personality has a birthday on this day: swimmer Shane Gould, who was born in 1956. She won three gold medals in the 1972 Olympics – 200 and 400m freestyle and the 200m IM. She is the only person, male or female, to hold every world freestyle record from 100 metres to 1500 metres and the 200-metre individual medley world record simultaneously, which she did from 12 December 1971 to 1 September 1972. She is the first female swimmer ever to win three Olympic gold medals in world record time, and the first swimmer, male or female, to win Olympic medals in five individual events in a single Olympics.  She retired in 1973 at the grand old age of 16! The Apneist Jacques Mayol becomes the first man to reach a depth of 10m undersea withut the aid og any breathing equipment in 1976. Scott Brash, Scottish showjumper, was born on this day in 1985 is a He has been riding the horse Hello Sanctos since early 2012. They competed as part of the British Team at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London winning a gold medal in the team jumping event. In 2015 he became the first rider to win show jumping’s Rolex Grand Slam, all three of the sport’s most prestigious events in a single year, earning the sport’s biggest individual prize of 1m Euros (£735,000). The 10,000,000 Cell/Mobile phone is sold on this day in 1992. On this day in 2013 a special episode of the British science fiction program ‘Doctor Who‘ called, ‘The Day of the Doctor’ broadcasts simultaneously to 94 countries in celebration of the show’s 50th Anniversary; the broadcast earned a Guinness World Record for the largest ever simulcast of a TV drama. Today in 2014, Switzerland beat France (3-1) in Lille, winning the Davis Cup for the first time. American tennis player Dorothy “Dodo” May Sutton Bundy Cheney died today in 2014 at the age of 98. She played most of her tennis at the Los Angeles Tennis Club. In 1938, Cheney became the first American to win the women’s singles title at the Australian Championships, defeating Dorothy Stevenson in the final. She is the daughter of Tennis Hall of Famer May Sutton Bundy and U.S. doubles champion Tom Bundy (1912–1914) and the grandmother of former Major League Baseball player Danny Putnam.

 

24thAnna Sewell’s animal welfare novel Black Beauty is published on this day in 1877 Three former England Test cricketers were born on this day. Herbert Sutcliffe, one of England and Yorkshire’s most prolific batsmen in pre-war years was born in 1894. He scored 4555 runs in his 54 appearances for England. He is one of only seven batsmen to score 50,000 runs in the first-class games, between 1919 and 1945. On three occasions he scored 3000 runs in a season. Sutcliffe died in 1978 at the age of 83. Ken Barrington, a member of the successful Surrey team of the 1950s was born in 1930. He appeared in 82 Tests and score 6806 runs at an average of 58.67, he dies in Barbados in 1981. Ian Botham was born in 1955. He made his first-class debut for Somerset in 1974. A great all-rounder, he was the first player to make 3000 runs and take 300 wickets in Test cricket. He played for England 102 times and captained the side in 12 tests in 1980 and 1981. In his Test career he has scored 5200 runs, taken a one-time record 383 wickets and held 120 catches. Born on this day in 1971, Cosmas Ndeti, three-time winner of the Boston Marathon. He was the winner of the 1993, 1994, and 1995 races. He set the course record in 1994 with a time of 2:07:15, which was also the best marathon performance in 1994.  That course record stood for 12 years until it was broken by one second when Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot, a fellow Kenyan, won the 2006 race. Tennis player Monica Seles, sets a then female tennis record winning $2,457,758 in a year on this day in 1991. Freddie Mercury of the rock band Queen dies at the age of 45 of pneumonia brought on by AIDS also today in 1991. On this day in 1996 Mohammad Wasim scores 109 on his Test Cricket debut – Pakistan v New Zealand at Lahore. On the very same day Rookie Karrie Webb wins the LPGA Tour Championship.

 

25thBaseball star Joe DiMaggio, who led the Yankees to nine World Series titles, was born in 1914. He hit safety in 56 consecutive games in 1941, an al-time record. He retired in 1951 but returned to the limelight in January 1954 when he married Marilyn Monroe. Nine months later Monroe sued for divorce. The former England rugby international Dickie Jeeps was born in 1931. He played for England 24 times and went on three Lions tours. He later became chairman of the Sports Council. Pakistan cricketer, and part-time heart throb, Imran Khan was born in 1952. He made his test debut in 1971 and became Pakistan’s most prolific wicket-taker with 362 victims to his credit. In 1983 he emulated Ian Botham’s record of scoring a century and taking ten wickets in a Test match. On this day in 1952 Agatha Christie’s murder-mystery play The Mousetrap opened at the Ambassadors Theatre in the West End and has been running continuously since then. It has by far the longest initial run of any play in history, with its 25,000th performance taking place on the 18th November 2012. The play is known for its twist of the tale at the end, which audiences are traditionally asked not to reveal after leaving the theatre. Hubert Van Innis, the greatest Olympic archer you may never have heard of died on this day in 1961. With six gold medals and three silver medals from just two appearances, 20 years apart, he is far and away the all-time leader in terms of Olympic medals from the sport. Van Innis competed in an Olympic era vastly different from the one today, shooting in only the second modern Games at Paris 1900, and then reappearing to grab more medals at Antwerp in 1920, after which there was a 52-year lull until Olympic arrows would fly again at Munich in 1972.  Today in 1966, the first television link was made between Australia and the UK. In 1945, Gail Collins became the first female journalist to serve as editorial page editor on The New York Times In 1953 the England National Football team were beaten at Wembley by continental opposition for the first time in its history. England were outplayed by a Hungarian side brimming with flair and technical skill. The visitors won 6-3 with Nandor Hidgekuti scoring a hat-trick and their captain, the legendary Ferenc Puskas, two beautifully judged goals. Peter Shilton made his debut as England’s goal keeper in a 3-1 win over East Germany at Wembley in 1970. He went on to keep goal 125 times for England and has his last game in 1990. Today in 1980, Sugar Ray Leonard defeats Duran to regain his WBC welterweight championship. The Northern Irish professional footballer George Best died on this day in 2005 aged 59. Born and brought up in Belfast, Best began his club career in England with Manchester United. After making his debut for United at 17, he scored 179 goals from 470 appearances over 11 years and was the club’s top goal scorer in the league for five consecutive seasons. In 1968 he won the European Cup with United and was named the European Footballer of the Year and FWA Footballer of the Year. The Irish Football Association described him as the ‘greatest player to ever pull on the green shirt of Northern Ireland’. Sitara Devi died today in 2014, an eminent Indian dancer of the classical Kathak style of dancing. Rabindranath Tagore described her as Nritya Samragini, meaning the empress of dance, after watching her performance when she was just 16 years old. The epithet continues, and she is still described as the Kathak queen. She gave performances in several parts of India, and in several other countries, including the Royal Albert Hall, London in 1967; and at the Carnegie Hall, New York in 1976.

 

26th The University of Notre Dame is founded today in 1842. In 1922, the archaeologists Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter open the tomb of Pharaoh King Tutankhamun, which had lain undisturbed for 3,000 years. Casablanca, starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, had its world premiere at the Hollywood Theatre in New York today in 1942. On this day in 1953, The House of Lords backed the Conservative Government’s proposals for the introduction of commercial television – despite fierce opposition from some rebels. The House of Lords voted by 157 to 87, a Government majority of 70, in favour of the plans as outlined in its White Paper on the future of television. The victory came only after two days of vigorous debate in which some serious opposition to the idea of a commercial station paid for by advertising was expressed. Pressure to end the BBC’s monopoly on broadcasting has been mounting since the end of World War II. The debate moved up a gear in 1951 when the BBC’s charter came up for renewal. Although the corporation’s biggest supporter, Labour’s Clement Attlee, lost the general election the Conservatives did grant a new licence – with some modifications. The previous July MPs held a debate on the future of television and ordered an independent report to make recommendations for a second television channel. Rugby League star Joe Lydon was born in Wigan in 1963. He made his name as a winger and centre with the Cheshire club Widnes, collecting a Premiership winner’s medal in his first season (1982-83) and a Challenge Cup winner’s medal the following season. He won the coveted Lance Todd Award for his performance in the final of the Challenge Cup, which included two tries to set up the win against Wigan. In the same season, 1983-84, he won the Man of Steel award. In 1983 he made the first of three appearances for the Great Britain Under-24 team against France in January and a month later makes his full Great Britain début, scoring a try and three goals in 20–5 win over France in Carcassonne. He later moved to Wigan, his hometown team, where he continued to add to his silverware collection.   Immediately after retiring as a Wigan player, Lydon became the team manager of Wigan Warriors – a position he held until 1996. In 1997 Lydon was appointed the RFL’s first-ever technical director, a post he held until resigning the post in 2000 when he was appointed manager of the England under-19 rugby union side. He was appointed England Sevens coach in October 2001 In June 2004, he was appointed backs coach for the England rugby union team. In May 2006, after being removed as England backs coach, Lydon turned down the opportunity to join the England RFU Academy. Today in 1979 the IOC voted to readmit China after 21 years. Spain beats USA in the 33rd Tennis Federation Cup 3-2in Valencia on this day in 1995. Isaac Gálvez López, Spanish track and road racing cyclist passed away today in 2006. During the Six Days of Ghent cycling event in Belgium he collided with Dimitri De Fauw, crashing against the railing and consequently died from internal bleeding. At the time of the accident he had only been married for three weeks. After this, De Fauw suffered from depression and he committed suicide on November 6, 2009.

      

 

27thThe astronomer Anders Celsius who devised the centigrade temperature scale was born today in 1701. Julius Lenhart, Austrian gymnast was born on this day in 1875.  He competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics, winning two gold medals and one silver medal, making him the most successful Austrian competitor ever at the Summer Olympic Games. He started his career in Vienna at a local gymnastics club. Due to his work as mechanical engineer he went to Germany and Switzerland, where he continued to compete in local clubs at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1903 he travelled to the USA and found work and a new gymnastics club in Philadelphia. As a member of Philadelphia Turngemeinde, Lenhart competed at the Olympic Games in St. Louis in 1904. Soon after the games he returned to Austria where he retired from gymnastics in 1908. Because athletes did not compete for their nations at early Olympic Games as they do now, the International Olympic Committee credit’s Lenharts medals to the United States instead of Austria, as he was representing his Philadelphia-based club. In 1971 Sammy Chapman ended Nottingham Forest FC’s prpud 32-year-old record of not having a player sent off. He was given his marching orders in a game against Leeds United. On 27th November 1975 Guinness Book of Records co-founder and editor Ross McWhirter was shot dead outside his North London home by two IRA volunteers. The well-known author and BBC Record Breakers presenter had previously offered a reward of £50,000 for information leading to the arrest of IRA bombers. His killers were captured and charged with his and nine other murders.  They were sentenced to life imprisonment but freed in 1999 under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. The first regular cricket to be played under floodlights occurred during World Series Cricket, unsanctioned by the International Cricket Council, attracting large crowds to see some of the world’s best players compete in Australia and the West Indies. In 1979, when the ICC and World Series Cricket came to an understanding, the first floodlit One Day International was played, also in Australia. Flood-lit first-class cricket was first played in 1994, when the concept was tried during the Sheffield Shield.  Day/Night cricket is now commonplace in one-day cricket and Twenty20 cricket. For instance, all 27 matches in the 2014 ICC World Twenty20 were day/night matches as were most matches in the 2011 Cricket World Cup. In October 2012, the International Cricket Council recast the playing conditions for Test matches, permitting day/night Test matches The first day/night game took place between Australia and New Zealand at the Adelaide Oval on 27 November 2015, 36 years to the day from the first ICC sanctioned day night match. In 1989, three weeks after an on-field brawl which involved almost of the Arsenal and Norwich City players at their match at Highbury after Arsenal were award a penalty in injury time, the FA imposed heavy fines on both clubs. Arsenal were fined £20,000 and Norwich City £50,000, which the FA hoped would prevent a recurrence of an incident described as ’30 seconds of madness’. On this day in 2013 Tiger Woods was named as the PGA Tour player of the year for the 11th time.