21st

  • Died today in 1903, Jinmaku Kyūgorō, Japanese sumo wrestler, he was the 12th Yokozuna, which is the higher rank in Sumo and was born in 1829.
  • The former Yorkshire and England batsman Geoffrey Boycott was born in 1940. Controversial at times, but brilliant at others, Boycott scored a one-time record 8114 runs in 108 Tests between 1964 and 1982. He scored a total of 48,426 runs In his first-class career, and averaged 56.83 per innings.
  • Top Australian rugby union player David Campese was born in 1962.
  • Today in 1964 the Polish 4×100m women’s relay team ran a world record 43.6 to beat the US by 0.3s and win the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics, the team consisted of Teresa Ciepły, Irena Kirszenstein, Halina Górecka & Ewa Kłobukowska. Abebe Bikila of Ethiopia ran a world record 2:12:11.2 to beat Briton Basil Heatley by more than 4 minutes and win the Olympic  marathon, the first athlete to win Olympic marathon twice. New Zealand athlete Peter Snell won the 1,500m, his second gold medal of the Games (800m) and his 3rd career gold
  • Born today in 1976 was Romanian Gymnast Lavinia Miloșovici. She is considered to be one of Romania’s top gymnasts of the 1990s and one of the most prolific female all-around gymnasts of that decade, earning a total 19 World Championships or Olympic medals in a span of six years. She medalled in every single World Championships meet, Olympic Games and European Championships between 1991 and 1996, and is only the third female gymnast ever, after Larisa Latynina and Věra Čáslavská, to win at least one World Championships or Olympic title on all four events. Miloșovici was also the last gymnast along with Lu Li to ever receive the perfect mark of 10.0 in an Olympic competition.
  • Greta Waitz of Norway became the first woman to run a marathon in under 2 hours 30 minutes when she clocked a time of 2 hours 27 minutes 30 seconds in the 1979 New York City Marathon. Waitz won the race none times between 1978 and 1988.
  • Second place in the final race of the 1984 season, the Portuguese Gran Prix, gave Austrian Niki Lauda the world motor-racing championship for the third time. The man who won the race, Lauda’s McClaren team-mate Alain Prost, was pipped to the title by the narrowest of margins, just half a point.
  • Today in 1986 saw the first-class cricket debut of Andy Flower, former international cricketer for Zimbabwe and England cricket coach, in a ZCU President’s XI against Young WI.
  • Ayrton Senna of Brazil crashed his McLaren during the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka but clinched his second Formula 1 World Drivers Championship on this day in 1990.
  • Today in 1993 Gary Kasparov defeated Nigel Short to win the world chess championship
  • In 2007 Finnish Ferrari driver Kimi Räikkönen won the season ending Brazilian F1 Grand Prix to claim his first World Drivers Championship by 1 point from Lewis Hamilton

22nd

  • In 1797 the first successful parachute descent is made by Adres-Jacques Garnerin, who jumped from a balloon at some 2,200 feet over Paris.
  • Broughton and Swindon played in the first floodlit rugby match on this day in 1878 in Salford.
  • In 1907, following the death of J A Bailey, the Ringling Brothers bought Barnum and Bailey Circus. The circus, billed as The Greatest Show on Earth, was known as Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Combined Shows, and continued to run separately until they merged in 1919.
  • Born today in 1923, Bert Trautmann, German professional goalkeeper who played for Manchester City from 1949 to 1964. Named FWA Footballer of the Year for 1956, Trautmann entered football folklore with his performance in the 1956 FA Cup Final. With 17 minutes of the match remaining, Trautmann suffered a serious injury while diving at the feet of Birmingham City‘s Peter Murphy. Despite his injury, he continued to play, making crucial saves to preserve his team’s 3–1 lead. His neck was noticeably crooked as he collected his winner’s medal, three days later an X-ray revealed it to be broken.
  • On this day in 1935 the PGA Championship was won by  Johnny Revolta, his only major title, defeating Tommy Armour, 5 & 4
  • George Cohen, full-back, and member of the England 1966 World Cup winning team, was born in 1939. 
  • Racehorse trainer Michael Stoute was born in 1945. In the 1989 season his horses won a then record £2 million in prize-money.
  • In 1966 David Bryant won the singles title at the inaugural World Bowls Championships in Sydney. The championship was organized because the sport had been left out of that year’s Commonwealth Games in Kingston, Jamaica.
  • The 1967 Ryder Cup was won by the US, beating Great Britain by 23½-8½; Ben Hogan captained the Americans to record 15-point victory margin. Also on the same day Denny Hulme became the first New Zealander to win the F1 World Drivers Championship with a 3rd place in the Mexican Grand Prix at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, he took the title by 5 points from team leader Jack Brabham
  • The career of Stoke City and England goalkeeper Gordon Banks was cut short in 1972 when he lost an eye following a car crash near his home in Staffordshire. He played his last Football League game on the day before the accident, away to Liverpool at Anfield, Stoke lost 2-1.
  • On this day in 1978 at the 8th NYC Women’s Marathon, Grete Waitz runs a  world record time of 2:32:30 and the men’s race was won by Bill Rodgers
  • In 1994 Swiss professional cyclist Tony Rominger broke the world hour record. He used Bordeaux velodrome to ride 53.832 km.
  • Today in 2010 Japanese Go player Eio Sakata died, he was born in 1920. Sakata became a professional Go player in 1935. His first title match was the Hon’inbō in 1951 when he challenged Hashimoto Utaro.

23rd

  • Have you ever wondered what day the world actually began? Well, according to 17th century divine James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh, and Dr John Lightfoot of Cambridge, the world was created on this day in 4004 BC, a Sunday, at 9 a.m!!!
  • Douglas Jardine, the England Test cricket captain at the centre of the ‘bodyline’ controversy in 1932-33, was born in 1900. He died in 1958 aged 57.
  •  On this day in 1906, Alberto Santos-Dumont flies an airplane in the first heavier-than-air flight in Europe at Champs de Bagatelle, Paris, France.
  • William Gilbert ‘W G’ Grace died on this day in 1915 at the age of 67.
  • The world’s greatest footballer Pele, was born in 1940. Born Edson Arantes do Nascimento , he appeared in 1363 first-class matches, including 111 for Brazil. He scored 1281 first-class goals, 97 of them at international level. After a successful career in Brazil he moved to North America where soccer fans packed stadiums to see the greatest footballer of all time.
  • Born today in 1958 was German 400m sprinter Frank Schaffer. He won the 400m bronze at the 1980 Summer Olympics in a lifetime best time of 44.87 seconds.
  • Today at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics:  Japan beat Russian to take the 1st Olympic woman’s volleyball title, while the  Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia finish 8-1 in the inaugural men’s volleyball competition, the Soviets won the 10 team round robin on count back of sets won-lost. Dutch 10th dan judoka Anton Geesink won the Open gold medal in the first ever Olympic judo competition, preventing a clean sweep of the gold medals by Japan, Czech gymnast Věra Čáslavská takes the beam title, her 3rd gold medal of the Games with individual all-round and vault victories. Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina won the floor gold, her 2nd gold of the Games (team) and career 9th (1956, 60, 64), a gymnastics record at the time.  Future undisputed world heavyweight boxing champion Joe Frazier dominated German Hans Huber for an easy points win and the Olympic heavyweight gold medal
  • On this day in 1973 19 year old American tennis star Chris Evert retained her WTA Tour Championship at Boca Raton, Florida,  beating Nancy Richey Gunter 6-3, 6-3 in the final
  •  Lester Piggott was jailed on this day in 1987 for income tax offences. He was released after serving a third of his three-year sentence.
  • Henry Armstrong, the only boxer to hold world titles at three different weights simultaneously, died on this day in 1988. 
  • In 1994 the Solheim Cup, held at The Greenbrier,  sees the US regaining the Cup beating Europe, 13-7; Americans Dottie Mochrie & Bradie Burton both win their 3 matches
  • Today in 2000 the American wrestler Yokozuna died. Born in 1966, his career in professional wrestling began as he grew up in a family full of wrestlers, the Anoaʻi family. His uncles were The Wild Samoans, Afa and Sika, who trained him from an early age in the family business.
  • Also dying on this day in 2011 – Marco Simoncelli. The Italian professional motorcyclist died in an accident during the 2011 Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang. The collision with American rider Colin Edwards and fellow countryman Valentino Rossi, saw Simoncelli’s bike lose traction and slide towards the gravel, but the tyres regained traction and his bike suddenly veered across the track into the path of Edwards and Rossi with Simoncelli hanging off the right side of his bike. He was struck in the lower body by Edwards and the head by Rossi. He was taken to the medical centre but despite efforts to save him he died less than an hour later of “a very serious trauma to the head, to the neck and the chest”

24th

  • Born on this day in 1838 was Annie Eddson Taylor, stuntwoman and educator, who, on her 63rd birthday in 1901, became the first person ever to go safely over the Niagara Falls in a barrel. She used a custom-made barrel for her trip, constructed of oak and iron and padded with a mattress. She managed to briefly earn some money from speaking about her experience, referring to herself as “The Queen of the Mist” but was never able to build much wealth. Her manager, Frank M. Russell, bizarrely ran away with her barrel, and most of her savings were used towards private detectives hired to find it. It was eventually located in Chicago, only to permanently disappear some time later.
  • Born today in 1872 was Irish track and field athlete Peter O’Connor. O’Connor set a long-standing world record for the long jump and won two Olympic medals in the 1906 Intercalated games. On 5th August 1901 he jumped 24ft 11¾in (7.61m) off a broad runway at Ball’s Bridge in Dublin; this was subsequently recognised as the first official IAAF record and remained on the books for 20years, not beaten as an Irish All-Comers record until 1968. He retired to concentrate on his solicitor’s practice in 1906 but maintained a keen interest in the sport and was one of the judges at the 1932 Games.
  • Orville Wright remained in the air for nine minutes and 45 seconds on a Wright Glider at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina on this day in 1911. 
  • Rafał Piszcz Polish canoe racer was born on this day in 1940. He won a bronze medal in the K-2 1000m at Munich in 1972.
  • The 1977 British Lions Tour captain Phil Bennett was born in 1948. He played for the Lions in eight Tests and for Wales on 29 occasions.
  • In the Olympic swimming pool at the Mexico games today in 1968 – 16 year old American swimmer Debbie Meyer won the inaugural 800m gold medal, the first swimmer to win 3 individual gold medals at a Games (200/400m) and Australian Michael Wendon wrapped up the Mexico City Games sprint double when he won the 200m freestyle gold medal in an Olympic record of 1:55.2
  • On this day in 1969 Hanif, Mushtaq & Sadiq Mohammad start their only Test Cricket match together
  • James Hunt’s third place in the Japanese Grand Prix in 1976 was enough to secure hum the world title by one point from Niki Lauda, who quit on lap two because torrential rain had made conditions too dangerous for his liking. Lauda’s caution was understandable given the horrific injuries he has suffered just 11 weeks earlier. The 1976 GP season served as the inspiration behind the 2013 film “Rush”.
  • Today in 1982 saw German tennis player Steffi Graf play in her first professional tournament at Stuttgart, Germany; she lost in first round, 6–4, 6–0 to Tracy Austin.
  • Born on this day in 1985, English footballer and one time captain of the national side Wayne Rooney.
  • Today in 2004 Manchester United beat Arsenal, 2-0 at Old Trafford, ending the Gunners’ English Premier League record 49-game unbeaten streak
  • Jeff Blatnick, American super-heavyweight Greco-Roman wrestler and sports commentator passed away today in 2012. He won the Olympic gold medal in 1984 after battling back from cancer.
  • In 2018 Kenyan marathon runner Eliud Kipchoge was named UN Person of the Year for setting a new marathon world record and for his work with AIDS/HIV in Kenya and Indian cricketer Virat Kohli became the 12th and the fastest-ever to score 10,000 runs in one day international matches, taking just 205 innings

25th 

  • In 1620 the Puritan Governor of the British settlers in the American colony of Plymouth, Gov William Bradford, disallowed sport to be played on Christmas Day. He was enraged when some people refused to work but seemed happy enough to play games while other worked. Upon encountering people in the street doing just this he announced that “ther should be no gameing or revelling in ye streets”.
  • Born on this day in 1802 was Canadian logger and strongman Joseph Montferrand.  Hero of the working man, Joseph was the inspiration for the legendary Ottawa Valley figure Big Joe Mufferaw.
  • Joe Mercer the English jockey who was apprenticed to trainer Frederick Sneyd and won his first British Classic race while still an apprentice on Ambiguity in the 1953 Epsom Oaks was born in 1934. He was British flat racing Champion Apprentice twice, in 1952 and 1953 and won a total of 281 winners in Britain.
  • The East German swimmer Kornelia Ender was born in 1958. At the 1976 Montreal Olympics she became the first woman to win four swimming medals at one Games, all of them in world record times. She set a staggering 32 world records between 1973 and 1976, becoming the first woman to break the 58, 57 and 56 second barriers in the 100m freestyle. However, it was later proven that the East German team doctors had systematically administered steroids to their athletes (albeit without the athletes’ knowledge) and she, along with many other East German athletes was stripped of their medals. Ironically, in 1977 she was banned from the East German team by the Marxist authorities after becoming suspicious of the substances she was being administered with by the coaches.
  • On this day in 1964 Dutchman Anton Geesink became the 1st non-Japanese Olympic judo gold medal winner
  • Today at the Mexico Olympics in 1968: the longest Olympic field hockey game took place when The Netherlands beat Spain 1-0 in 2h25m, the US men’s basketball team beat Yugoslavia 65-50 to win the gold medal, the 7th straight basketball title for the Americans. The Czech gymnast Věra Čáslavská won the uneven bars and vault golds,  her 6th & 7th career gold medals and her 4th at these Games and American swimmer Claudia Kolb wrapped up the women’s individual medley double, winning the 400m I/M in Olympic record 5:08.5; she also won the 200m I/M in OR 2:24.7
  • Born today in 1970 was Dutch kick-boxer and mixed martial artist Peter Aerts. Known for his devastating high kicks, which earned him the nickname “The Dutch Lumberjack”, he is widely considered to be one of the greatest heavyweight kickboxers ever
  • The 1981 NYC Marathon was won by Allison Roe in 2:25:29 and Alberto Salazar in 2:08:13
  • In 1983 West Ham became the first team to score 10 goals in a match in the Football League Cup, beating Bury 10-0 in the second leg of their second round encounter. Frankie Bunn of Oldham Athletic set a League Cup individual record in 1989 when he scored six against Scarborough.
  • In the final of the Sharjah Cup in 1991 Aaqib Javed of Pakistan produced the best bowling figures in a one-day cricket international by dismissing seven Indian batsmen for 37 runs, including a hat-trick.
  • Today in 2012 the double dip recession in the UK economy ended with a growth of 1.0% in GDP in the third quarter of 2012, with help from the London Olympic Games
  • Passing away on this day in 2013 was New Zealand rugby player and coach Ron Ackland, who represented his country in the 1957 and 1960 World Cups and coached his country in the 1977 World Cup. His nephew, John, also played for New Zealand.
  • On this day in 2015 British Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton won the US F1 Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas to clinch his second consecutive World Drivers Championship

26th

  • Today in 1863 the Football Association was formed following a meeting of 11 representatives from interested clubs at the Freemasons Tavern, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London
  • On this day in 1881 Luis Bastien, French cyclist and fencer was born, He participated in cycling at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris and won the gold medal in the men’s 25km race. He also competed in the individual épée event at the same games.
  • The highest scoring game in Scotland’s top division was played on this day in 1895, Celtic beating Dundee 11-0. 
  • The heaviest man to hold the world heavyweight boxing title, Primo Carnera of Italy, was born in 1906. Nicked named the “Ambling Alp”, he won the title from Jack Sharkey in 1933. When he made his second defence against Tommy Loughran in 1934 Carnera weighed in at a record 270 pounds (122.7kg); Loughran just 184 pounds (83.6kg). The weight difference of 86 pounds (39kg) is the greatest between contestants in a world title fight. He lost his title in June 1934 to American Max Baer and died aged 60 in 1967.
  • Today in 1951, Rocky Marciano defeated Joe Louis at Madison Square Garden.
  • Todya at the Mexico Games of 1968 – The Soviet Union wrapped up the volleyball double with both men’s & women’s teams taking gold at the end of their respective round-robin competitions.  Future world heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman won the heavyweight gold when the final against Jonas Čepulis (Soviet Union) was stopped in round 2.  Japanese gymnasts sweep the medals in the men’s floor competition with Sawao Kato winning his 3rd gold of the Games ahead of team mates Akinori Nakayama and Takeshi Katō. Striker Antal Dunai scored twice as Hungary outclassed Bulgaria 4-1 to take the men’s football gold medal.
  • In 1973, Austin Healey, was born. He played as a utility back for Leicester Tigers, and has represented England and the British and Irish Lions. He has 51 England caps and 2 Lions caps. He has played for England at scrum half, fly-half, fullback and wing, and has often been used as a replacement (or substitute) because of his versatility. He is a famously competitive and “outspoken” character, gaining the nick name “The Leicester Lip” In 2008, he took part in Strictly Come Dancing, reaching the quarter-finals with dance partner Erin Boag and now commentates on rugby games on TV.
  • Glen Little died on this day in 2010. Little was a circus clown who served with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus for over 20 years. He was one of only four clowns ever to have been given the title “Master Clown” by the Ringling organization. He was in fact, the last person ever to have been awarded the title and was the last surviving Master Clown at the time of his death. He was inducted into the Clown Hall of Fame in 1991.
  • Today in 2014 American tennis star Serena Williams beat Simona Halep of Romania 6–3, 6–0 to successfully defend her WTA Finals title in Kallang, Singapore

27th

  • Born on this day in 1728, Captain James Cook, an 18th century British explorer and navigator whose achievements in mapping the Pacific, New Zealand and Australia radically changed western perceptions of world geography. As one of the very few men in the 18th century navy to rise through the ranks, Cook was particularly sympathetic to the needs of ordinary sailors.
  • Also born on this day in 1811 was Isaac Singer, the inventor of the sewing machine.
  • George Thomspon, the mainstay of Northamptonshire Cricket for much of the period encompassing both its days as a minor county and its earliest years in the County Championship and Umpire was born in 1877. 
  • The most successful bowls player in modern times, David Bryant, was born in 1931. Somerset-born Bryant won the first outdoor world championship in 1966. He won the singles on two more occasions and also won triples and team gold medals. He also won the world indoor championship in its first three years and a record six English Bowling Association (EBA) singles titles between 1960 and 1975.
  • Danish dancer and choreographer Peter Martins was born today in 1946. He was a principal dancer with the Royal Danish Ballet and with The New York City Ballet, where he joined George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins and John Taras as ballet master in 1981, retired from dancing in 1983 at which time he became Co-Ballet Master-In-Chief with Robbins, and since 1990 has had sole responsibility for artistic leadership of City Ballet.
  • Former England footballer and manager who played as a midfielder for Tottenham Hotspur, as Monaco, Chelsea and Swindon Town and at international level for England, Glenn Hoddle was born on this day in 1957. 
  • In 1962 Dawn Fraser became the first women to swim 100m in under one minute when she clocked 59.9 seconds. 
  • Simone Moro, the Italian alpinist was born in 1967. He is the first and only mountaineer to have made the first winter ascent to four of the ‘eight-thousanders’ – Shisha Pangman in 2005, Makalu in 2009, Gasherbrum II in 2011 and Nanga Parbet in 2016. Moro is also an experienced helicopter pilot, in 2013 he and two other rescue experts carried out the world’s highest long-line rescue operation on a helicopter on Lhotse, at 7800m. Since 12th November 2015 he also held the flight altitude world record for a turbine helicopter (6.705m).
  • On this day in 1974 French runner Chantal Langlacé set a female world marathon record (2:46:24) in Neuf-Brisach, France
  • In 1980 Japanese speed skater and cyclist Sayuri Osuga was born.   She is one of the few athletes who started both in the Winter and Summer Games. In 2002 and 2006 in the 500 m speed skating event and in the 2004 Summer Games in the 500 m time trial cycling event, placing 10th.
  • On this day in 2009 David Shepherd died. Shepherd was a first-class cricketer who played county for Gloucestershire, and later became one of the cricket world’s best-known umpires. He stood in 92 Test matches, the last of them in June 2005, and the most for any English umpire. He also umpired 172 ODIs, including three consecutive World Cup finals in 1996, 1999 and 2003.
  • Today in 2013 German Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel won the Indian Grand Prix at the Buddh International Circuit to clinch his 4th straight F1 World Drivers Championship; his 6th consecutive GP victory
  • On this in  2015 American soccer star Abby Wambach announced her retirement