13th

  • On this day in 1905 James J Jeffries retired as boxing champion
  • Today in 1909 saw the very first edition of theGiro d’Italian, starting in Milan, it was won by Luigi Ganna from Italy
  • On this day in 1912, The Royal Flying Corps was established, the forerunner of the Royal Air Force.
  • In 1913 Igor Sikorsky flew the first four-engine aircraft.
  • One of the greatest heavyweight boxing champions, Joe Louis, was born in 1914. Born Joseph Louis Barrow, he won the world heavyweight title in 1937 by beating James J Braddock. He made a record 25 defences over 11 years, before retiring in 1948 after beating ‘Jersey’ Joe Walcott in New York. However, needing, money to pay taxes, Louis came out of retirement two years later, losing on points over 15 rounds to new champion, Ezzard Charles.  Louis eventually retired for good after losing to Rocky Marciano in 1951. He died in 1981.
  • German long-jumper Hildrun Claus was born in 1939, she competed in the 1960 and 1964 Olympics and finished in third and seventh place, respectively. Born in Dresden, but later moved to East Berlin, she won the East German long-jump championships in 1957–1962 and 1964, and set three world records (6.36m and 6.40m in 1960 and 6.42m in 1961). She married Peter Laufer, a German Olympic pole-vaulter, and at the 1964 Games competed as Hildrun Laufer-Claus. She has a degree of a landscape designer. In 1995 she was paralyzed as a result of a sports-related accident and is now confined to a wheelchair.
  • Japanese Marathon runner Kōkichi Tsuburaya was born in 1940, he competed at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, finishing sixth in the 10,000m event and lining up for the marathon on the final day of competition. Abebe Bikila of Ethiopia won the race decisively, becoming the first man to defend his Olympic title in the event, having won in Rome in 1960, running barefoot. Tsuburaya entered the stadium second, but was overtaken on the final lap by the furious sprint of Britain’s Basil Heatley and finished third. Tsuburaya was mortified by the loss to Heatley, saying to fellow marathoner Kenji Kimihara, “I committed an inexcusable blunder in front of the Japanese people. I have to make amends by running and hoisting the Hinomaru in the next Olympics, in Mexico”. Shortly after the Tokyo Olympics, Kokichi starting suffering with lumbago and on January 9, 1968, he committed suicide by slashing his wrist in his dormitory room where he had stayed during his training period for the Mexico City Olympics. In his suicide note, he paid thanks to his parents, siblings and trainers for their contributions, urged his fellow runners to do well, and ended the note (please note this is an informal translation): “I am too exhausted to run any more. Please forgive me. I’m sorry for causing my parents concern and worry, but this is for the best. Thank you very much for everything you have done for me.”  He was 27 years old.
  • The first so called Battle of the Sexes series of tennis matches took place today in 1973. Bobby Riggs had been one of the world’s top tennis players in the 1940s; he once held the number 1 ranking and had won six major titles during his career. After he retired from professional tennis in 1951, Riggs remained a master promoter of himself and of tennis. In 1973, he opined that the female game was inferior and that even at his current age of 55 he could still beat any of the top female players. Riggs first challenged Billie Jean King, but when she declined, Margaret Court stepped in. At the time Court was 30 years old and the top female player in the world. On the day of their game, 5000 fans came to Mother’s Day match in Ramona, California. Bobby Riggs came out on court and presented Margaret Court with Mother’s Day flowers, which she accepted while curtsying. During the match, Riggs used his drop shots and lobs to keep Court off balance. His 6–2, 6–1 victory landed Riggs on the cover of both Sports Illustrated and Time magazine. The second was a nationally televised match between Riggs and Billie Jean King, over the best of five sets in 1973. The final match was played in 1992 between Jimmy Connors and Martina Navratilova, over the best of three sets and hybrid rules favouring the female player, dubbed The Battle of Champions. 
  • England cricket captain, Tony Greig, was sacked today in 1977 for signing up players to Kerry Packer’s commercial cricket “circus”. On 9 May Mr Packer, the Australian media tycoon, announced he had recruited 35 of the world’s best cricketers to play in a series of internationals in Australia during the upcoming winter. It followed the Australian Cricket Board’s decision to turn down his offer of AUS$1.5m a year for television rights to screen Australian Test matches and Sheffield Shield cricket on his Channel 9 station. The impact of his new World Series Cricket, dubbed a “circus” by the press, shocked the cricket establishment and fans around the globe. Packer hired Greig to sign on more players and lead the team. The Cricket Council, the ruling body for the game in the UK, took four hours to reach its decision to drop the England captain. Donald Carr of the Test and County Cricket Board, explained the reasons behind the move. “They took into consideration his involvement in the recruitment of players for this series of matches and clearly running in competition with the scheduled Test match series over the next year or two. “This was considered to be a breach of the normal trust which is expected between the captain and the England team and the authorities.” He said the board reacted with “surprise and grave disappointment” at news that Grieg and two other England players had signed up to Packer’s World Series Cricket. In a statement that he read to the press, Grieg said: “Obviously I am disappointed that my reign as England Captain has come to an end just as we were beginning to put things together. “From a personal point of view, the only redeeming factor is that I have sacrificed cricket’s most coveted job for a cause which I believe could be in the best interests of cricketers the world over.” There were fears that Packer would tempt away more talented players with offers of large salaries to create a World XI team of superstars. With the help of Greig, Parker did indeed recruit 50 top-class players by offering them salaries of around AUS$30,000 (£12,000) a year for a three-year contract – As England captain Greig had been paid just £1,015 a season.  After arriving amid a fanfare of publicity, World Series Cricket existed for only 17 months as a live sporting entity. But Packer – once rated the richest man in Australia and seen as a threat to the sport – was regarded by the cricket world as having revolutionised the game. He introduced floodlit night games using white balls, coloured clothing and top salaries for top players. Above all he transformed the image of the game from a dull and slow sport to something dynamic and energetic.
  • Today in 1995 a British mother of two has become the first woman to conquer Everest without oxygen or the help of sherpas. Alison Hargreaves was only the second person ever to reach the peak of the world’s highest mountain unaided. She reached the summit and immediately radioed her base camp as she wanted to send a fax to her two children, Tom and Kate, aged six and four, at home near Fort William on the west coast of Scotland. The message was: “I am on the top of the world and I love you dearly.” Before starting her descent, she planted a silk flower. Her husband Jim Ballard, 48, a climbing photographer, who stayed at home to look after the children said: “I am very proud of Alison. I always had confidence in her ability to get to the roof of the world, although she set herself a formidable target.” Alison tackled the mountain’s notorious north ridge from Tibet after more than a year’s training on the slopes of Ben Nevis. She failed in a similar attempt the previous year, when she was driven back at 27,500ft (8,382m) by arctic winds which threatened to freeze her hands and feet. Cally Fleming, a spokeswoman for the Nevis Range ski slope where Miss Hargreaves trained said: “This is the most important climb ever undertaken by a woman. It’s fabulous.” Miss Hargreaves, who used her maiden name for climbing, arrived at base camp on 11 April. She climbed the entire route without porters or oxygen. She was forced to approach the summit almost along the top of the arduous north ridge because weather conditions meant the slopes below were almost bare of snow. Alison Hargreaves had planned to climb the world’s second highest mountain, K2, unaided after a short break in Scotland. However three months to the day after her successful conquest of Everest she was killed shortly after reaching the summit of K2. Three climbers who tackled the summit with her were also killed and three further members of a separate five-strong Spanish team died the same day. New Zealander Peter Hillary, son of the Everest pioneer, Sir Edmund Hillary, was climbing with the Hargreaves’ team, but turned back before the fateful summit bid and survived. It is not clear how they died. Witnesses on the mountain said there was a sudden mountain storm, combined with a bitter 100mph (160.9kph) wind. At least one climber is thought to have fallen. Following Miss Hargreaves’s death, there was some criticism in the media about whether a mother should be allowed to pursue such a dangerous sport. In 1996, Jim Ballard and the couple’s two children, made an emotional pilgrimage to Pakistan to visit the foot of K2. Both children have developed a keen interest in climbing and Tom has said he would like to become a professional climber. Tom subsequently became the first person to solo climb all of the six great north faces of the Alps in a single winter, that of 2014–2015. He died aged 30 on an expedition to Nanga Parbat, Pakistan, on 24 February 2019.
  • Russian cyclist Gainan Saidkhuzhin died aged 77 on this day in 2015. He was ten-time cycling champion of the Soviet Union and competed in the road race at the 1960 and 1964 Olympics and finishing in 34th and 41st places, respectively. In 1964 he also finished 5th in the 100km team time trial.

14th

  • The oldest organised archery society, the Yorkshire Society of Archers, was formed in 1673. 
  • Golfing history was made on this day in 1754 when members of the Society of St Andrews Golfers played their first round over the St Andrews links. The society was the forerunner of the R & R.
  • Godfrey Rampling, English athlete, was born on this day in 1909; he competed for Great Britain in the 1932 and 1936 Olympics. He turned 100 on 14 May 2009 and was the oldest living British Olympian at the time of his death just over a month later on 20 June 2009. At the 1932 Olympics, Rampling was fourth in his semi-final of the 400m and didn’t reach the final, but ran the anchor leg to help the British 4×400m relay team win silver, behind the United States. At the 1934 British Empire Games in London, Rampling won the 440yd, and helped the English 4×440yds relay team to capture gold. During the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Rampling was again fourth in the semi-finals of 400m and ran the second leg in the gold medal winning British 4×400m relay team. Rampling was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Royal Artillery, attached to NATO, until retiring in 1958 after 29 years service.  His daughter Charlotte is a noted film actress. He was, as of October 2007, the last surviving male athletics medallist from the 1932 Olympics and the last male gold medallist in athletics from the 1936 Olympics.
  • BBC Radio broadcast its first cricket commentary in 1927, the Rev F H Gillingham commentating on the Essex versus New Zealand match from Leyton.
  • Today in 1935 Northamptonshire County Cricket Club gained (over Somerset at Taunton by 48 runs) what proved to be their last victory for 99 matches, a record in the County Championship. Their next Championship win was not until May 29, 1939.
  • English born yachtsman Chay Blyth was born in 1940. 
  • Born today in 1949, Johan Schans, Dutch swimmer who competed in the 200m and 4×200m freestyle at the 1968 Olympics, but failed to reach the finals. In 1969 he changed to marathon swimming and finished second in the 42km (26 mile) Traversée internationale du Lac St-Jean professional race in 10h 12′ and fourth in the 57km (36 mile) Santa Fe-Coronda river swim in Argentina in 8h 1′. Overall he was ranked 2nd in the world in 1969 and first in 1970. Later in the 1970s he broke the world record in 10 mile swim on more than one occasion.  In 1970, he was inducted to the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame.
  • Trains ran on the Talyllyn Railway in Wales today in 1951 for the first time since preservation, making it the first railway in the world to be operated by volunteers.
  • Scottish fiddler Alasdair Fraser was born in Clackmannan, Scotland in 1955. Fraser runs Culburnie Records, and is a leading artist on the label. He has founded three summer fiddling programs: the Valley of the Moon fiddle camp in California (in 1984), a week-long course on the Isle of Skye (in 1987) and the more recent Sierra Fiddle Camp in California (in 2006). Adept in various Scottish idioms, in recent years, with cellist Natalie Haas, he has helped reconstruct and revive the Scottish tradition of playing dance music on violin and cello (“wee fiddle” and “big fiddle”).
  • Wakefield beat Hull 38-5 in the 1960 Rugby League Challenge Cup final to record the highest score ever made in a final at that time.
  • On this day in 1973Skylab, the United States’ first space station, was launched.
  • In 1977 Bobby Moore played his last competitive match for second-division Fulham, away to Blackburn Rovers. He ended on a losing note, with the home side winning 1-0.
  • On the same day in 1977 Liverpool became the first club to win the first-division title ten times when they drew 0-0 at home the West Ham.
  • Wimbledon announced in 1991 that they were moving from Plough Lane to Selhurst Park for the 1991-92 season.
  • Today in 2014 the New York Times’ fires its first female executive editor Jill Abramson after three years in the position; Abramson was replaced by Dean Baquet, the newspaper’s first African-American executive editor.
  • The American blues singer, electric guitarist, songwriter and producer Riley B. King known professionally as B.B. King died on this day 2015 aged 88. King introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending and shimmering vibrato that influenced many later electric blues guitarists. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, and is considered one of the most influential blues musicians of all time, earning the nickname “The King of the Blues”, and one of the “Three Kings of the Blues Guitar” along with Albert King and Freddie King.  King was known for performing tirelessly throughout his musical career, appearing at more than 200 concerts per year on average into his 70s. In 1956, he reportedly appeared at 342 shows. King was born on a cotton plantation in Berclair, Mississippi, and later worked at a cotton gin in Indianola, Mississippi. He was attracted to music and the guitar in church, and began his performance career in juke joints and local radio. He later lived in Memphis, Tennessee, and Chicago, and toured the world extensively.

15th

  • On this day in 1856 Matthias Zurbriggen Swiss mountaineer and one of the great 19th-century alpinists and mountain guides was born. He climbed throughout the Alps, and also in South America, the Himalayas and New Zealand. He made a considerable number of first ascents, the best known of which is Aconcagua, the highest peak in the Americas, which he climbed alone on 14 January 1897, during an expedition led by Edward FitzGerald. During the same expedition Zurbriggen also made the first ascent of Tupungato with the Englishman Stuart Vines. The Zurbriggen Ridge on Aoraki/Mount Cook in New Zealand is named after him. On 14 March 1895, Zurbriggen made the first ascent of the ridge and in the process made the second ascent of the mountain and the first solo ascent. He missed the honour of claiming the first ascent of Mount Cook, which was achieved on Christmas Day 1894 by a party of New Zealanders determined to prevent the first ascent being credited to a foreigner. Later in life, his fortune declined. He lived his last decade as a vagrant in his home country, and was found hanged in Geneva in 1917, an apparent suicide.
  • The first baseball stadium was opened at the Union Grounds, Brooklyn, on this day in 1862. 
  • Paul Probst, a Swiss sports shooter was born today in 1869. He competed in the late 19th century and early 20th century. He participated in Shooting at the 1900 Olympics in Paris and won a gold medal with the Military pistol team for Switzerland.
  • Welsh world flyweight champion Jimmy Wilde was born in 1892. He was known as “The mighty Atom” because of the power he could pack for such a small man.
  • England lost their first international football match outside the British Isles in 1929 when they were defeated 4-3 by Spain in Madrid.
  • he former England Test cricket captain Ted Dexter was born in 1935. He played first-class cricket for Cambridge University and Sussex and appeared for England 62 times. He was also an excellent golfer and won the prestigious President’s Putter competition at Rye,
  • British high-jumper Dorothy Shirley was born in 1939, she competed for Great Britain in the 1960 Olympics held in Rome, where she won high jump silver jointly with Jarosława Jóźwiakowska. It was the fifth straight silver medal for Britain in this event. She later went into teaching and worked as a PE teacher.
  • A piece of history was made today in 1948: Australia scored 721 runs against Essex at Southend-on-Sea, the largest total achieved in one day’s play in a first-class game at that date.
  • Lisa Curry, also known by her married name Lisa Curry-Kenny, Australian swimmer was born in 1962. Curry won 15 gold, seven silver and eight bronze international swimming medals, and is the only Australian swimmer to have held Commonwealth and Australian records in every stroke except backstroke. She was an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder and the chair of the National Australia Day Council from 2000 to 2008.
  • In 1963 Tottenham Hotspur became the first British winners of a European trophy when they beat Atlético Madrid 5-1 in Rotterdam to take the Cup Winners’ Cup; Jimmy Greaves scored two goals for Spurs.
  • On this day in 1966 the first day of Sunday play in Country Cricket took place with the match between Essex and Somerset.
  • British chess grandmaster Matthew Sadler was born in 1974. Sadler won the British Championship in 1995 at the age of 21 and again in 1997 (jointly with Michael Adams).  He represented England in the 1996 Chess Olympiad, scoring 10½/13 and winning a gold medal for the best score on board four (England finished fourth), and also played in 1998 scoring 7½/12. He made 7/9 on board four for England at the European Team Chess Championship in Pula in 1997.  His was the best individual score of the five-man English team and so contributed significantly to England’s first (and to date only) gold medal in a major competition. He was widely tipped to reach the heights scaled by such leading players as Michael Adams and Nigel Short but has since taken the decision to cease playing professionally, opting for a career in IT in the Netherlands. For several years, he was the book reviewer for New in Chess magazine and also wrote books and articles for other chess magazines. In 2000, his book Queen’s Gambit Declined was awarded the British Chess Federation’s book of the year award.  Sadler has a French mother, speaks French perfectly and is also qualified to play in closed French events. Latterly a resident of Amersfoort, Sadler returned to chess in 2010 to play in a rapid-play tournament held in nearby Wageningen. He won the event with a maximum score of 7/7.  In August 2011, Sadler continued his resurgence by winning the XIII Open Internacional D’Escacs de Sants and in October 2011 he went on to win the Oslo Chess International. In a January 2012 interview, Sadler stated that chess was now primarily a “hobby” for him.  While relishing his return to tournament play, Sadler noted that he was now an amateur, and would not be coming back as a professional. He contrasts his present light-hearted attitude with his demeanour during his time as a professional, when he was “working ten hours a day and incredibly intensively”.
  • Italian diver Tania Cagnotto was born today in 1985.  She is the first Italian female diver to win a medal in a World Championship.
  • Filipino racing car driver Jovy Marcelo, better known simply as Jovy Marcelo, was killed in practice for the 1992 Indianapolis 500 on this day in 1992 aged 27.  During warm-up for the race Marcelo’s car spun and impacted on the right side entering turn one at 172 mph. He died instantly due to a basal skull fracture under the right ear.  It was alleged that Marcelo’s helmet only had an anti-rotational tether strap on the left side of his head, leaving his head and neck vulnerably exposed on the right (whereupon drivers subsequently wore them on both sides as a preventative measure; the HANS Device was not mandatory until 2001). Following his death, the Toyota Atlantic Championship created the Jovy Marcelo Sportsmanship Award, which is given annually to the driver who best exemplifies the sportsmanship of Marcelo. The First Jovy Marcelo sportsmanship award was presented to Bert Hart for the 1992–1993 season.
  • Arsenal today celebrated going an entire league campaign unbeaten today in 2004. They joined Preston North End with the right to claim the title The Invincibles.
  • On this day in 2010 Jessica Watson became the youngest person to sail, solo, non-stop and unassisted around the world

16th 

  • The British-American inventor, practical experimenter and professor of music, David Edward Hughes was born today in 1831. He was known for his work on the printing telegraph and the microphone.  He is generally considered to have been born in London but his family moved around that time so he may have been born in Corwen, North Wales His family moved to the US while he was a child and he became a professor of music in Kentucky. In 1855 he patented a printing telegraph. He moved back to London in 1857 and further pursued experimentation and invention, coming up with an improved carbon microphone in 1878. In 1879 he identified what seemed to be a new phenomenon during his experiments: sparking in one device could be heard in a separate portable microphone apparatus he had set up. It was most probably radio transmissions but this was nine years before electromagnetic radiation was a proven concept and Hughes was convinced by others that his discovery was simply electromagnetic induction. Hughes was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in June 1880 and won their Royal Medal in 1885. After Hughes’ death the Hughes Medal was created by the Royal Society in his honour, to be awarded to other scientists “in recognition of an original discovery in the physical sciences, particularly electricity and magnetism or their applications“. It included a gift of £1000 and was first awarded in 1902.
  • Bob Tisdall, Irish athlete was born in 1907 in Nuwara Eliya, Ceylon now Sri Lanka, he won the gold medal in the 400m hurdles at the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles. Tisdall was raised in Nenagh, County Tipperary. He had run only six 400m hurdles when he won his Olympic gold medal in a world record time of 51.7 seconds, which was not recognised under the rules of the time because he had a hit a hurdle. Later, because of the notoriety of this incident, the rules were changed and the President of the IOC, Juan Antonio Samaranch, presented Tisdall with a Waterford crystal rose bowl with the image of him knocking over the last hurdle etched into the glass. Though the IAAF did not recognize the record at the time, they now recognize the mark, giving Tisdall credit for setting the milestone of being the first man under 52 seconds. Later in life, Tisdall lived in South Africa, where he ran a gymnasium during the day, which he converted to a night club after dark. He grew coffee in Tanzania, but moved to Nambour in 1969 with his wife Peggy, where he farmed fruit crops and cattle. He admitted to running his last race at the age of 80, though he ran in the Sydney Olympic torch relay at age 93. At that point he was the oldest living recipient of an individual track and field Olympic medal and was offered the opportunity to present the medals for the 400m hurdles at the Sydney Olympics but declined as he felt it would detract from the attention due to the winner. At the age of 96 he fell down a steep set of rock stairs and broke his shoulder, ribs and ruptured his spleen. He never completely recovered and died on 27 July 2004, aged 97. At that time, he was the world’s oldest track and field Olympic Gold medallist.
  • Gustaf Van Roosbroeck, Belgian professional road cycle racer was born in 1948, he competed the 1970s, and  finished fifth in the 1974 Amstel Gold Race.
  • The world famous Belarusian Olympic gymnast Olga Valentinovna Korbut was born in 1955.  Nicknamed the “Sparrow from Minsk”, she won four gold medals and two silver medals at the Olympic Games, in which she competed in 1972 and 1976 for the Soviet Union.  She started training at age 8, and entered a Belarusian sports school headed by Coach Renald Knysh at age 9. There, Korbut’s first trainer was Elena Volchetskaya, a 1964 Olympic gold medallist, but she was moved to Knysh’s group a year later. With him, she learned a difficult backward somersault performed on the beam. She debuted this at a competition in the USSR in 1969. In the same year, Korbut completed a backflip-to-catch on the uneven bars; this was the first backward release move ever performed by a woman on bars. She finished fifth at her first competition in the 1969 USSR championships, where she was allowed to compete as an underage 15-year-old.  The next year, she won a gold medal in the vault. During the Olympics, Korbut was one of the favourites for the all-around after her dynamic performance in the team competition; however, the title went to her teammate Ludmilla Tourischeva. Korbut won three gold medals for the beam, floor exercise and team. Korbut is most famous for her uneven bars and beam routines, as well as her charismatic performances that captivated audiences.  Her Olympic achievement earned her ABC’s Wide World of Sports title of Athlete of the Year. In 1973, she won the Russian and World Student Games, and a silver medal in the all-around at the European Championships. At the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, Soviet coaches and officials had designated Korbut as the woman who could beat the Romanian prodigy, Nadia Comăneci, but Korbut was injured and her performances in the games were sub-par. She was overshadowed not only by Comăneci, but also by her own teammate Nellie Kim. She did collect a team gold medal, and individual silver for the beam. Korbut graduated from the Grodno Pedagogical Institute in 1977, became a teacher and retired from gymnastic competition thereafter. She married Leonid Bortkevich, who was a member of Belarusian folk band Pesniary. In 1988 Korbut was the first gymnast to be inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame. In 1991, she and her family emigrated to the USA, because they were worried about the effects of fallout from the Chernobyl disaster on Belarus. They settled in New Jersey where she taught gymnastics. They moved to Georgia two years later where she continued to coach. Korbut and Bortkevich divorced in 2000, she became a naturalized US citizen the same year. In 2002 Korbut moved to Arizona, to become head coach at Scottsdale Gymnastics and Cheerleading. In 2017, Korbut sold her 1972 and 1976 Olympic medals amongst thirty-two lots (including two golds and a silver from the Munich Olympics) which fetched $333,500 at Heritage Auctions. This was reportedly done to “to save her from hunger” though auction house spokesman Elon Werner and Korbut herself have strongly denied this claim. Korbut is best known for her moves, both referred to as the “Korbut flip”, firstly, on beam, a back handspring to swing down to cross straddle sit and secondly on uneven bars: a backflip starting from a standing position on the high bar and then catching the same bar from below on the under swing. This particular move, named after Korbut since she was the first to perform the skill at an international competition it has since been made illegal in the Olympic Code of Points.
  • Joan Benoit was born in 1957, the American marathon runner who won gold at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles in the year that the women’s marathon was introduced. As a result, she was the first-ever women’s Olympic marathon champion. Benoit still holds the fastest times for an American woman at the Chicago Marathon and the Olympic Marathon. Her time at the Boston Marathon was the fastest time by an American woman at that race for 28 years. She was inducted into the Maine Women’s Hall of Fame in 2000. Benoit took to long-distance running to help recover from a broken leg suffered while slaloming. She entered the 1979 Boston Marathon as a relative unknown, winning the race, wearing a Boston Red Sox cap, in 2:35:15, knocking eight minutes off the competition record. She repeated that success with a victory again in 1983, which took more than two minutes off the world’s best time, set by Grete Waitz in the London Marathon just the day before, despite having surgery on her Achilles tendons two years earlier. Her Boston course record of 2:22:43, set in 1983, was not broken for another 11 years. Since her retirement from competitive running, she has written books including Running Tideand Running for Women, and has opened a running clinic. She is also a coach to women’s cross-country and long-distance athletes, and is a motivational speaker and sports commentator.
  • Argentine tennis player Gabriela Sabatini was born in 1970. Her consistency in reaching the semi-finals and finals of numerous tournaments has earned her prize money in excess of $6 million. Her only Grand Slam singles title to date is the US Open which she won in two sets in 1990, beating Steffi Graf.  She also won the women’s doubles title at Wimbledon in 1988, two Year-End Championships in 1988 and 1994, and a silver medal at the 1988 Olympic Games. Sabatini’s last professional singles match was on 14 October 1996, when she lost to Jennifer Capriati 6–3, 6–4. (Capriati’s first loss on the WTA tour was to Sabatini in 1990). Sabatini played her last professional match on 19 October 1996, in the doubles semi-finals in Zürich with Lori McNeil. Sabatini retired from the professional tour in 1996, having won 27 singles titles and 14 doubles titles. She reached her highest ranking of World No. 3 in 1989. In 2001, she won the Diamond Konex Award as the most relevant Sportman of the decade in Argentina. Sabatini was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame on 15 July 2006.
  • British speedway rider Scott Karl Nicholls was born in 1978. Nicholls began his speedway career in grass track racing becoming National Schoolboy champion in 1993. His first international appearance came in 1996 when he was selected to ride for Great Britain in the Speedway World Cup final. He then became British Under-21 Champion in 1998 and again in 1999. His first experience of the Speedway Grand Prix series came with a wild card ride in Britain, with similar rides following in 2000 and 2001. He qualified as a full-time Grand Prix rider in 2002 and capped that season with a second place in the season ending event in Australia. That year he also won the first of his six British Championships. His sixth British Championship win was in 2011. Nicholls was the most successful ever Coventry Bees captain, skippering them to five trophies in three seasons between 2004 and 2007, including two Elite League championships.  Despite quitting the British Elite League to reduce his racing schedule in 2009, Nicholls returned to the Coventry Bees in May 2009 as temporary cover for the injured Olly Allen. Nicholls led his home club, the Ipswich Witches for the 2010 Elite League season, as well as riding for Vargarna in the Swedish league and Miskolc, a Hungarian team in the Polish league. With Ipswich dropping down a division, Nicholls signed for Swindon Robins for 2011. After an unsuccessful spell with the Robins, Nicholls returned to parent club Coventry Bees for the 2012 season, staying there in 2013. He signed to ride for Belle Vue Aces in 2014.
  • On this day in 1994 tennis star Jennifer Capriati was arrested on possession of marijuana.
  • In 2005 Sony’s PlayStation 3 made its debut at the E3 trade show.
  • Archaeologists in Patagonia, Argentina, unearthed a set of bones that appear to belong to the largest dinosaur yet discovered, today in 2014. The new creature is thought to have weighed 77 tonnes and to have stood around 20 meters tall.

17th

  • Today in 1859 members of the Melbourne Football Club codified the first rules of Australia Rules football. On this day in 1875 the first Kentucky Derby was run in Louisville.  The Derby was raced over a 1½ miles at that time and would remain so until 1896 when it was changed to the present 1¼ miles.  The race was won by Aristides, one of two horses entered by Hal McGrath. The other was Chesapeake. Both horses wore the green and orange silks of H.P. McGrath. Trained by future Hall of Famer Ansel Williamson, an African American, Aristides was ridden by Oliver Lewis, also African American.
  • Reinhold Saulmann, Estonian track and field sprinter was born in 1895. Saulmann was a five-time Estonian champion in the sprints and the 400m hurdles. He also held the Estonian records in 150m, 300m, 400m and 400m hurdles. At the 1920 Olympics he was entered in the 100m, 200m and 400m, but did not start the 100m and competed in only the first rounds of the longer sprints, his estimated time of 51.6 in the 400m heat was a national record.  He also represented Estonia in bandy nine times in 1916–1918. (Bandy is a team sport played on ice and is considered a form of hockey, it has a common background with football, ice hockey and field hockey. Like football, the game is normally played in two 45 minutes halves, there are eleven players on each team, and the bandy field is about the same size as a football pitch. It is played on ice like ice hockey, but like field hockey, players use bowed sticks and a small ball). Following his retirement from active competition Saulmann took to sports administration, serving as a club treasurer and a representative to the Estonian Olympic Committee.
  • The 9th Modern Olympic Games opened today in 1928 in Amsterdam.
  • Australian cricketer Peter Burge was born in 1932, he played in 42 Tests between 1955 and 1966. After retiring as a player he became a highly respected match umpire, overseeing another 25 Tests and 63 ODIs. He was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1965 and in 1997 was made a Member of the Order of Australia “for service to cricket as a player, administrator and international referee, and to harness racing.”
  • Yelena Gorchakova, Russian javelin thrower was born in 1933; she won Bronze at both the 1952 and 1964 Olympics. Her 1964 bronze was a disappointment to her as she set a world record in the qualification that remained unbeaten for eight years.  During her long career Gorchakova had a fierce competition within the Soviet national team and won the national title only twice, in 1963 and 1965. As a result, despite being a world’s top thrower she rarely competed internationally. Gorchakova won gold at the 1961 Summer Universiade and finished fourth at the 1966 European Championships. She retired shortly thereafter.
  • The Argentine rugby player turned coach Marcelo Loffreda was born today in 1959. He won 44 caps with one as captain, playing at centre for the Argentine rugby union side. He played much of his career outside the legendary Hugo Porta and scored four test tries. In 1994 he hung up his playing boots and became a coach. In April 2000, he was appointed coach of Argentina and steered them to series victories over France, Wales and Scotland, a draw with the British and Irish Lions, a win against England at Twickenham as well as coming close to securing the Pumas’ first victories over South Africa and New Zealand. The Pumas went on to their all-time best finish of third at the 2007 World Cup, this success was Loffreda’s swansong as Pumas coach, as he had announced months before the tournament that he would leave the Pumas after the World Cup for the job of Director of Rugby at Leicester. Loffreda was sacked from his job as Head Coach at Leicester on June 6, 2008, after just one season at the club. Despite reaching two finals (EDF energy and Guinness Premiership) he was dismissed due to poor results. Leicester only just reached the Premiership playoffs and barely qualified for the Heineken Cup; from a club of this self-perceived standard, this was seen as unacceptable. He has returned to Argentina as a coach.
  • The English boxer Randolph Turpin, also known as Randy Turpin, died on this day in 1966 aged 37. Turpin was considered by some to be Europe’s best middleweight boxer of the 1940s and 1950s. In 1951 he became world middleweight champion when he defeated Sugar Ray Robinson. His days as a world champion did not last long, however, and when he made his first trip outside his homeland for a fight, he lost his crown to Robinson by a tenth-round TKO with eight seconds left in the round at the Polo Grounds in New York on 12 September 1951. He finally retired in 1962 with a record of 66 wins, eight losses and one draw, of his 66 wins, 48 came by knockout. By that time he was so short of money that he resorted to professional wrestling. His name meant that he drew moderate crowds for a short time, but in the end this venture was not a success because he was a fighter not a showman. According to articles, reports and a biography, Turpin couldn’t deal with the obscurity resulting from the loss of his crown. In Llandudno he bought a public house on the Great Orme, which today retains several genuine artefacts from his career. Between 1952 and 1961, he was the registered licensee. After being declared bankrupt, Turpin committed suicide by shooting himself in May 1966. He was found dead in his home Gwen’s Transport Cafe in Leamington Spa, where he lived with his wife and four daughters. One of his daughters, Carmen aged four, was taken to hospital in Birmingham with two gunshot wounds and survived. Turpin was inducted into theInternational Boxing Hall Of Fame in 2001.
  • Mayte Martínez Jiménez, Spanish 800m athlete, was born in 1976; she has reached four consecutive finals in the World Championships. Her third, with an incredible last straight finish in Osaka. She took part in 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games, but was eliminated at the semi-final stage.  She could not participate in 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing due to a fasciitis plantar injury.
  • Japanese Olympic swimmer Reiko Nakamura was born in 1982. She swam in the 2004 and 2008 Olympic Games, winning bronze in the 200m backstroke at both Games. At the 2008 Olympics, Nakamura set the Asian Records and Japanese records in both the 100m and 200m backstroke (59.36 and 2:07.13).At the 2007 World Championships, she swam a new Japanese 100m backstroke record (1:00.40) , winning the Bronze medal.  Eight days later, she lowered the mark to 1:00.29 while winning the 2007 Japan Championships.
  • Christine Ohuruogu was born in 1984; the British 400m specialist is a former Olympic, World and Commonwealth champion. The Olympic champion in 2008, and silver medallist in 2012, she is a double World Champion, having won the 400m at the 2007 and 2013 World Championships. She has also won four World championship bronze medals in the women’s 4x400m relay as part of the Great Britain and Northern Ireland team and bronze Olympic medals with the women’s 4x400m relay at the 2008 Beijing Games and the 2016 Rio Games, her final Olympics. Ohuruogu’s personal best time of 49.41 seconds, set at the 2013 World Championships, beat the UK record set by Kathy Cook in 1984 by 0.02 seconds, simultaneously making her the first British female to win two World Championship titles, and the first British female to win three global titles. Her relay bronze at the 2016 Summer Olympics made her only the second British track and field athlete, after Steve Backley to win medals at three successive Olympic Games.
  • On this day in 2000 Arsenal and Galatasaray fans clashed at the 2000 UEFA Cup Final riots in Copenhagen.
  • Philippe Gaumont, French professional cyclist died on this day 2013 aged 40. He won bronze in the 1992 Olympic 100km team time trial and in 1997 won the Belgian classic Gent–Wevelgem and was twice individual pursuit French national champion, in 2000 and 2002. In 2004, Gaumont quit professional cycling and later ran a café in Amiens. Gaumont was well known for having confessed to extensive doping and explaining a lot of the tricks of the trade.  He gave a series of interviews, and wrote a book, Prisonnier du dopage (“Prisoner of doping”) in which he explained doping methods, masking methods, the use of drug cocktails for training and for recreation, and how the need to make money makes racers dope. In April 2013 he suffered a major heart attack and was reported to be in a coma. On 13 May 2013, several news sources reported his death, but according to La Voix du Nord he remained in an artificial coma, though had suffered brain death.
  • 18th
    Denis Horgan, champion Irish athlete and weight thrower was born in 1871.  Shortly after setting a world record of 48 feet 2 inches with the 16 pound shot at Queenstown, in County Cork, Ireland in 1897, Horgan visited the USA, and in 1900, he joined the Greater New York Irish Athletic Association, the predecessor of the Irish American Athletic Club for a brief period before in 1905, joining the rival New York Athletic Club. In 1906, Horgan set  a world record for the 28 pound shot, with a distance of 35 feet, 4.5 inches at the Ancient Order of Hibernians games held at Celtic Park in Queens, New York. He competed for Great Britain in the 1908 Olympics winning the silver in the shot put. Denis Horgan won a total 42 shot put titles during his athletic career, including 28 Irish championships, 13 English championships (all for the 16 pound shot) and one American championship. Horgan was “usually so superior to his fellow competitors that he seldom trained in any sort of systematic way, yet he showed a marked consistency of performance, in all conditions, over a period of twenty years.
  • Swedish long-distance athlete Eric Backman was born on this day in 1896, his best achievement was at the 1920 Olympics. He won silver in the 8000m cross-country race, 2.6 seconds behind the legendary Paavo Nurmi. This second place helped the Swedish cross-country team to win the bronze medal behind Finland and Great Britain, as two other team members finished 10th and 11th. This scenario was repeated in the 3000m team event – Backman finished second and other Swedes 10th and 12th; he pulled up the Swedish team to the third place. In the 5000m Backman finished third, again behind Paavo Nurmi. Backman was a heavy smoker and enjoyed alcohol, yet he was an eight-time Swedish champion in the 5000m and 10,000m between 1918–23, and held Swedish records over 5000m, 10,000m, 5 miles and one-hour run.
  • Hedley Verity was born today in 1905; he was a professional cricketer who played for Yorkshire and England between 1930 and 1939. A slow left-arm orthodox bowler, he took 1,956 wickets in first-class cricket at an average of 14.90 and 144 wickets in 40 Tests at an average of 24.37. Named as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1932, he is regarded as one of the most effective slow left-arm bowlers to have played cricket. Never someone who spun the ball sharply, he achieved success through the accuracy of his bowling. On pitches which made batting difficult, particularly ones affected by rain, he could be almost impossible to bat against.
  • Frederick John “Fred” Perry was born in 1909; the British tennis and table tennis player was a former World No. 1, won 10 Majors including eight Grand Slams and two Pro Slams single titles, as well as six Major doubles titles. Perry won three consecutive Wimbledon Championships from 1934 to 1936 and was World Amateur number one tennis player during those three years. Prior to Andy Murray in 2013, Perry was the last British player to win the men’s Wimbledon championship, in 1936 and the last British player to win a men’s singles Grand Slam title until Andy Murray won the 2012 US Open. Perry was the first player to win a “Career Grand Slam”, winning all four singles titles at the age of 26 which he completed at the 1935 French Open. He remains the only British player ever to achieve this. Although Perry began his tennis career aged 18, he was also a Table Tennis World Champion in 1929. In 1933, Perry helped lead the Great Britain team to victory over France in the Davis Cup; the team’s first success since 1912, followed by wins over the United States in 1934, 1935, and a fourth consecutive title with victory over Australia in 1936.  But due to his disillusionment with the class-conscious nature of the Lawn Tennis Club of Great Britain, the working-class Perry turned professional at the end of the 1936 season and moved to the United States where he became a naturalised US citizen in 1938. In 1942, he was drafted into the US Air Force during the Second World War. Despite his unprecedented contribution to British tennis, Perry was not accorded full recognition by tennis authorities until later in life because between 1927 and 1967, the International Lawn Tennis Federation, ignored amateur champions that later turned professional.  In 1984, a statue of Perry was unveiled at Wimbledon, and in the same year he became the only tennis player listed in a survey of 2,000 Britons to find the “Best of the Best” British sportsmen of the 20th century.
  • Dame Margot Fonteyn de Ariaswas born in 1919, the English ballerina spent her entire career as a dancer with the Royal Ballet, eventually being appointed Prima Ballerina Assoluta of the company by Queen Elizabeth II. At four years of age her mother signed her and her elder brother up for ballet classes. At age eight, Margot travelled to China with her mother and father, who had taken employment with a tobacco company there; her brother Felix remained at his school. For six years Margot lived in TianJin, then in Shanghai, where she studied ballet with Russian émigré teacher George Goncharov. Her mother brought her back to London when she was 14, to pursue a ballet career. In 1933 Fonteyn joined the Vic-Wells Ballet School, the predecessor of today’s Royal Ballet School, training under the direction of Ninette de Valois and such teachers as Olga Preobrajenska and Mathilde Kschessinska [Krzesinska]. After starting with the Vic-Wells Ballet, she rose quickly through the ranks of the company. By 1939 Fonteyn had performed principal roles in GiselleSwan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty and was appointed Prima Ballerina. She was most noted in the ballets of Frederick Ashton, including OndineDaphnis and Chloe, and Sylvia. She was especially renowned for her portrayal of Aurora in Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty. Fonteyn also worked with choreographer Roland Petit and, later in life, Martha Graham. When the Royal Ballet toured the United States in 1949, Fonteyn instantly became a celebrity for her performances. As a dancer, Fonteyn made her last appearance in Nureyev’s 1979 summer season, and in February 1986 (aged 66) she appeared on stage for the last time, as the Queen in The Sleeping Beauty. She died of cancer on 21 February 1991 in a hospital in Panama City, Panama, aged 71.
  • Pauline Viardot, leading nineteenth-century French mezzo-soprano, pedagogue, and composer of Spanish descent died today in 1910 aged 88.  
  • Nobby Stiles, that ‘toothless’ member of the England World cup winning squad was born in 1942. He made his name as a tough-tackling defender with Manchester United and England, and was one of the game’s great characters.
  • In 1950 Jimmy Mullen became England’s first substitute in a football international, coming on for Jackie Milburn against Belguim in Brussels. He went on to score thus becoming the first sub to score in an international.
  • On this day in 1953 Jackie Cochran, a pioneer in the field of American aviation and considered to be one of the most gifted racing pilots of her generation, became the first woman to break the sound barrier. At Rogers Dry Lake, California, Cochran flew a Canadair F-86 Sabre jet borrowed from the Royal Canadian Air Force at an average speed of 652.337mph. During the course of this run the Sabre went supersonic. Jackie was an important contributor to the formation of the wartime Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) and Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP).  
  • Naomichi “Joe” Ozaki, Japanese professional golfer was born today 1956. He turned professional in 1977 and won 32 tournaments on the Japan Golf Tour between 1984 and 2005. He ranks fourth on the list of most Japan Golf Tour wins. He topped the money list in 1991 and 1999. Ozaki played 185 times on the PGA Tour from 1984 to 2001, primarily from 1993 to 2001. His best finish was a T-2 at the 1997 Buick Open. His best finish in a major championship was a T-25 at the 1993 US Open. He has featured in the top 50 of the Official World Golf Rankings. In 2005, he came in third at the Champions Tour Qualifying Tournament, and he began play on that tour after turning 50 in May 2006. His best finishes are a playoff loss at the 2007 Boeing Classic and a T-2 in the 2010 Regions Charity Classic. Ozaki played on the International Team in the 1998 Presidents Cup. Ozaki’s older brother, Masashi “Jumbo”, topped the Japan Golf Tour money list twelve times, and another brother, Tateo “Jet”, is also a professional golfer.
  • In 1960 Real Madrid gave a devastating display of attacking football to win the European Champions Cup for the fifth consecutive year. They capped their domination of the competition with a 7-3 demolition job on Eintracht Frankfurt in front of 127,000 fans at Hampden Park.
  • On this day in 1986 David Goch finishes swimming 55,682 miles in a 25yard pool.
  • Roberto Baggio was transferred from Fiorentina to Juventus for a then world record £7.7 million in 1990. 
  • Today in 2014 Adam Scott overtook Tiger Woods as the No 1 ranked golfer in the world.

19th

  • Dame Nellie Melba was born today in 1861 as Helen Porter Mitchell, she became one of the most famous singers of the late Victorian era and the early 20th century. She was the first Australian to achieve international recognition as a classical musician. She took the pseudonym “Melba” from Melbourne, her home town. Melba studied singing in Melbourne and made a modest success in performances there. After a brief and unsuccessful marriage, she moved to Europe in search of a singing career. Failing to find engagements in London in 1886, she studied in Paris and soon made a great success there and in Brussels. Returning to London she quickly established herself as the leading lyric soprano at Covent Garden from 1888. She soon achieved further success in Paris and elsewhere in Europe, and later at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, debuting there in 1893. Her repertoire was small; in her whole career she sang no more than 25 roles and was closely identified with only ten. She was known for her performances in French and Italian opera, but sang little German opera. During the First World War, Melba raised large sums for war charities. She returned to Australia frequently during the 20th century, singing in opera and concerts, and had a house built for her near Melbourne. She was active in the teaching of singing at the Melbourne Conservatorium. Melba continued to sing until the last months of her life and made a large number of “farewell” appearances. Her death, in Australia, in 1931 was news across the English-speaking world, and her funeral was a major national event.
  • Sir Albert Edward Richardson, the leading English architect who is best known as the designer of the Manchester Opera House was born in 1880. He was Professor of Architecture at University College London, a President of the Royal Academy, editor of Architects’ Journal and founder of the Georgian Group. He was awarded the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture in 1947 and was elected President of the Royal Academy in 1954; he was knighted in 1956.
  • On this day in 1905 Tom Jenkins beat Frank Gotcha for the heavyweight wrestling championship.
  • The former world 100m record holder Percy Williams was born in 1908. This Canadian athlete was the winner of the 100m and 200m at the 1928 Olympics, equalling the Olympic 100m record of 10.6 seconds.  At the age of 15 Williams suffered from rheumatic fever and was advised to avoid strenuous physical activities. However, as his high school required participation in athletic competitions, he started training in sprint in 1924 and by 1927 became a local champion. Williams showed that his Olympic success was not an accident, winning the 100yd dash at the inaugural British Empire Games (now known as the Commonwealth Games) in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and setting a World Record at a meet in Toronto in 1930. He suffered a pulled thigh muscle at the British Empire Games and never made a full comeback. At the1932 Olympics in Los Angeles, he was eliminated in the semi-finals of the 100m. With the Canadian team he finished fourth in the 4×100 metre relay. Subsequently, Williams stopped running and became an insurance agent.
  • The Swiss operatic tenor Éric Tappy was born in 1931 in Lausanne. He made his concert debut in Strasbourg in 1959 as the Evangelist in the St. Matthew Passion. He made his American debut as Don Ottavio at the San Francisco Opera in 1974. That same year, the tenor first appeared at Covent Garden, in the name part of La clemenza di Tito. Tappy was also featured in two films by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle: L’incoronazione di Poppea and La clemenza di Tito. Tappy was known for his wide range of concert and opera repertoire. He retired in 1982.
  • The actor who playedWest Country bricklayer Brian “Bomber” Busbridge in Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, Francis Patrick “Pat” Roachwas born in 1937. Before Roach broke into acting, he was a well-known wrestler who attracted unwarranted abuse from the crowds who wrongly assumed him to be a typical wrestling heel in a similar mould to the likes of Mick McManus. After his acting career had taken off, he continued to wrestle under the name of “Bomber” Pat Roach, having previously been billed as “Big” Pat Roach, but now receiving affectionate cheering from the spectators. He was trained by Alf Kent and his first official wrestling match was against George Selko in 1960. Roach held both the British and European Heavyweight Wrestling Championships. He made his acting debut as the red-bearded bouncer in the Korova Milkbar in Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange in 1971, other well-known roles include; as General Kael in Willow, and his supporting roles of henchmen in the Indiana Jones films. He died on 17 July 2004 of throat cancer aged 67.
  • Spanish matador Diego Mazquiarán often simply called Fortuna died on this day in 1940. Mazquiarán was made a full matador on September 17, 1916 by Rafael Gómez in Madrid. On January 22, 1928 a bull escaped from its corral in Madrid, the bull roamed the city for three hours, injuring eleven and killing one. When Mazquiarán and his wife encountered the bull he send his wife back home to retrieve his sword while he used his overcoat  as if it were a cape to pass the bull. When his wife returned with his sword, Mazquiarán killed the bull with a single thrust.  The crowd that gathered awarded Mazquiarán both of the bull’s ears for his performance, for his actions Mazquiarán was awarded the Cruz de Beneficencia. Mazquiarán was the first matador to fight in the newly constructed Madrid bullring when he killed the bull “Hortelano” on June 17, 1931. His mental health deteriorated as he aged, and he died in a mental hospital in Lima.
  • In 1965 Bobby Moore captained West Ham to a memorable European Cup-winners’ Cup triumph over Munich 1860 at Wembley. The Hammers won thanks to two goals by Alan Sealey. It was the second leg of a great hat-trick for Moore, who led West Ham to victory over Preston in the 1964 FA Cup Final, and of course, in 1966, he made it three successive trips up the famous Wembley steps when he led England to victory in the 1966 World Cup Final.
  • Liverpool enjoyed European glory on this day in 1976 when they drew 1-1 at FC Bruges in the second leg of their UEFA Cup tie. The score-line was good enough to give them an overall 4-3 victory on aggregate.
  • Today in 1977 it was announced that the sponsorship of sports events by tobacco firms was to be outlawed by Labour’s Health Secretary, Frank Dobson. It was thought that it could spell the end of the British F1 Grand Prix. Other sports such as rugby, snooker, darts, cricket and ice hockey also stood to lose around £10 million in sports sponsorship. Mr Dobson told the conference: “We will ban tobacco advertising. It will cover all forms, including sponsorship.” But he did acknowledge that the move would come as a severe blow to sports organisers of major events like the Silk Cut Challenge Cup snooker final and the Embassy World Professional Darts Championship. “We recognise that some sports, like some smokers, are heavily dependent on tobacco sponsorship. We will therefore give them time and help to reduce their dependency on the weed,” he said. Health professionals were delighted by the move, in a statement, the Imperial Cancer Research Fund said: “We welcome any moves to ban tobacco advertising and sponsorship.” A spokesperson for the British Medical Association added: “It’s unacceptable for tobacco, the major cause of preventable ill health, to be linked with sport.” And a representative from anti-smoking group ASH said: “We’re delighted and excited. We hope to be able to help the Government to work out a draft Bill.” The tobacco industry looked to seek urgent talks with the government to discuss the issue. In November of 1977, the government decided that F1 racing would be exempt from the sponsorship ban. But weeks later, the press revealed that the prime minster, Tony Blair, had met representatives of F1 before the decision was announced. It also emerged that F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone had donated £1 million to the Labour Party before the general election. Although Labour and Mr Ecclestone strongly denied any connection between the donation and the exemption, Labour gave him back his £1 million. In December 1997, the European Union passed a law banning tobacco advertising and sponsorship – bar Formula one – across Europe. It was overturned by the European Court of Justice after appeals from the tobacco industry. In The UK tobacco advertising in shops and newsagents was outlawed in December 1999 and tobacco sponsorship of sports ended in 2003. In July 2005 the European Union imposed a ban on tobacco advertising and sponsorship of sporting events, apart from events that are purely local. After the British Grand Prix advertising ban came into effect, some tobacco producers switched to using logos or colour schemes similar to their usual adverts to promote their products at races. This was a severe financial blow to snooker which had to look for new backing. The 2006 snooker World Championship was the first in 30 years not to be sponsored by Embassy cigarettes.
  • British tennis player and Wimbledon Mixed Doubles Champion Heather Watson was born today in 1992. She is a former British No.1 and current British No. 2 behind Johanna Konta. She holds the Mixed Doubles title at the 2016 Wimbledon Championships with Henri Kontinen. On 14 October 2012, Watson won her first WTA singles title with a win over Chang Kai-chen of Taiwan in the final of the Japan Open, becoming the first British female to win a WTA singles title since Sara Gomer in 1988. In her junior career, Watson won the US Open and gold at the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games. She has reached as high as No. 3 in the world on the ITF Junior Circuit.
  • Polish boxer Zbigniew Pietrzykowski died on this day in 2014 aged 79. He took part in three Olympic Games, winning a medal each time. Light middleweight bronze in Melbourne in 1956. Four years later in Rome, he reached the light heavyweight final, where he lost to future heavyweight champion Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali). Finally, he won a light heavyweight bronze in Tokyo in 1964, defeated by Russian Aleksei Kiselyov. Pietrzykowski participated in five European Amateur Boxing Championships and won five medals: a bronze in the light middleweight division at Warsaw 1953, and then four gold medals: at West Berlin 1955 in the light middleweight division, at Prague 1957 in the middleweight division, and at Lucerne 1959 and at Moscow 1963 in the light heavyweight division. He won the Polish championships 11 times; light middleweight – 1954, 1955 and 1956, middleweight in 1957 and light heavyweight in 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964 and 1965. In his career, he fought a total of 350 fights; winning 334, drawing two and losing 14. He was the first winner of the Aleksander Reksza Boxing Award in 1986.