1936: 1st players elected to Baseball Hall of Fame: Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson and Walter Johnson.
1963: Wilt Chamberlain of the San Francisco Warriors scored 62 points in a 123-103 win over the New York Knicks.
1968: Australian Championships Women’s Tennis: American Billie Jean King beats home favourite Margaret Court 6-1, 6-2 for her 13th Grand Slam singles title.
1998: One of the shortest Tests in history. The Jamaica match between England and West Indies lasted just 62 bone-crushing deliveries. England were 17 for 3 at the time – Alec Stewart was still there having made an imperious, unbeaten 9 – and their physio Wayne Morton had run out six times in 66 minutes. When Nasser Hussain came to the crease, Stewart apparently greeted him with the words: “It’s Saturday, it’s eight o’clock, it’s the lottery.” Thankfully England’s number came up when the umpires, Steve Bucknor and Srinivas Venkataraghavan, courageously called off play because of the unsafe pitch.
1951: The poker-faced, almost docile demeanour of Andy Roberts, who was born today, hid the merciless soul of a great fast bowler. His stock bouncer, quick and nasty, was simply a softener, a prelude to the real thing, which was close to unplayable. Lithe and effortlessly economical in his run-up, Roberts did not benefit from coming into a great West Indies side (only one of his first seven five-fors came in victory). He famously blew India away in Jamaica in 1982-83 with three wickets in an over to allow Viv Richards to hammer West Indies to a victory target of 173 inside 26 overs.