1884: First double-century stand in Test cricket. Percy McDonnell (103) Billy Murdoch (211) for Australia in drawn 3rd Test v England in London.
1929: Babe Ruth becomes 1st professional baseball player to hit 500 homers (off Willis Hudlin of Cleveland Indians).
1977: One of the most highly charged days in English cricket ended with Geoffrey Boycott making his 100th hundred. In a perfect piece of stage management, he scored it on his home ground, Headingley, in a Test against Australia. He was the first player to hit his 100th ton in a Test match. Boycott went on to make 191. Four days later, after Derek Randall held a catch from Rod Marsh off Mike Hendrick’s bowling and then cartwheeled to celebrate, England won by an innings to regain the Ashes.
1984: Carl Lewis duplicates Jesse Owens’ 1936 feat, winning his 4th Olympic gold medal as part of the US 4 x 100m relay team; world record (37.83).
1984: A British 1-2 in the 1,500m at the Los Angeles Olympics with Sebastian Coe edging teammate Steve Cram to become the only man to successfully defend his Olympic 1,500m title.
1992: Oakland A’s rip Jose Canseco for leaving stadium before end of game.
2005: Another memorable milestone as Shane Warne became the first bowler to take 600 Test wickets. And he did it at Old Trafford, where he spawned his legend back in 1993. This time, the victim was Marcus Trescothick and the dismissal a rather more scrappy affair than the wonder ball that did for Mike Gatting all those years before. Aiming to sweep, Tresco scuffed the ball with the back of his bat and Adam Gilchrist completed a juggling catch as the ball bobbled up off his thigh.
2005: American Justin Gatlin becomes only the 2nd athlete to take sprint double, winning 200m in 20.04 at the World Championships in Helsinki, Finland.
2013: Usain Bolt of Jamaica records best time of the year (9.77s) to edge out American Justin Gatlin and win 100m at the World Athletics Championships in Moscow, Russia. 2016: American super-swimmer Michael Phelps wins men’s 200m individual medley in 1:54.66 at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics; 3rd athlete and 1st swimmer to win 4 consecutive Olympic gold medals in one event.
