1931 — SA’s cricketers get their first taste of Australian batting star Don Bradman, who scores 200 on the opening day of the first Test in Brisbane. Bradman went on to make 226 to help the hosts to victory by an innings.
1971 — Jean-Louis Ravelomanantsoa of Madagascar wins the men’s 100m on the second day of the first-ever mixed-race athletics meet at Green Point stadium in Cape Town, clocking 10.5sec into a stiff breeze to beat Francois Wahl by 01.sec. Andries Krogman, a Potchefstroom University student, won a controversial 10,000m, beating Johannes Metsing by 3.6sec. The 31min 5.6sec winning time seemed ridiculously slow, until people realised an official’s error had resulted in the athletes running an extra lap. Instead of having 24 laps remaining at the end of the first circuit, the official had 25. Krogman and Metsing had been neck-and-neck at what should have been the finish.
1976 — Elijah “Tap Tap” Makhathini becomes the first boxer to win a Supreme national title after the black South African middleweight champion sends the white South African middleweight champion Jan Kies to the canvas five times in the third round of their bout at the Rand stadium in Johannesburg. Referee Peter Lock waved it over with Kies back on his feet, soaking up more punishment. Gerrie Coetzee lifted the Supreme heavyweight title later in the tournament, felling the smaller James Mathatho, who also campaigned as a light-heavyweight, with a left to the solar plexus in the seventh round. The Supreme title was an apartheid compromise, allowing black and white champions to face off across the colour bar.
1982 — Kepler Wessels scores a century on his Test debut, playing for Australia in the Ashes series against England. Picked for the second Test in Brisbane, Wessels finished the second day unbeaten on 105, and went on to post 162 as Australia built up a first-innings lead of 122. Playing for England was another SA-born player, Allan Lamb, who top-scored for his side in the first inning with 72. Wessels ended up as player of the match, which Australia won by seven wickets.
1996 — Andrew Hudson scores 146 and Gary Kirsten 102 on the opening day of the second Test against India at Eden Gardens.
1998 — Thulani “Sugar Boy” Malinga becomes a world champion for the third time when he stops Peter Madsen of Denmark in the eighth round to lift the marginal WBF super-middleweight title. Malinga was allowed to fight in Denmark despite being advised to quit after “failing” a brain scan at home.
1998 — Shaun Pollock finishes with 5/54 as the Proteas bowl out the West Indies for 261 in the first Test at the Wanderers.
1999 — Allan Donald takes five wickets — for a match haul of 11/127 — as England slump to 188/7 on the fourth day of the second Test at the Wanderers, still 66 runs away from making the Proteas bat again.
1999 — Bafana Bafana bag their first-ever victory over a European team as they beat Sweden 1-0 in a Nelson Mandela Challenge match at Loftus in Pretoria. Siyabonga Nomvethe scored the winner in the 86th minute.
2002 — Shaun Pollock takes 4/18 as the Proteas blitz Sri Lanka by six wickets with 123 balls to spare in the first ODI at the Wanderers. Makhaya Ntini took 3/22 as the tourists crashed to 128 all out, Mahela Jayawardene top-scoring with 31.
2004 — Left wing Bryan Habana scores two tries as the Springboks romp to a 45-10 victory over Scotland at Murrayfield. Centre Jaque Fourie, debutant flank Solly Tyibilika and flyhalf Jaco van der Westhuyzen scored SA's other three tries. Both locks Bakkies Botha and Victor Matfield received yellow cards.
2008 — Ashwell Prince scores an unbeaten 115 and Mark Boucher 102 not out in the final second Test against Bangladesh at Centurion. Boucher was out for 117 the next day and Prince unbeaten on 162 when South Africa were bowled out for 429.
2009 — AB de Villiers scores 121 off 85 balls to lift the Proteas to an imposing 354/6 in the third ODI against England at Newlands. Wayne Parnell took five wickets as SA triumphed by 112 runs to level the five-match series at 1-1.
2010 — Substitute Willem Alberts and left wing Lwazi Mvovo score tries as the Springboks beat England 21-11 at Twickenham. Flyhalf Morne Steyn converted one and added three penalties.
2013 — Hashim Amla scores 98 and AB de Villiers a swashbuckling 74 off 45 balls, but it’s not enough as the Proteas lose the rain-interrupted second ODI against Pakistan at St George’s Park in Port Elizabeth by a single run. Chasing 263 off 45 overs, SA ended on 261/6 to lose their first-ever ODI series against Pakistan, who took an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.
2015 — The Proteas are bowled out for 185 in Nagpur to lose the third Test by 124 runs as India take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the four-match series.
2016 — Stephen Cook, resuming on 81, makes 104 as the Proteas are bowled out by Australia for 250 in the final third Test in Adelaide. The hosts knocked off the 127 required runs inside 41 overs to win by seven wickets, a consolation victory with South Africa taking the series 2-1.
2016 — Dane van Niekerk takes 3/52 then scores 81 as the South African women tie the fourth ODI against Australia at Coffs Harbour. Both sides were dismissed for 242, with Sune Luus taking 4/37 and Marizanne Kapp making 66. The match went down to the final delivery, with tail-ender Masabata Klaas being run out.
2018 — US-based player Thembi Kgatlana scores her fifth goal of the tournament as Banyana Banyana beat Mali 2-0 in their African Women’s Championship semifinal at Cape Coast in Ghana. The win secured them their first-ever spot at the World Cup tournament in France the following year. Right back Lebogang Ramalepe netted SA’s other goal late in the match. The final whistle brought a flood of emotion with skipper Janine van Wyk breaking down in tears.
2020 — Faf du Plessis scores 58, but the Proteas, defending 179/6, lose the first T20 against England at Newlands by five wickets.
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