1956 — Willie Toweel fights friend Hubert Essakow in their ill-fated contest at the Johannesburg city hall. Toweel comes in heavier than his opponent after losing his South African featherweight title on the scales. Essakow, who has fought at lightweight recently, has reduced weight. It’s a tough bout, but Toweel wins when he knocks out Essakow in the 11th round. Essakow loses consciousness and dies in hospital three days later. Toweel suffers a breakdown as a result and is haunted by his friend’s death for the rest of his life.
1966 — Kimberley residents raise R1,000 so swimming coach Frank Gray can accompany his world record-breaking star, Karen Muir, when she competes in Milan later in the month. Rand Daily Mail columnist Paul Irwin had suggested Gray accompany his protege, and soon a “Send Frank Gray Fund” had become official. The money was raised in five days.
1977 — In one of the bigger mismatches seen in a local ring, heavyweight Gerrie Coetzee blows away former light-heavyweight contender Pierre Fourie in the third round of their bout. It was the only stoppage defeat for Fourie, who failed in four bids for the world light-heavyweight title, twice against American Bob Foster and twice against Victor Galindez of Argentina. Fourie admitted later that he knew he would be outgunned by Coetzee, saying he took the fight for the money. He hung up his gloves after that.
1993 — Ditau Molefyane becomes the first South African boxer to win a marginal world title when he outpoints Australian Ricky Rayner for the vacant WBF junior-lightweight belt in Sydney. The four mainstream organisations were the WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO, but the 1990s saw the proliferation of alphabet organisations that found popularity among South African promoters and fighters, notably the WBU and IBO.
1994 — Dingaan Thobela fails to reclaim his WBA lightweight crown from Russian Orzubek Nazarov, again losing on points over 12 rounds, this time at the Carousel casino.
1998 — Daryll Cullinan scores 113 on the first day of the first Test against Sri Lanka at Newlands.
1999 — Sugar Boy Malinga, by now 43 years old, is stopped on a 10th round technical knockout to lose the peripheral WBF super-middleweight title to Mads Larsen in Denmark. It was the third occasion Malinga had been a world champion — he had twice worn the WBC crown before — and every time he lost in his first defence.
1999 — Shaun Pollock finishes with 5/33 as South Africa bowl out New Zealand for 222 in the third and final Test in Wellington. Herschelle Gibbs then scored an unbeaten 115.
2000 — Lance Klusener strikes 75 off 58 balls and Herschelle Gibbs, forgetting to throw his wicket for 20 runs, a swashbuckling 74 from 53 deliveries as the Proteas, on 320/7, beat India by 10 runs in the fifth and final ODI in Nagpur. Klusener took 3/59. The match came under the spotlight amid allegations of match-fixing against Gibbs, his skipper Hansie Cronje and others.
2000 — South Africa complete the world short-course championships in Athens with five medals. Sarah Poewe won gold in the 100m and 50m breaststroke, while Brendon Dedekind and Terence Parkin won two silvers each. Dedekind was second in the 50m freestyle and 50m breaststroke, and Parkin was runner-up in the 200m breaststroke and 400m individual medley.
2004 — Fourteen-year-old amateur golfer Ashleigh Simon, eight shots off the pace, fires a final-round nine-under-par 63 to win the South African Women’s Open against a field of professionals at Royal Johannesburg and Kensington. A week earlier the Grade 9 pupil from Holy Rosary Convent won the strokeplay and matchplay titles at the South African Ladies Amateur tournament. Simon won the South African Open again in 2007 then turned professional.
2004 — Shaun Pollock dismisses Michael Papps for a duck on the second day of the second Test against New Zealand in Auckland to become South Africa’s leading Test wicket-taker, taking his career haul to 331 to overhaul Allan Donald’s mark of 330.
2011 — Robin Peterson takes 4/12 and Lonwabo Tstotsobe 3/14 as the Proteas bowl out Bangladesh for 78 to win their World Cup group contest in Mirpur by 206 runs. Jacques Kallis scored 69.
2015 — Sune Luus takes 3/14, but the South African women, having totalled 101/7, lose the first T20 against Pakistan in Sharjah by five wickets.
2016 — Hekkie Budler suffers a shock defeat as he loses his WBA and IBO strawweight titles on points to Byron Rojas of Nicaragua at Emperors Palace. Budler, who had struggled to make the weight, according to trainer Colin Nathan, was making the ninth defence of his IBO belt and the fourth of his WBA belt. Rojas was dethroned in his first defence three months later.
2016 — Thapelo Phora, Ofentse Mogawane, Jon Seeliger and Shaun de Jager combine to run a 3 min 08.45 sec national record in the 4x400m relay at the world indoor championships in Portland, but that wasn’t fast enough to get them into the six-lane final.
2019 — The Proteas and Sri Lanka tie the first T20 at Newlands, with both teams ending on 134. Andile Phehlukwayo took 3/25 and David Miller scored 41 off 23 balls. But the match went to a super over, in which Miller scored 13 runs and Rassie van der Dussen 1. Imran Tahir bowled miserly, conceding just five runs to give the home side the victory. It was the only T20 played by South Africa then to have ended in a tie.
2022 — The Proteas are bowled out for 111 as New Zealand win the first Test in Christchurch by an innings and 276 runs.
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