1935 — Bob Crisp takes five wickets as South Africa bowl out England for 357 on the opening day of the fourth Test in Manchester.
1947 — Three South Africans strike success at the French championships, with Eric Sturgess taking both the men’s doubles and mixed doubles crowns. He and countryman Eustace Fannin won the men’s doubles by beating American Tom Brown and Bill Sidwell of Australia 6-4 4-6 6-4 6-3. Then Sturgess teamed up with another compatriot, Sheila Summers, to take the mixed doubles mantle by beating Christian Caralulis of Romania and Pole Jadwiga Jedrzejowska 6-0 6-0. Sturgess also made the final of the men’s singles, losing 6-8 5-7 4-6 to József Asbóth of Hungary the previous day.
1947 — Bobby Locke wins for the seventh time in 12 starts in North America, firing a 14-under-par 274 to take the Columbus Open by five strokes. Locke, who had arrived in the US on April 1 that year, had earned more than £5,100, making him the most successful player there. At that stage Locke was considering applying for membership of the USPGA and relocating there with his wife and daughter.
1951 — Eric Rowan, 160 not out overnight, goes on to score 236 on the second day of the fourth Test against England at Leeds.
1952 — Esther Brand becomes the first African woman to win an Olympic gold medal when she takes the high jump title at the Helsinki Games. She was the only one in the field to clear 1.67m, though she would have still beaten Briton Sheila Lerwill on countback if she’d not improved on the 1.65m they both cleared in the ninth round of competition.
1965 — Debutant Richard Dumbrill takes four wickets to give South Africa a sniff of victory before the first Test against England at Lord’s ends in a draw. Chasing 191 for victory, the home side was on 145/7 when stumps were drawn. Their last four wickets fell for 27 runs.
1968 — The Springboks run in four tries as they thump the British and Irish Lions 19-6 at Ellis Park in the fourth and final Test to win the series 3-0. Flank Jan Ellis, wing Syd Nomis and centres Eben Olivier and Mannetjies Roux all dotted down, with flyhalf Piet Visagie slotting two conversions and fullback Rodney Gould landing a drop.
1974 — The Springboks, already 0-3 down in the series, grab a consolation and controversial 13-13 draw against the British Lions. The visitors are denied a try when South African wing Chris Pope seemingly uses his foot to dot the ball down in his in-goal area. Even so, the Lions still win the try-count 2-1, with winger Andy Irvine and flanker Roger Uttley going over. Centre Peter Cronje scored for the home side. That was the first time the Boks had lost a series to the British outfit since they became the Lions, and the first time they had lost to a British composite team since 1896.
1980 — Double world champion Kork Ballington wins the 250cc race at the Finnish motorcycle grand prix in Imatra, but takes fifth in the 500cc, his best finish in his inaugural season in the premier class.
1980 — Sally Little survives a double drop on the 17th hole and bogey on the 18th to win the Long Island Golf Classic by four strokes. Her final-round 75 in hot, windy conditions gave her a four-under-par 284.
1985 — Piet Crous loses his WBA cruiserweight title, getting stopped in the 11th round by American Dwight Qawi at Sun City.
1991 — Corrie Sanders wins the vacant South African heavyweight title when he blows away Johnny du Plooy in the first round of their bout at Sun City. Sanders would go on to become the country’s longest-reigning heavyweight champion, but by the time he relinquished the belt in 1998, he had not made a single defence. None of the contenders considered themselves good enough to challenge him.
1998 — South Africa lose the fourth Test in Nottingham by eight wickets as England draw level in the five-match series at 1-1.
2002 — The Springboks match Australia 4-4 in the try count, but go down 27-38 in a Tri-Nations match in Brisbane. Centre Marius Joubert scored two and Brent Russell and Bobby Skinstad dotted down.
2002 — In a clash of the former IBF junior-featherweight champions, who ruled from 1994 until 2001, Vuyani Bungu and Lehlohonolo Ledwaba meet at Carnival City. Ledwaba, celebrating his 31st birthday, is four years younger than Bungu, and he dominates to win a unanimous decision to lift the marginal IBO featherweight title.
2003 — Gerhard Zandberg wins South Africa’s only medal of the world championships in Barcelona, taking bronze in the 50m backstroke in 25.07, behind German Thomas Rupprath, who clocked a 24.80 world record, and Australian Matt Welsh in 25.01.
2009 — Cameron van der Burgh scores his first major 100m breaststroke success as he wins bronze at the world championships in Rome, touching in a 58.95 sec African record. Australian Brenton Rickard won in a 58.58 world record which the South African would break three years later at the Olympics.
2011 — Defending champion Cameron van der Burgh finishes third in the 50m breaststroke at the world championships in Shanghai as he touches in 27.19. Brazilian Felipe Silva won in 27.01.
2014 — Tim Clark lands his second PGA Tour triumph, firing a 17-under-par 263 to win the RBC Canadian Open at the Royal Montreal golf club, one stroke ahead of American Jim Furyk.
2019 — Replacement scrumhalf Herschel Jantjies scores a last-gasp try, converted by flyhalf Handre Pollard, as the Springboks clinch a 16-16 Rugby Championship draw against the All Blacks in Wellington. It was the 24th time South Africa had drawn an international.
2019 — Chad le Clos claims his second medal of the world championships in Gwangju, South Korea, as he wins bronze in the 100m butterfly in 51.16 sec. American Caeleb Dressel, who broke Michael Phelps’ 10-year-old world record in the semifinals the previous night going 49.50, won in 49.66. Russian Andrei Minakov was second in 50.83.
2021 — Team South Africa land two Olympic silver medals on the same day at the Tokyo Games, courtesy of swimmer Tatjana Schoenmaker and surfer Bianca Buitendag. Schoenmaker finished second behind American Lydia Jacoby in the 100m breaststroke, touching in 1 min 05.22 sec. The winning time was 1:04.95, though had Schoenmaker come close to the 1:04.82 Olympic record she clocked in the heats, she would have taken gold. That was the first time a South African swimmer had made an Olympic podium where the finals were swum in the morning to accommodate US prime-time TV. The same system was used at Beijing 2008, where South Africa had no success. Buitendag, who had been in semi-retirement before qualifying for the Games, beat two of the three top seeds on her way to the final, where she lost to No 1 Carissa Moore of the US. Seeded 17th out of 20, the South African mastered washing machine-like conditions, caused by an approaching typhoon, downing America’s second-seeded Caroline Marks in the semifinals and Yolanda Hopkins of Portugal, the ninth seed, in the quarterfinals. She beat Australia’s No 3 Stephanie Gilmore in the third round. Buitendag, who lives in George, had a challenging start of the year, finding enterprising ways to practise with local beaches being closed because of the Covid-19 pandemic, like going out on a fishing boat and catching waves from there.
2022 — Lungi Ngidi takes 5/39 but the Proteas, needing 235, lose the first T20 against England in Bristol by 41 runs. Tristan Stubbs made 72 off 28 balls and Reeza Hendricks 57 from 33.
2024 — The Blitzboks give South Africa a medal on the opening day of the Paris Olympics, taking bronze after beating Australia 26-19 in the play-off for third at Stade de France. Captain Selvyn Davids gave Shaun Williams the ball in the Australian in-goal area to score the winning try. It was a great finish by a team that lost their opening two group matches, to Ireland and New Zealand, and were also beaten by eventual champions France 5-19 in the semifinals.
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