1912 — South Africa and Australia play to a draw in a triangular tournament Test in Nottingham.
1948 — Vic Toweel, who would go on to become South Africa’s only undisputed world boxing champion, is rated as one of South Africa’s best medal chances at the London Olympics. But he loses a controversial decision to Arnoldo Parés of Argentina in the first round of the bantamweight competition. Had Toweel won, his next opponent would have been Australia’s Jimmy Carruthers, who later handed the South African his first professional defeat while relieving him of his crown. Carruthers beat Parés, but he was unfit to fight Hungarian Tibor Csík in the next round. Csik went on to win the bantamweight gold.
1971 — The Springboks secure a 3-0 series clean sweep over Australia when they win the third and final Test in Sydney 18-6. South African flyhalf Piet Visagie scored 12 of South Africa’s points with a try, three conversions and a penalty to end a tour that had been marked by anti-apartheid protests. It was also the first time the Boks had completed a full tour unbeaten, having also won their provincial matches to keep the traditional Springbok head trophy reserved for the first team to beat them.
1977 — Tienie Britz scores his only success on the European Tour, winning the German Open in Dusseldorf with a two-stroke win over countryman Hugh Baiocchi. The 32-year-old, who had a flower and tomato farm near Johannesburg, carded a 13-under-par 275 for the R9,400 first prize.
1977 — Shaun Tomson finishes joint sixth alongside compatriot Gavin Rudolph at the tour event in Rio de Janeiro, but it’s enough to push him back to the top of the rankings, dislodging Australian Rabbit Bartholomew. The result rocketed Rudolph from 20th to sixth overall.
1992 — South Africa enjoys a silver return to the Olympics after 32 years of isolation when they bag two medals at the Barcelona Olympics. Tennis players Wayne Ferreira and Piet Norval reached the final of the men’s doubles competition where they were beaten in four sets in the final by Germans Boris Becker and Michael Stich. That evening, distance star Elana Meyer finished second in the women’s 10,000m behind Ethiopia’s Derartu Tulu, but their joint celebration on the track afterwards symbolised South Africa’s return to the international fold.
1997 — Denise Reid takes 3/7 and Kim Price 3/14 as the South African women bowl out Ireland for 101 to win the second ODI in Dublin by 34 runs for an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.
1999 — The Springboks concede seven kicked penalties as they lose 18-34 to the All Blacks in a Tri-Nations match at Loftus Versfeld. Both sides scored two tries.
2000 — Lance Klusener top-scores with an unbeaten 95 in South Africa’s first innings of 279, but the Proteas go on to draw the third and final Test against Sri Lanka in Colombo to share the series 1-1.
2004 — Jacques Rudolph, resuming on 85, scores 102 in the first innings of the first Test against Sri Lanka in Galle. Nicky Boje took five wickets before the home side declared on 214/9, setting the Proteas a target of 325.
2013 — Chad le Clos breaks his first world record, clocking 1min 49.04sec to win the 200m butterfly on the first leg of the World Cup short-course series in Eindhoven.
2016 — Cameron van der Burgh wins his second Olympic medal as he takes silver in the 100m breaststroke behind Englishman Adam Peaty at the Rio Games. Peaty won in a 57.13sec world record with Van der Burgh touching in 58.69, ahead of third-placed American Cody Miller in 58.87.
2016 — Mignon du Preez scores and unbeaten 116 off 99 balls and Chloe Tryon 52 as the South African women, totalling 272/6, beat Ireland by 68 runs in the second ODI in Dublin.
2017 — Caster Semenya storms through on the last lap to snatch the world championship 1,500m bronze from Briton Laura Muir by just seven-hundredths of a second in London. After a slow tactical race that offered Semenya a sniff of a chance, Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon won in 4min 02.59sec, ahead of American Jennifer Simpson (4:02.76), Semenya (4:02.90) and then Muir (4:02.97).
2017 — Hashim Amla top-scores with 83 as the Proteas are bowled out for 202 to lose the fourth and final Test in Manchester by 177 runs, with the hosts winning the series 3-1.
2021 — Replacement flyhalf Morne Steyn, 12 years after kicking the Springboks to victory over the 2009 British Lions, lands a late penalty to seal a 19-16 victory in the deciding third Test at Cape Town Stadium for a 2-1 series triumph. Cheslin Kolbe scored South Africa’s only try.
2022 — Ashleigh Buhai becomes the second South African woman to win a golf major when she captures the Women’s British Open crown in a dramatic four-hole playoff. She blew a five-shot overnight lead as she carded a four-over-par 75 in the final round, largely because of a triple bogey on the par-four 15th at Muirfield, to end level with In Gee Chun of South Korea, who had won three major titles. But Buhai, who had won three times on the Ladies’ European Tour and was ranked 84th in the world, triumphed on the fourth time of playing the par-four 18th hole. Both had gone par, bogey, par in the playoff before Buhai carded a par after splashing out a bunker and nailing the putt for victory.
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