This day in history: 27th September

Brendon McCullum of New Zealand celebrates his 32nd birthday today

Cricket

1981- Brendon McCullum, the swashbuckling New Zealand right hander, was born today. The Kiwi opener played one of the most memorable knocks in IPL history, scoring 158 off just 73 balls, for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the opening game of the tournament. The wicketkeeper-batsman made the national team after a remarkable career in international youth cricket, where he proved his ability to dominate opposition attacks.

1948- Birth of Duncan Fletcher, Zimbabwean cricketer and current coach of the Indian cricket team. He took over as the coach of the English cricket team, tagged the worst team in the world, in 1999. He turned things around more quickly than anyone may have imagined. Using sensible management, and the ability to look beyond statistics, he helped England become one of the top Test teams in the world.

1998- In the second one-day international,in Bulawayo, Sourav Ganguly scored his fifth one-day hundred to lead India to an eight-wicket victory over Zimbabwe. This gave them an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.

1981- Lakshmipathy Balaji, the Indian pacer who first endeared himself to crowds during India’s tour of Pakistan, was born today.

Football

1976- One of Italian football’s most celebrated strikers, Francesco Totti was born. He has spent his whole career at the Italian club Roma and is their top goal scorer and most capped player as well. In his time at the club, he has won a whopping five Italian Footballer of the Year awards and two Serie A Footballer of the Year awards. He has also been part of the 2006 World Cup winning team and Euro 2000 finalist.

1967- Japan started their Olympic qualification campaign with a record-breaking 15-0 win over the Philippines. Japan went further than any Asian team in the tournament, and reached the quarterfinals before losing to Czechoslovakia, who were the eventual runners-up.

Tennis

1881- William J Clothier, the first president of the Tennis Hall of Fame was born.

1909 - 29th US Men’ s Tennis Championships: W A Larned beat W J Clothier (6-1, 6-2, 5-7, 1-6, 6-1)

Baseball

1923- New York Yankees legend Lou Gehrig hits the first of his 493 home runs. He went on to play 17 seasons in Major League Baseball. His hitting prowess and his durability earned him the nickname “The Iron Horse.” In 1938 he complained of being tired mid season, and was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis the following year, which has come to be known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

1992 - LA Dodgers placed last in the league for the first time in history

1939 - White Sox host the first ever “day-night” game, lose 5-2 & 7-5 to the Cleveland Indians

Golf

1930 - Bobby Jones wins the 34th US Golf Amateur Championship. Jones dominated top-level amateur tournaments, and competed very successfully against the world’s best top golfers

1959- Betsy Rawls wins LPGA Opie Turner Golf Open. Rawls won eight major championships and 55 LPGA Tours in total.

Here’s the previous editions of the “This day in History” series.