This day in history: 13th August

Shoaib Akhtar celebrates his birthday today. (Getty Images)

Cricket

1975: Birthday of former Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar. At the peak of his powers in the period between 1999 -2003, and in the 2003 World Cup, Akthar recorded the fastest ball ever bowled, which was clocked at 161.3 km/h (100.23 mph).

 1976: Vivian Richards scored his highest Test score of 291 against England at the Oval. West Indies won 3-0, in which Viv had an aggregate of 829 runs. He tallied 1710 Test runs in that year, a record that stood for 30 years before it was beaten by Mohammad Yousuf in 2006.

1961: Somerset bowler Neil Mallender had an amazing debut for England picking up 3 for 72 and 5 for 50, helping England beat Pakistan by six wickets. This is one of the best debuts for an English bowler, but after Pakistan went on and won the next Test match and subsequently the series, he never got to play for England again. He however did later have a successful career as an umpire.

1945: Birthday of Robin Jackman, England medium pacer from the eighties. Jackman has become a successful commentator and covers cricket all over the world.

Swimming

2008:  Michael Phelps won his third gold medal in the 200-meter freestyle event at the Beijing games. This was the ninth gold of his career tying him with four other athletes for most ever gold’s at the Olympics.

Basketball 

2012:  The United States basketball team defeated Spain with a 107-100 victory and won its second straight Olympic Championship.

Boxing

2000: Evander Holyfield defeated John Ruiz in a 12-round unanimous decision, to take over the vacant WBA heavyweight title.

Golf

1995: Ernie Els set a PGA record with the lowest three-day score in a major. Els, with a 197, held a three-stroke lead in the PGA Championship.

Baseball

1988: Boston Red Sox created an American League record of 24 straight home game wins.

1964: Micky Mantle hit home runs while batting both left and right-handed. This was the tenth time that he was able to achieve it in his career, and it is a major league record for switch hit home runs in a game.

Do check out the rest of the ‘This day in history’ series.