Golf Central

Some men achieve coolness, some men have it thrust upon them, some men are Chi Chi Rodriguez

On this day, in 1963, Chi Chi Rodriguez won the Denver Open, his first PGA title since turning pro in 1960. He would win seven more PGA Tour titles on his way to becoming the first Puerto Rican to be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1992.

Juan Antonio "Chi-Chi" Rodríguez was born in 1935, in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico. As a young child he learned how to play using a guava tree branch as a club and a metal can as a ball. By the age of 12, he had taught himself so well that the precocious little so-and-so scored an amazing 67. Chi Chi is best known for being one of the great showmen of golf, often celebrating birdies with a toreador dance, in which, using his putter as a sword, he would pretend to slay the birdie.

Also on this day, in 1985, a joint American-French expedition discovered the wreck of the Titanic. If they had known that their find would partly inspire James Cameron to make the film Titanic, they probably would have just left it alone.

Meanwhile, in 2001, the first orca-whale calf to be born through artificial insemination came into this world. Much to the dismay of the father, Tilikum, who knew nothing about it and now has to pay half of his squid rations in child support.

And it's Kasatka! As they say in Alaska, to; fleet-footed footballer Jose Antonio Reyes (24), worlds-apart retired footballers Ruud Gullit and Tony Cascarino, both (45) and Miami sound machine, Gloria Estefan (50). It would have been Rocky Marciano's 84th birthday today, had he not been KO'd by a plane crash in 1969.