Golf Central

The greatest plucky underdog in the history of golf, Francis Ouimet, was born on this day in 1893. The unknown amateur won the US Open in 1913, beating Harry Vardon and Ted Ray in an 18-hole playoff. In the process he gave American golf the belief that it could beat the world, which it has pretty much been doing ever since – apart from the Ryder Cup, of course.

The Kray twins, Reggie and Ronnie, along with their older brother Charlie, were arrested on  this day in 1968 on suspicion of murder. They were picked up at their mother’s council flat in Finsbury where they were sleeping. Neither saw liberty again. In 1978 the American serial killer David Berkowitz, aka ‘Son of Sam’ pleaded guilty to murdering six people and wounding seven others. He was captured after picking up a parking ticket near the scene of his final killing and said that he was ordered to kill by a neighbour’s dog. The dog was never brought to justice.

French golfer Raphael Jacquelin was born in Lyon on this day in 1974. Not only is he disgustingly suave-looking, lives in Switzerland and plays a mean game of tennis too, but he has a sexy name and has won twice on the European Tour. Not that we’re jealous or anything...

It's also janma dhin ko subha kamana! as they say in Nepal to broadcaster Sir David Attenborough (82), Gary Glitter, who is due to be released from a Vietnamese prison in August 2008 having been convicted of child sexual abuse (64), ginger drummer Dave Rowntree out of Blur (44) and Enrique Iglesias (33) who we only mention it because we’d like to see him cry.

Harry S Truman was born (the ‘S’ didn’t stand for anything, it was a device by his parents to placate the lad’s grandfathers, who both had names starting with the letter) on this day in 1884. He became 33rd US President and famously had a sign on his desk that read ‘The buck stops here’ and proved it, by taking the decision to unleash the nuclear bomb at the end of WWII.