Golf Central

On this day in 1920, Julius Boros, who achieved the dreams of most golf addicts by a) winning three major championships, and b) dying on the golf course, was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the son of Hungarian immigrants.

Boros didn't turn professional until he was 29, after a stint in the US Army Air Corps medical division, but didn't waste any time after that, getting a reputation as one of golf's fastest players. He won 18 times on the PGA Tour and captured the 1952 and 1963 US Opens, before winning the PGA Championship in San Antonio in 1968 at the age of 48, making him the oldest major winner in history ...

Boros was popular with his peers for his broad smile and rugged work ethic, and played on four US Ryder Cup teams and was elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1982. His son Guy Boros was the winner of the 1996 Greater Vancouver Open on the PGA Tour. Two years before his son's win, Julius Boros had suffered a fatal heart attack at the age of 74 on Coral Ridge Country Club course in Fort Lauderdale, Flordia ...

In the real world: On this day in 1991, in an incident that caused outrage in the US and abroad, black motorist Rodney King was severely beaten by white Los Angeles police officers in a roadside incident that was caught on amateur video ... and on this day in 1938, oil was discovered in Saudi Arabia ...

Strangely enough: On this day in 1873, the US Congress passed the Comstock Laws, which prohibited sending any "obscene, lewd, or lascivious" material through the mail ... and in 1985, the radical feminist group Women Against Pornography gave their annual "Pig Award" to the makers of Huggies Diapers, with the claim that the nappy ads "crossed the line between eye-catching and porn." ... It then became a dangerous time to buy your diapers by mail order ...

In sport: On this day in 1891, the penalty spot kick rule for football was conceived, although it wasn't put into play until the next year ... and in 1959 the San Francisco Giants baseball team named their stadium "Candlestick Park" (although it should have been called "Cold As Heck Park" for its icy conditions) ...

So it's torson odriin mend hurgee!, as they say on the steppes of Mongolia, to the bluegrass legend Doc Watson (85); to English indie-folkie Robyn Hitchcock (55); to the actress Miranda Richardson (50), who played Queenie on Blackadder; to the rapper Tone-Loc (42); to former Pakistani cricket captain Inzamam-ul-Haq (38); and Life Is Still A Rollercoaster for Irish boy-band veteran and successful popstar Ronan Keating (31).

It also would have been a birthday for the Canadian-born actor James Doohan (b. 1920), whose Scottish accent was just passable enough for him to play the role of the chief engineer Scotty in Star Trek, had he not beamed up permanently in 2005 ... 'Til tomorrow! ...