Golf Central

On this day in 1945, LPGA Hall of Famer, two-time Solheim Cup captain, and breast-cancer survivor Judy Rankin was born in St Louis, Missouri.

Rankin was the ultimate "holding" player on the LPGA Tour in the '60s and '70s - with her classic swing, tall frame and horn-rimmed glasses, she was an elegant figure and a frequent winner. In fact, Rankin won 26 times on the LPGA Tour, including two money titles, in a 21-year-pro career that ended in 38 due to back problems. Despite her profile, Rankin never won an LPGA major ...

Despite that hole on her resume, Rankin remains an important figure in women's golf, as a commentator for ABC and ESPN and for her battle with breast cancer, which made her a bit of a cause celebre on the ladies' circuit ... Happy 63rd, Judy ...

It's also a birthday today for the brooding Dane Thomas Bjørn (37), a nine-time European Tour winner who is best known for losing majors in excruciating fashion: the 2003 Open Championship to Ben Curtis and the 2005 USPGA to Phil Mickelson ... and also to Madrid's José Maria Cañizares (61), a four-time European Ryder Cupper and father of current PGA Tour pro Alejandro ...

And it was also on this day in 1945 that Sam Snead beat Byron Nelson with a par on the first playoff hole at the Gulfport Open in Mississippi, capturing one of the 18 tournaments that year that Nelson didn't win ...

And in the rest of the world: For some reason, hundreds of people "clamoured" on this day in 1969 to a Buckinghamshire church to witness the marriage of pop stars Lulu and Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees (they lasted four years)... and in 2005 toffs were outraged as the Government's ban on hunting with dogs in England and Wales came into law ...

And strangely enough: It was on this day in 1911, the first official "air-mail" flight took place over Allahabad, British India, with 23-year-old pilot Henri Pequet delivering 6,500 letters to Naini, 10 kilometers away ... and in 1930, "Elm Farm Ollie" became the first cow to fly in a fixed-wing aircraft, and also the first cow to be milked in an aircraft ...

And in sport: On this day in 1960, the 8th Olympic Winter Games opened in Squaw Valley, California ... and exactly 46 years later, Shani Davis of the US became the first black athlete to win an individual Winter gold medal by taking the men's 1,000-meter speedskating at the Turin Games ...

That said, it's Otanjou-bi Omedetou Gozaimasu!, as they say in Tokyo, to Beatles-destroying "artist/singer" Yoko Ono (75), the widow of John Lennon; to shreiky-voiced singer Dennis DeYoung (61) of American soft-rockers Styx; to two-faced actor John Travolta (54); to pug-faced actor Matt Dillon (44); and to André Romell Young (43), otherwise known as the rapper and producer Dr. Dre ...

It's also a big day for football birthdays: Shouts out to legendary former England and multi-club manager Sir Bobby Robson (75); to former Italy World Cup star Roberto Baggio (41); to the great Chelsea midfielder Claude Makélélé (35), defensive ninja of "The Makélélé Role"; to Northern Ireland winger Keith Gillespie (33); to England footballers Gary Neville (33) and Jermaine Jenas (25), and to nightclub-brawling West Ham defender Anton Ferdinand (23).

It also would have been a birthday for the great American character actor Jack Palance (b. 1919), had he not passed in 2006, just like his character Curly in City Slickers, of whom actor Daniel Stern intones: "The man ate bacon at every meal ... you just can't do that!" ... 'Til tomorrow ...