Golf Central

On this day in 1959, the late Art Wall won the Vardon Trophy for lowest scoring average on the PGA Tour with 70.35. Wall also swept the PGA Player of the Year award, and led the Tour's money list with $53,167.50 (that's a pretty healthy $358,054.75 in today's money!)

During his great 1959 season, Wall captured the Masters with birdies on five of the last six holes to storm past Dr Cary Middlecoff and defending champ Arnold Palmer to win the Green Jacket.

Wall, who died in 2001, won 14 times on the PGA Tour and was a member of two American Ryder Cup teams. A great iron player, Wall would collect an amazing 45 aces in his lifetime, including casual rounds. But no wonder he wouldn't forget 1959 soon: The next year, Arnold Palmer kicked off a decade of dominance by an elite quartet, along with Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Billy Casper, which would last throughout the '60s ...

And speaking of dominance, it was on this day in 1240 that a horde of 35,000 Mongols, led by Batu Khan, invaded Rus' and captured the capital of Kiev, defended by Danylo of Halych and Voivode Dmytro. So if anyone tells you they're having a bad day today, casually remind them of that bad dude Batu and his horde of Mongol archers, and everything won't seem so bad ...

On another historic note, on this day in 1897, the first licenced hackney taxicab went into operation in London. Before that, the only cabs that were available in the Big Smoke were dodgy minicabs driven by shady criminals who charged 50 quid for rides from Islington to King's Cross via - say, Peckham. ... oh, sorry, that's 2007 ...

And on December 6, 1977, South Africa granted independence to Bophuthatswana, although it is not recognized by any other country. Probably because no other country, bar Iceland, can spell it.

And Hugo Chavez, after a bloody coup six years before in Venezuela, was elected president of that country on this day in 1998, much to George W Bush's chagrin ... which remains about the only positive thing about Mr Chavez ...

So it's grattis pŒ fšdelsedagen, as they say in Uppsala, to Per-Ulrik Johansson (41), member of two winning European Ryder Cup teams (1995 and '97); and deadpan American comic Steven Wright (52), who once joked: "My aunt gave me a walkie-talkie for my birthday. She says if I’m good, she’ll give me the other one next year" ... (snare, kickdrum).

And in a pub somewhere, big Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff MBE, the great England all-rounder who is known to enjoy a jar once in a while, is likely having a nice frosty pint or 20 in honour of his 30th birthday. Buy him one if you're on the next barstool; you can't miss the big guy ...

December 6th is also a big day for musical birthdays: veteran jazzman Dave Brubeck is 87; drummer Rick Buckler of the Jam is 52 and bald; R.E.M. guitar ace Peter Buck is still jangly at 51; Ben Watt (Tracey Thorn's partner in Everything But The Girl) is 45; and Ulf "Buddha" Ekberg, vocalist of Ace of Base, is 37.

It also would have been a birthday for the legendary American heavyweight boxing champion James Braddock - the Bulldog of Bergen, the Pride of the Irish, the Pride of New Jersey, the Cinderella Man - had he not suffered the ultimate KO in 1974 at age 69.