Golf Central

April 24th is a bittersweet day for one Jerry Lanston "Lanny" Wadkins. Whilst in 1983 he was celebrating a Tournament of Champions victory by one stroke over fellow American Raymond Floyd, exactly five years later he’d be swallowing the bitter pill of defeat when Chip Beck posted a 64 in the final round of the USG&G Classic in New Orleans. Wadkins finished seven strokes behind Beck's 26 under 262.

Elsewhere in the world today, the Irish rebellion against British Rule began in 1916. Known as the Easter Rising, it lasted six days when school teacher and barrister Patrick Pearse led over 200 Irish Republicans to seize buildings in Dublin in an attempt to win independence from Britain. While seventy-seven years later in 1993, 40 people were injured and one killed when an IRA bomb exploded in London.

But today is not all about angry Irishmen. For in 1792, the French national anthem La Marseillaise was composed by Captain Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, and in 1949, children all over Britain were filling their faces with gobstoppers, sugar mice and sherbet pips as the rationing of sweets and chocolates came to an end after first being introduced during World War Two.

And today in 1900 the Daily Express, founded by Arthur Pearson, was published for the first time, though given that Princess Diana wasn’t born for another 61 years, Lord knows what they had to write about. Speaking of writing, the desk on which American President John F Kennedy signed the Nuclear Ban Treaty on in 1963, was sold this very day in 1996 for a mere £1.4m at an auction in New York.

And we say a hearty Selamat Ulang Tahun! as they say in Indonesia to Worksop’s Lee Westwood (35) former PGA golfer Bob Lunn (63), American singers young, Kelly Clarkson (25), and old, Barbra Streisand (65), Indian cricketing great Sachin Tendulkar (35) and TV’s Gabby Logan (35).