Golf Central

On this day in 1951, the motion picture Follow The Sun: The Ben Hogan Story, starring Glenn Ford and Anne Baxter, had its premiere in Ben Hogan's hometown of Fort Worth, Texas, as Hollywood shamelessly capitalised on the Wee Ice Man's near-fatal 1949 auto accident and miraculous recovery.

Hogan rebounded from the whammy of having himself played on the silver screen by a Canadian whose first name was actually Gwyllyn but who only bore more than a passing resemblance to himself, possibly because Hogan's few mates on the PGA Tour - Cary Middlecoff, Sam Snead and Jimmy Demaret - all lent some credibility to the film ... which, we have to admit, isn't bad for a golf movie of that era ...

And in the non-golf world of shameless exploitation, it took Hollywood a bit longer to jump on the back of the sinking of HMS Titanic which claimed more than 1,500 people in 1912. Because on this day in 1998, the loathsome 194-minute crime against film Titanic scooped 11 Academy Awards - including, laughably, Best Song, for the dirge from Celine Dion ... but, happily, does have a nice scene in which Kate Winslet gets her kit off.

And on this day in 1889 the Woolwich Ferry opened in east London to carry passengers across the River Thames between Woowich and North Woolwich. Strangely enough, the ferry is one of the few services which is still free to this day in the shockingly expensive British capital ...

So it's Dick Mast! as they shouted with joy in Bluffton, Ohio in 1951: to Olympic gold medal minter Steve Redgrave (46); the big 40 to Blur and Gorillaz frontman Damon Albarn and former England cricket skipper Michael Atherton; a hearty round of birthday drinks for the Fightin' Welshman Joe Calzaghe (36); and a nice box of chocolates and flowers for dishy American actress Keri Russell (32) ... 'Til tomorrow!