Golf Central

It was all change for professional ladies golf on this day in 1949, as the Women’s Golf Association changed its name what we now know as the Ladies Professional Golf Association (that'll be LPGA if you couldn’t figure it out). Patty Berg was elected as LPGA president, whilst legends Babe Zaharias, Betty Jameson and others also jumped on board. 29 years later to the day on the LPGA tour, Nancy Lopez reigned as queen of the fairways, clinching her third tournament victory on the trot at the Golden Lights Championship in 1978.

We don’t what we love most about Jesse Sweetser; the fact that he’s got one of the coolest names in golf, that he started his career as a stockbroker or that on this day in 1926, despite suffering from the flu, he became the first American-born golfer to win the British Amateur Championship at Muirfield, defeating A.F Simpson 6&5 in the final. That’ll teach Michelle Wie and the likes to swan off because of ‘fatigue’ and ‘exhaustion.’ Elsewhere in the golfing world, the US comprehensively whooped our asses on this day in 1975 Walker Cup at St.Andrews (15 ½ to 8 ½ if you must know).

On the high seas on this day in 1914, the Norwegian ship Sorstad crashed into the Empress of Ireland ocean liner in a channel off Pointe-au-Père, Quebec, claiming the lives of 1,012 passengers and crew. The total included the entire Canadian Salvation Army, who had been traveling to a charity concert. While 29,029 feet up in the clouds, in 1953, Edmund Hilary and Tenzing Norgay become the first men to reach the summit of Mount Everest after eight unsuccessful British missions.  And in 1973, Tom Bradley was elected as the first black mayor of Los Angeles.

And it’s Piya Swangarunporn! as they say in Thailand to French choker Jean Van de Velde (42), occasional centerfold and professional brother-baiter LaToya Jackson (52), good coach, bad manager Brian Kidd (59), Warren Beatty’s missus Annette Bening (50), and rent-a-quote Oasis honcho Noel Gallagher (41). Also, had he managed to hang on for another five years, Bob Hope would have celebrated his 105th birthday.