Golf Central

Today in 1999 Jesper Parnevik won his third career PGA Tour event by two strokes over Jim Furyk with a 23-under-par total at the Greater Greensboro Chrysler Classic. On the very same day in Europe, Jarmo Sandelin closed with a 69 at the Peugeot Open de Espana to win by four strokes over Miguel Angel Jimenez, Ignacio Garrido and Paul McGinley. And in 1971, in the same year that he became the first golfer to win all four majors twice, Jack Nicklaus won the Tournament of Champions, finishing eight strokes ahead of Bruce Devlin, Gary Player, and Dave Stockton.

Today in 1792 a French doctor’s device for beheading people was first used in Paris. It was highwayman Nicolas Jacques Pelletier’s head that first landed in the bucket following Dr Guillotin’s improvement to his Guillotine machine. In 1859, work began on building the 101-mile long Suez Canal in Egypt, running between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. It meant that goods could be transported between Europe and Asia without having to circumnavigate Africa. The lazy sods.

Just 39 years later, the USA declared war on Spain, while on this day in 1507 the country was given the name America by German cartographer Martin Waldseemueller, who used the term to describe land in the Western Hemisphere of his world map, in honour of Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci.

And a big day too for Space exploration, as the Hubble Telescope was launched into orbit by the space shuttle Discovery today in 1990. It was a long time in the making, conceived in 1940, it was designed in the 70’s and built in the 80’s.

Finally we say Z dnem narodjennia! as they say in Ukraine to winner of the 1997 McDonald's LPGA Championship Chris Johnson (50), promising thesp Al Pacino (67), half actress half anteater Renee Zellweger (38) his name’s not Earl it’s Jason Lee (37), England’s spin king Monty Panesar (26) and Dutch maestro Johan Cruyff (61).