• March 30 down the years

Grand Slam glory for England

Martin Johnson hoisted the trophy aloft in 2003 © Getty Images

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2003
Another year, another chance for England to blow the rugby Grand Slam. They'd done it three times in recent years, losing their last match of the Five Nations season to each of the three other British Isles countries, including April 11, 1999 and April 2, 2000. And this was the toughest finish yet. In Dublin. Against an Ireland team also going for the Slam. England were on fire that season. Even in their narrow home wins over New Zealand and Australia, they scored over 30 points each time. Then they inflicted South Africa's biggest ever defeat: 53-3 at Twickenham. In the New Year, they simply stormed the Five Nations again. France at home 25-17, Wales away 26-9, Italy 40-5 after leading 33-0 at half-time, finally 40-9 against Scotland. But we'd been there before. In 1990 and all the recent years. England scored buckets of points, then came unstuck against a team that wanted it more. And no-one wanted it more than Ireland, who were looking for their first Grand Slam since March 13, 1948. Tickets were changing hands for a £1000 apiece. The past, recent and not so, seemed to hang over both teams in a tense first half. The crowd roared when David Humphreys gave Ireland the lead with a drop goal, but England's powerful pack wheeled an Irish scrum and Lawrence Dallaglio scored under the posts. Humphreys brought the score back to 7-6 with a penalty goal, and although Jonny Wilkinson landed two drop goals, the score was only 13-6 at half-time and Ireland had been close to the England line several times. After the break, England players began dropping with injuries, including the messianic Wilkinson. Then suddenly Mike Tindall finished off a good team move, and Paul Grayson converted the try. With twenty minutes to go, England led 20-6. Wilkinson came back on for Grayson, and now we're talking floodgates. Will Greenwood pocketed two more tries, the second when poor Geordan Murphy passed blindly in his own 22. Dan Luger scored another, Wilkinson finished with 15 points, and England put an emphatic end to their Grand Slam hoodoo by winning 42-6. Next stop: the World Cup. Ireland had to wait until March 21, 2009 to win that evasive Slam.

2001
Michael Phelps was only 15 when he broke a world record for the first time, in the 200 metres butterfly. In 2009 he set his eighth record in the event.

At the World Championships in 2007, Phelps set yet another world record, in the 4x200 meters freestyle relay. Earlier in the evening, Ryan Lochte set a world record in winning the 200 backstroke, beating Aaron Peirsol, who'd won the previous three world championships and won the next, in 2009. And Australia's Libby Lenton set a Championship record in winning the 100 metres freestyle. Phelps won a record seven golds at these Championships, including a record five in individual events. After the 2009 edition, he'd won 22 golds, twice as many as anyone else.

1912
Both teams sank in the Oxford v Cambridge Boat Race. Oxford won the re-run two days later.

1980
Nelson Piquet was Formula One champion three times and won 23 Grands Prix. This was the first, the United States Grand Prix West in California. After setting the fastest lap in his Brabham, he finished nearly 50 seconds clear of the field. He won two more races that year and finished second in the Championship. He won it for the first time the following year.

On the same day in 1997, Jacques Villeneuve won the Brazilian Grand Prix on his way to winning the drivers' title.

2008
In Edinburgh, Kenenisa Bekele won the long race to become the first runner, male or female, to win a World Cross-Country event six years in a row. He'd also won five short races, four team titles, and the juniors, for a total of 16 golds.

On the same day back in 2003, Bekele completed the race double and Edith Masai retained the women's short race which she won for the third time the following year.

Kenenisa Bekele dominated the cross-country scene © Getty Images

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1894
Tommy Green was born in Hampshire and overcame a number of handicaps to reach the top. He was invalided out of the army when a horse fell on him, then gassed and badly wounded in the First World War. But it all started long before that, when rickets prevented him from walking until he was five. After that, he never stopped walked - though he didn't enter his first race until he was 32. He won it, then won the London to Brighton walk four times and the Milan 100 k in 1930, the same year that he won the first ever AAA 50 k race. Two years later, the same event was included in the Olympic Games. Green was 38 by then, and the fierce California sun left him a minute behind the leaders. But others began to suffer too, and he came through near the end to win by a crushing seven minutes. Just to show his physical problems weren't all behind him, he later lost a thumb in an industrial accident.

1970
The USSR beat Sweden 3-1 to win the ice hockey World Championship for the eighth time in a row. They won it again the following year.

1905
Mikio Oda was born in Hiroshima. Winning the triple jump in 1928 made him Japan's first Olympic gold medallist and the first from Asia in an individual event. He led from the first round and made his longest jump in the third, but there was a real scare right at the end, when America's Levi Casey landed only four centimetres short. At the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, the flagpole was cut to exactly 15.21 metres, the same as Oda's winning distance in 1928. He jumped a world record 15.58 in 1931 but finished only 12th at the next Olympics.

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