• May 29 down the years

Wasps complete Premiership and Heineken Cup double

2004
On May 23, Wasps won the Heineken Cup. Now they were back at Twickenham for the English Premiership final - where they repeated their previous year's feat of winning the title without ever being top of the league. Centre Stuart Abbott scored the try that put them 10-6 ahead with 17 minutes left, and there was no further score despite nine minutes of injury time. Penny for Bath's thoughts: they'd finished top of the league table.

1994
Today's Indianapolis 500 was a race for former Formula 1 champions, past and future. Nigel Mansell was unhurt after crashing; Jacques Villenueve finished second; and 47-year-old reigning champion Émerson Fittipaldi led for 145 laps before clipping the outside wall and coming to a stop. So the 1992 champion Al Unser junior won from pole position after all.

Unser's dad Al senior equalled the record by winning the race four times. The first to achieve that was AJ Foyt today in 1977. Like Unser junior, he benefited from someone else's misfortune. Gordon Johncock led for 129 laps and was 16 seconds ahead of Foyt after the last pit stops when his crankshaft broke. Janet Guthrie was the first woman to drive in the race. Engine trouble kept her down to 29th but she finished 9th the following year.

From 1950 to 1960, the Indy 500 was nominally part of the Formula 1 World Championship. But really it was always a separate event and the European drivers hardly ever took part. In 1951, the race was won by Lee Wallard, who came from second on the grid when Duke Nalon stalled after 151 laps. Wallard briefly shared the lead in the World Championships with Juan Manuel Fangio.

1914
Tony Zale was born Antoni Załęski in Indiana. Forged, not born: they were right to call him the Man of Steel. The hard man's hard man, he was world middleweight boxing champion, on and off, for eight years, losing it to another all-time great on September 21 1948 when he was 34. He won the NBA version in 1940, became undisputed champion the following year after a marvellous fight with George Abrams (who knocked him down in the first round), then fought three famous wars with Rocky Graziano (born June 7 1922). The made a film about Graziano's life - Somebody Up There Likes Me, starring Paul Newman, no less - but it conveniently ended after the second Zale fight, which Graziano won when he was about to be knocked out. Zale won two of their three encounters, all of which ended in knockouts, including the decider on May 9. At the time of their first fight, we're allowed to say the Man of Steel was rusty. Zale had only recently returned to the ring after four years in the War, but he found the strength to knock the Rock out when he was about to go under himself. Squarely built, with a jaw that hurt your hands and hands that wore down the rest of you, he was an equal partner in the middleweight golden age: Zale, Graziano, Cerdan, LaMotta, Sugar Ray Robinson.

1974

In rugby union, a number of British Lions records were set in one match. The folly of fragmenting South Africa's domestic club competition was demonstrated once and for all when one of their small unions kept its game against the tourists for one tour too many. South West Districts never stood a chance of even making a game of it. A Lions reserve team scored 16 tries in winning 97-0, which would be 113-0 today. Fly-half Alan Old kicked 15 conversions in his 37 points, and JJ Williams scored six tries to equal the Lions record set by David Duckham on June 17 1971. The whole thing proved nothing people didn't know already: that South African rugby had gone backwards and the Lions had every chance of winning the first Test on June 8.

1960
Stirling Moss won the Monaco Grand Prix. Starting from pole, he finished almost a minute ahead of Cooper team mate Bruce McLaren, who retained his lead in the Championship. But it was Jack Brabham, who didn't finish either of the first two races, who came through to keep the drivers' title.

1988
The first 11 races of the Formula 1 of the season were won by Prost-Senna-Prost-Prost-Senna-Senna-Prost-Senna-Senna-Senna-Senna. Senna eventually won eight to Prost's seven, which gave him the title even though he scored fewer points: only a driver's best 11 results counted. This was the fourth race in the sequence, the Mexico Grand Prix. Prost and Senna swapped pole positions as well as wins, and the Frenchman came through from second to hold off the Brazilian by seven seconds. They traded fastest laps too. Prost this time.

1987
In rugby union's first ever World Cup, Wales followed up their opening win (25 May) with an equally unconvincing win over Tonga. Their winger Glen Webbe scored three tries in a 29-16 win.

1984
A weightlifter who won Olympic gold was born. Champion in the 53 kilogram class in 2008. Fine as far as it goes, but it's her change of name that gets her in here. From Junpim Kuntatean to Prapawadee Jaroenrattanatarakoon. A fortune teller's suggestion, she said. Presumably one who was paid per letter.

© ESPN EMEA LTD