• March 25 down the years

Cambridge get that sinking feeling

Cambridge's 1978 Boat Race team had that sinking feeling © Getty Images

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1978
Oxford won the university Boat Race when Cambridge sank. Oxford were ten seconds ahead at the time, having broken the race record to the Mile and Hammersmith Bridge. It was the sixth sinking in the history of the race, which was first run in 1829, and the last so far.

2006
Phillips Idowu won the triple jump at the Commonwealth Games. After finishing second to Jonathan Edwards four years earlier, his first-round jump of 17.45 metres was 50 centimetres too much for Khotso Mokoena of South Africa.

In the same Games, Britain's Nick Neiland also won a gold medal with his first go. At the age of 34, he collected a major title for the first time. He was the only competitor to throw the javelin beyond 80 metres, enough to finish just ahead of Australians Will Hamlyn-Harris and Oliver Dziubak, who both threw 79.89m. Neiland had won bronze in 2002 behind Steve Backley, who was his coach here.

1958
Sugar Ray Robinson won the world middleweight title for the fifth time. In September, he'd been hustled out of it by world welterweight champion Carmen Basilio, and now Robinson was nearly 37 and had trouble making the weight for the return fight. With all that in mind, Basilio went after him with body punches - but Robinson was five inches taller, with a correspondingly superior reach. In the fifth round, an uppercut closed Basilio's eye completely - and it's to his great credit that the fight went the full distance to a split decision. It was Ring magazine's fight of the year and the last world title bout Robinson ever won.

1995
Mike Tyson was released from jail after serving three years of a ten-year sentence for rape. Having converted to Islam, his first stop was a mosque, where he prayed alongside Muhammad Ali.

2010
British cyclist Sir Chris Hoy took gold in the Men's Keirin in Copenhagen, his 10th gold medal at the Track World Championships.

1934
The first ever Masters at Augusta started on the 22nd March. In the last round today, Horton Smith made a 20-foot birdie putt at the 17th to beat Craig Wood by a single stroke.

1978
The World Cross-Country Championships were run on a mudheap typical of the time. Grete Waitz of Norway won the first of her four titles in a row, Britain's Mickey Morton won the men's junior race, and John Treacy became the first Irish runner to win the men's senior race since Tim Smythe in 1931.

1972
In the Fed Cup final in Johannesburg, Britain's Virginia Wade, who was brought up in South Africa, outclassed Pam Pretorius, who wasn't! Wade dropped only one point in her first five service games and won 6-3 6-2. Then Winnie Shaw led Brenda Kirk 6-4 and 3-0. Soon afterwards, she served for a 5-2 lead and Britain looked on the verge of winning the Cup. Instead, Shaw didn't win another game on her own serve. She lost 4-6 7-5 6-0. In the doubles, Pretorius and Kirk beat Wade and Joyce Williams 6-1 7-5. The trophy was presented by prime minister John Vorster, high priest of Apartheid. It was the only time South Africa ever won the Cup.

1876
The first recorded record attempt on a bike. Riding a penny-farthing round the Cambridge University Ground, Frank Dodds travelled 15.85 miles (25,508 metres) in an hour. The first official record was set by the founder of the Tour de France on May 11, 1893.

Wladimir Klitschko celebrates his birthday on this day © Getty Images

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1976
Wladimir Klitschko was born in Kazakhstan but boxed for Ukraine. He beat Chris Byrd to become WBO heavyweight champion in 2000 and the same boxer to take the IBF title in 2006, then Sultan Ibragimov to regain the WBO belt in 2008. Vitali Klitschko had a stronger chin but not the bodybuilder's physique that gave his kid brother such a big punch - and it was Wladimir who won an Olympic gold medal: at super-heavyweight in 1996, when he beat an American, a Russian, and a giant Tongan (March 18).

1924
The only team to lose four consecutive Stanley Cup finals. The poor Vancouver Millionaires were beaten 2-0 by the Montreal Canadiens and disbanded two years later. They won the Cup once, in 1915.

1905
Bob 'Bonzo' Howland was born to be one of nature's runners-up. From 1929 to 1939, he finished second nine times in the AAA shot putt without ever winning it, although he was the highest placed British competitor every time. He also won two silver medals at the Empire (now Commonwealth) Games. He blotted this perfect record by winning the AAA indoor title in 1935 and 1938.

2008
Chinese swimmer Wu Yanyan lost her world record after ten years. Her time in the 200 metres individual medley was bettered by Australia's Stephanie Rice, who was only the fourth swimmer to hold the record since 1981.

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