• March 31 down the years

Norton breaks Ali's jaw

Ken Norton inflicted only the second defeat of Muhammad Ali's professional career © Getty Images

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1973
The night Ken Norton broke Muhammad Ali's jaw. Since losing to Joe Frazier on March 8, 1971, Ali had beaten well-known fighters like Jerry Quarry, Joe Bugner, and a shot Floyd Patterson. Meanwhile Norton was also unbeaten in three years but there were no such names on his CV. Still, his style was the last thing Ali needed at this stage in his career: a fit swarming fighter who never let up. Norton wasn't known as a big puncher, but today his punch was big enough to break Ali's jaw and win a split decision. It was only the second defeat of Ali's pro career, and although he reversed the result six months later, it was Norton who had first crack at the world title on March 26 the following year.

2007
At the World Championships, three swimmers won gold at last.

One of them was Michael Phelps. Of course, 'at last' in his case is only relative. He'd already won a sackful of gold in World Championships. But before today, not in the 100 metres butterfly. His US team mate Ian Crocker had beaten him in the last two Championships, but now he finished second to Phelps, who won the race again in 2009.

Earlier in the evening, American backstroker Margaret Hoelzer won the 200 metres, also after finishing second the last two times. She finished ahead of Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry, who beat her in 2005 and regained the title with a world record in 2009.

Therèse Alshammar of Sweden won the 50 metres butterfly after silver and bronze in earlier Championships.

On the same night, Emily Seebohm became the youngest gold medallist in the history of the Championships. She was 14 years 299 days old when she helped Australia break the world record in winning the 4x100 medley relay.

1996
England's Tony Allcock became the only man to retain the world outdoor bowls title. In the Final in Adelaide, he beat Israel's Jeff Rabkin. Allcock led 11-5 but Rabkin got back to 13-12 before the champion pulled away to win 25-15.

1878
Jack Johnson was born in Texas. One of the most important boxers of all time and quite possibly the greatest heavyweight ever. Being the first black man to win the title gives him status, his all-round ability makes it hard to know who could have beaten him. A big strong man with a wounding punch and almost impregnable defence, he had no close challengers in the ring but couldn't always win outside it: after years in exile, he was imprisoned for accompanying a white woman across state lines. And Jim Jeffries refused to give him a title fight because he was black. So Johnson's dismantling of the former champion in 1910 must have been particularly sweet, especially as it took place on Independence Day. The years of waiting for a title shot were accompanied by the ingrained racism of the time, so you can almost forgive him winning the championship so cruelly against little Tommy Burns on Boxing Day 1908 and teaching even littler Stanley Ketchel a terrible lesson on October 16 the following year. Johnson didn't mind people hating him for what he was and what he did to their Great White Hopes, so long as they hated him in large numbers at his fights. Way before Ali, he understood that spectators would pay to watch someone get his comeuppance. They hated him for being rich and paid to make him even richer. By the time he lost the title to a boxer not fit to lace his boots on April 5, 1915, he was 37 and past it. If White America rejoiced at getting their title back, he could smile at the fact that they'd helped him keep it. At the peak of his career and earnings, he tried to book a berth aboard the most luxurious ocean liner of the day, only to be refused because of his colour. It was the Titanic.

2002
Rubens Barrichello suffered his eighth consecutive retirement in the Brazilian Grand Prix and his ninth in all. Pretty embarrassing in an event held in your own home town. At the other end of the success and failure scale, his Ferrari team mate Michael Schumacher won a Grand Prix for the 55th time, adding to his own world record, and finished on the podium for the 100th time. His brother Ralf came second. Celebrity guest Pelé waved the chequered flag too soon, for a driver who'd been lapped, then didn't show it to the Schumacher brothers at all. Well, he was a former player, not a referee's assistant. Barrichello retired in the 2003 race as well, after claiming pole in it for the first time.

Reg Harris was Britain's greatest track cyclist © Getty Images

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1920
The remarkable Reg Harris was born. A bold and aggressive sprint cyclist, he was world amateur champion in 1947 and favourite for gold at the Olympic Games in London the following year - until he broke two vertebrae three months beforehand and his elbow after that. In the Final, he didn't react in time when Italy's Mario Ghella nipped inside him, then couldn't catch Ghella in the second race. More agony followed in the tandem Final, where he and Alan Bannister lost the decider by just six inches. Harris immediately turned pro and never won Olympic gold - but maybe it didn't gnaw at him that much: he was the only survivor when his tank was blown up during the Second World War. He won the world sprint title in his first three seasons as a professional, and again in 1954. He retired three years after that but made an astounding comeback to win the British title in 1974, when he was 54, which doesn't say much for the younger generation but even so. He finished second in 1975. Harris died as he lived: out cycling in 1992.

1980
That great boxing mismatch: Dave 'Boy' Green v Sugar Ray Leonard. Green was a Cambridgeshire welterweight whose nickname 'Fen Tiger' says everything about his style. He won the British and European titles, and a knockout win over John H Stracey earned him a shot at Carlos Palomino's WBC title. But Palomino exposed great gaps in Green's defence and flattened him with a short right in the 11th round. Then Green defended his European title against former champion Jorgen Hansen of Denmark, who was 36 by then. When Hansen was knocked down in the second round, the Tiger went after him in the third - and ran into a fearsome right hand. A vulnerability like that is the last thing you needed when you entered the ring against Sugar Ray - and people feared for the Boy. This time a left hook did the damage. In the fourth round, he was knocked cold so immediately that Leonard had his arms up in celebration before Green hit the floor. He never fought for a title again and retired the following year.

On the same day, another sudden knockout won a world title, though it took a while longer. The previous year, Mike Weaver had challenged for the WBC heavyweight title, but Larry Holmes stopped him in the 12th round. Now he was about to lose to WBA champ Johnny Tate. Weaver's desperation showed in the low blows he aimed in the 14th, which left him way behind on points. Both fighters looked exhausted in the last, which degenerated into a gentle wrestling match. Then Weaver landed a left hook which didn't look anything special but was enough to put Tate out for the count and beyond. Big John had been only 45 seconds away from keeping his title. Instead he never fought for it again. Weaver lost it in double-quick time on December 10, 1982.

1996
Patti Sheehan was 39 when she won the last of her six Majors today. She was LPGA champion in 1983 and 1984, then a gap before four Majors in five years: the US Open in 1992 and 1994, the LPGA again in 1993, and now the Nabisco Dinah Shore. She finished only one shot clear of the field, so her skills at the last hole were crucial: she got down in two shots from 120 feet.

1931
Knute Rockne died in a plane crash. Born in Norway in 1888, he became one of the most famous American football coaches, in charge of Notre Dame University from 1918 to 1930. His teams had an average win percentage of 88%, and he popularised the forward pass which revolutionised the game. His players included the backfield of the 1924 team, known as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Ronald Reagan played a part in the film Knute Rockne, All-American.

1889
The first world featherweight title fight was between two British Isles boxers in America. Ike Weir, the 'Belfast Spider', was taking part in his 15th pro bout, Birmingham's Frank Murphy in only his third. And he'd lost one of the other two! But these are just their recorded fights; they probably fought dozens of others each. Anyway, here they were, a long from home, at O'Brien's Opera House in a place called Kouts in Indiana. They liked it so much they decided to stay a while. The fight lasted 80 rounds, no less. And ended in a draw! Weir fought for the vacant title again the following year, losing to Torpedo Billy Murphy, who broke through his web in the 14th round. Frank Murphy (no relation) had only six fights on record, winning just one.

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