• August 30 down the years

Schumacher's maiden victory

Michael Schumacher was 23 when he won his first world championship race © Getty Images

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1992
Michael Schumacher won a world championship race for the first time. The previous year, he'd made his Formula One debut at the Belgian Grand Prix. Today, at the age of 23, he won the same race, timing his pit stop expertly to bring his Benetton in well ahead of Nigel Mansell, who started from pole in a Williams and had already clinched the world title (August 16). Before retiring for the first time in 2006, Schumacher won 91 Grands Prix, far and away the record.

On the same day at the same Grand Prix in 1998, Damon Hill won a Formula 1 race for the 22nd and last time. In driving rain, Michael Schumacher drove his Ferrari into the back of David Coulthard's McLaren, which led to Schumacher claiming Coulthard was 'trying to f***ing kill me' and expressing the desire to kill him back. The two drivers had to be kept apart. With Schumacher out, Hill inherited the race lead, which he held all the way after team orders prevented any overtaking from his team mate, Schumacher's brother Ralf. Jordan could be forgiven for not risking a scrap: it might have endangered their first ever race win, at the 126th attempt.

1991
The day Bob Beamon's record was broken at last - by the 'wrong' man. His jaw-dropping long jump at the 1968 Olympics had looked unbeatable - until Carl Lewis came along. Beamon's 8.90 metres had been set at altitude, but time and again Lewis came close to it at sea level. He jumped over 8.70 in five different years, came into these 1991 World Championships unbeaten in 81 competitions, including the last two Olympic Games and the first two World Championships - and was in the form of his life, setting a world record in winning the 100 metres (August 25). And Beamon's record duly fell today. At sea level. But not to Lewis. Even though he dominated the final. Mike Powell had won silver behind him at the last Olympics, and his 8.66 was the longest jump of 1990. But Lewis began with 8.68 today, breaking his own Championship record, then blasted out a wind-assisted 8.83 in the third round. Powell responded with a huge foul in the fourth before Lewis became the first jumper to exceed Beamon's mark: wind-assisted again, but 8.91, surely beyond anything Powell could come up with. In his last two rounds, Lewis reached 8.87 and 8.84 for easily the greatest series in history - but it was too late by then. Powell landed only one really big jump, but it was the biggest: a monster 8.95 in the fifth round. Lewis beat him into second place again at the next Olympics (August 6), then won his fourth gold in the event (July 26 1996). But Powell's huge leap is the world record that still stands.

1987
Another tough beat for Carl Lewis. The day we suspected Ben Johnson wasn't for real. At the 1984 Olympics, he'd won bronze in the 100 metres, running 10.22 seconds behind a dominant Lewis (4 August) - and there was nothing to suggest the impact he was going to have, The following year, Johnson broke the Commonwealth record by running 10.00 flat, then won gold at the 1986 Commonwealth Games, well clear of Linford Christie. So progress was being made - and the physique being built up. By 1987, there were mutterings about Johnson's increased chest size and yellowy eyes, such common signs of steroid use that he was nicknamed Benoid. Today at the World Championships in Rome, those suspicions wee raised even higher in the 100 metres final. Johnson sprang out of his blocks like a long jumper, taking an immediate lead over Lewis that he held to the end. The winning time of 9.83 was almost as quantum a leap as Usain Bolt's run at the 2008 Olympics (August 16). It was a yard quicker than the world record of 9.93 set at altitude and left Lewis a metre behind. But of course it didn't end there. Johnson ran even faster at the next Olympics (September 24) but was caught taking the steroids everyone knew about, and Lewis was given this 1987 gold medal and a share of the world record. He broke it at the next World Championships (August 25).

2008
St Helens won the rugby league Challenge Cup for the third year in a row, but rode a rollercoaster on the way. They began badly by losing club captain Paul Sculthorpe in the second minute with a dislocated shoulder, but they led 10-0 at half-time through tries by Matt Gidley and Francis Meli. Saints would have been even further ahead if the video referee hadn't decided that Meli made a double movement on the line just before the interval. Two minutes after it, Hull lost Tom Briscoe with an ankle injury and seemed to be out of it. But Kirk Yeaman intercepted a pass and ran 80 yards for a try, then scored another to put Hull 12-10 up. The lead didn't last long. Meli scored his second try and Jon Wilkin charged down a kick for another. Hull pulled points back with a try by Gareth Raynor, but Leon Pryce's solo effort made the final score a flattering 28-16.

1937
Joe Louis's first opponent as world champion was a Welshman. After taking the title from Cinderella man Jim Braddock in June (22), Louis looked around for the standard easy first defence. Except that it's not clear if that's what happened. It's possible that the Louis camp took Tommy Farr too easily, but they must have seen his recent record, which included a points win over big-punching former world champion Max Baer. So maybe they weren't too shocked by the fight Farr put up tonight in Yankee Stadium. Tommy had suffered a cut eye in training, and Louis went after it like a shark. Although Farr won the opening round with some fierce body-punching, there was blood under his right eye by the end of the third and under his left by the end of the fifth. Instead of going for the knockout with his right hand, Louis used his left jab on those eyes, scoring often enough to win easily on points - although Tommy might have done better if he'd forced the fight earlier: in the 15th and last round, he broke through the champion's defences and drove him into the ropes. This was the first of five defeats in a row for the Welshman, but they were all on points and all against top boxers: Braddock (a split decision that was virtually a draw) and Baer, then Lou Nova and Red Burman, who both went on to fight Louis. Farr didn't get another title shot, but no-one ever forgot the performance he put up tonight.

1993
Talking of Wales, at Rhydd in Powys, Sian Evans won the bog-snorkelling world title for the third time, the fourth year in a row it had been won by a woman. 'I think perhaps they have more buoyancy,' said Gordon Green, the inventor of the sport.

1982
In track and field, a British team set a world record that lasted 24 years. In the rarely run 4x800 metres relay, they would have assembled a real dream team if Olympic champion Steve Ovett had taken part. Instead it was left to Seb Coe, Steve Cram, Paul Elliott, and Garry Cook. To qualify for record purposes, they couldn't simply run a time trial. So they ran alongside two other teams at Crystal Palace: 'Great Britain Two' and 'Three'. 'Two' included good runners like that year's Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Chris McGeorge, Graham Williamson - and Rob Harrison, who later won the European Indoor title and now embarrassed the top team by handing over with a ten-yard lead. Elliott ran a superb, gutsy race at the World Championships the following year, but today he managed only 1 minute 49.14, a desperately slow time that threatened to scupper the whole record attempt. Luckily Cook ran in the low 1:46s, and Cram & Coe went well under 1:45. So they team shattered the previous world best by more than four seconds. But for Elliott's opening leg, they could have gone under seven minutes. As it was, their 7:03.89 lasted until 2006, when it was only narrowly beaten by American and Kenyan teams.

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