Cricket News

England claimed their first ODI victory on Sri Lankan soil since 1982 with a 65-run success in Dambulla on this day in 2007.  The win also ended a run of seven straight defeats to Mahela Jayawardene's Sri Lanka side that spans back to the summer of 2006. England's total proved too much for the hosts on the day, who never managed to recover after slipping to 38-4. Middlesex batsman Owais Shah was star of the show with 82 off 92 balls.

Also the day 1957 when the USSR launched the sputnik, the first man-made object into space. A year later to the day, with humbler goals in mind, British Overseas Airways began the first trans-Atlantic passenger jet service, flying between the Big Smoke and the Big Apple. Rock heroine Janis Joplin was also out of her head on this day in 1970 when she fatally OD’d on smack at the age of 27.

And it’s Vill Gleck fir daei Geburtsdaag!, as they say in Luxembourgeois, to Oscar-winning yummy mummy Susan Sarandon (62); gun-loving actor Charlton Heston (84); Pet Shop Boys synthpop guy Chris Lowe (49); and Clueless actress Alicia Silverstone (32). It also would have been a birthday for 19th US president Rutherford B. Hayes, who pre-dated George W. Bush in the corruption and ineptitude stakes by 123 years.