1947 — Captain Alan Melville, resuming on 183, makes 189 as South Africa amass 533 in their first innings of first Test against England in Nottingham.
1951 — Batting with a fractured thumb, captain Dudley Nourse, resuming on 76, scores 208 in the first Test against England in Nottingham.
1968 — The Springboks score three tries as they beat the British and Irish Lions 25-20 in their opening Test in Pretoria. Captain Dawie de Villiers and locks Frik du Preez and Tiny Naude went over for the hosts, while Willie-John McBride, a future legend, scored the only try for the visitors.
1974 — The Springboks go into the first of four Tests against the British and Irish Lions at Newlands with much optimism, but it ends in a 3-12 defeat. The match is decided solely by kicks. A drop by flyhalf Dawie Snyman is overshadowed by three penalties by flyhalf Phil Bennett and a drop by scrumhalf Gareth Edwards. The Boks had six debutants in the team — centres Peter Whipp and Johan Oosthuizen, flanker Boland Coetzee, lock Kevin de Klerk, right-wing Chris Pope and scrumhalf Roy McCallum, the brother of fullback Ian.
1980 — Sally Little becomes the first South African woman to win a golf major, handling the wind to claim the the LPGA Championship at the Nicklaus golf centre course, north of Cincinnati, by three strokes. Her three-under-par 285 was the only score below par and earned her R19,125.
1994 – The South African soccer team is beaten 0-1 by hosts Australia in Adelaide in the first of two friendlies Down Under. Aurelio Vidmar scored the only goal of the match in the 11th minute.
1997 – Helman Mkhalele, known as the Midnight Express, scores in the ninth minute to kickstart a 3-0 drubbing of Zambia in a World Cup qualifier at FNB Stadium. Phil Masinga netted in the 16th minute and Mark Williams in the 74th.
1997 — Gerrie Coetzee, South Africa’s WBA heavyweight champion from 1983/84, engages in his final bout, losing by technical knockout against Iran Barkley, a world middleweight titleholder in the late 1980s. Their bout in Hollywood was for the peripheral World Boxing Board’s heavyweight title, which has been contested on just 10 occasions from 1996 to 2018, mostly by no-name brands. The most recent champion was Andreas Sidon of Germany, 52 years old when he last wore the belt into the ring.
1998 — With no play possible on the final day, South Africa’s first Test against England in Birmingham ends in a draw.
2001 — Mike Bernardo knocks out Pete McNeeley in one round in Cape Town in the only defence of his marginal WBF heavyweight title. McNeeley’s claim to fame was that he was picked as Mike Tyson’s first opponent after the former world heavyweight champion had served time for rape. Tyson won in the first round.
2002 — Bafana Bafana achieve their first World Cup match victory, downing Slovenia 1-0 in their Group B encounter in Daegu, South Korea after Siyabonga Nomvethe’s strike in the fourth minute. After drawing 2-2 with Paraguay in their opening match, South Africa had everything to play for in their last group game against Spain.
2002 — The Springboks beat Wales 34-19 in the first Test in Bloemfontein, outscoring their opponents five tries to two.
2008 — Ryan Sandes takes the trail-running world by storm, winning the 250km, seven-day Gobi March — one of the Four Desert races — in 24 hr 38 min 20 sec, nearly half an hour in front of his nearest rival. The Capetonian carried his own supplies in a backpack weighing 8.5kg and received 15 litres of water every 12km, as well as three litres at the end of each stage, which had to last overnight.
2013 – Bafana Bafana beat Central African Republic 3-0 in a World Cup qualifier in Yaounde. Bernard Parker, Siphiwe Tshabalala and Katlego Mashego scored the goals in this match, played in Cameroon because of civil war in the CAR.
2013 — The Springboks score five tries as they beat Italy 44-10 in Durban in the first match of a quadrangular tournament also featuring Scotland and Samoa.
2018 — Motjeka Madisha, Aubrey Modiba and Lebohang Maboe score as Bafana Bafana beat Botswana 3-0 in their Cosafa Cup fifth-place play-off at the Peter Mokaba stadium.
2019 — Thembi Kgatlana scores to put Banyana 1-0 up against Spain in their opening World Cup group match at Le Havre, France, but they are blitzed in the second half as their opponents hit back with three goals, two of them penalties, to win 3-1.
2019 — Johannesburg-born Tayler Scott becomes the first South African pitcher to play in the Major League Baseball in the US, turning out for the Seattle Mariners against the Los Angeles Angels at Angel Stadium.
2022 — Tumi Sekhukhune takes 3/20 as the South African women dismiss Ireland for 104 on their way to winning the third and final T20 in Dublin by eight wickets and with it the series 2-1. Lara Goodall scored 48 and Anneke Bosch an unbeaten 44.
2024 — David Miller scores an unbeaten 59 off 51 balls to steer the Proteas, needing 104, to a four-wicket victory over Netherlands at the T20 World Cup in New York. Ottneil Baartman took 4/11.
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