1932 — Marjorie Clark claims Olympic bronze in the women’s 80m hurdles at the Los Angeles Games, clocking 11.8sec behind the American duo of Babe Didrikson and Evelyne Hall who were both credited with an 11.7 world record.
1952 — Daphne Hasenjager and Edna Maskell compete in an Empire team that beats the women’s 4x220-yard world record in London, clocking 1min 38.7sec, beating the US and Britain, but their mark was not ratified because the team also included two Australians. The 1:40.0 time for the second-placed Americans officially became the world record.
1956 — The Springboks beat the All Blacks 8-3 in the second Test in Wellington to draw level in the four-match series at 1-1. Forwards Salty du Rand and Daan Retief scored tries, with fullback Basie Vivier adding a conversion.
1962 — The Springboks take an unassailable 2-0 series lead when they beat the British and Irish Lions 8-3 in the third Test at Newlands in Cape Town. Flyhalf Keith Oxlee scored all the points, dotting down for a try which he converted, and landing a penalty.
1963 — Reigning South African Open champion Retief Waltman achieves his only success in Europe, winning the Dutch Open at the Koningklijke Haagsche course by one stroke after finishing with a total of 279.
1996 — Josia Thugwane becomes South Africa’s first black Olympic champion when he wins the marathon on the final day of the Atlanta Games. Thugwane was part of a strong South African contingent also featuring the more famous duo of Lawrence Peu and Gert Thys, but it was Thugwane who was the strongest on the day, winning in 2hr 12min 36sec, three seconds in front of Korean Lee Bong-ju.
1997 — Llewellyn Herbert wins South Africa’s first-ever world championship medal in athletics, taking silver in the 400m hurdles in 47.86sec in Athens behind Frenchman Stephane Diagana (47.70).
1999 — Hestrie Cloete claims her second Golden League triumph of the season, winning the high jump in Monaco with a 2.04m clearance.
2007 — Daleen Terblanche scores 114 and Annelie Minny 61 and Cri-Zelda Brits 59 as the South African women, totalling 262/4, beat Netherlands by 174 runs in the second ODI in Utrecht for an uncatchable 2-0 lead in the three-match series. Johmari Logtenberg took 3/6.
2013 — David Miller scores 36 from 21 balls as the Proteas total 145/6 to beat Sri Lanka by 22 runs in the second T20 in Hambantota for an unbeatable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.
2015 — Cameron van der Burgh equals the 50m breaststroke world record in the morning heats at the world championships in Kazan, clocking 26.62sec to share the mark with Briton Adam Peaty. But it was short-lived, with Peaty lowering it to 26.42 that evening in the semifinals. That was the last time Van der Burgh held a long-course world record in an Olympic-sized 50-metre pool.
2019 — Bafana Bafana are beaten 0-3 by Lesotho in the return leg of their Chan qualifier at Dobsonville Stadium in Soweto. South Africa were eliminated 2-6 on aggregate.
2022 — Nadine de Klerk takes 3/7 as the South African women bowl out Sri Lanka for 46 on their way to winning their Commonwealth Games T20 match in Birmingham by 10 wickets.
2023 — Elmeré van der Berg scores 51 points as the Proteas beat Tonga 72-46 in a classification match at the Netball World Cup in Cape Town.
2024 — Akani Simbine becomes only the second South African to endure two fourth places at the Olympics after race-walker Cecil McMaster more than a century earlier. The sprinter, who had ended fourth at Tokyo 2020, lowered his national 100m record to 9.82sec to finish one-hundredth of a second behind bronze medallist Fred Kerley of the US. American Noah Lyles won in 9.79. Simbine’s fourth places meant South Africa had notched up at least one fourth at every Olympics since its debut in 1908.
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