Steffi Graf shrugged off three rain interruptions and a disappointing challenge from world number one Monica Seles to win her fourth Wimbledon women’s singles title in five years 6-2 6-1. The German defending champion revived memories of her best days by creating the most one-sided final since 1983, ruining Seles’ dreams of completing a clean sweep in this year’s four Grand Slam events. It was the top seed’s first defeat in six Grand Slam finals and, although the miserable weather diluted the occasion, Graf was in supreme command from the outset. The match itself lasted less than an hour, but it proved a protracted nightmare for Seles. She and Graf first stepped on Centre Court but it was five and a half hours before the German world number two finally claimed her 11th Grand Slam title and the winner’s cheque for £240,000. Graf clinched the title with an ace, emulating Martina Navratilova who conceded just three games to fellow American Andre Jaeger nine years ago.
Other important events:
1776 American Declaration of Independence is approved in Philadelphia.
1824 Turks capture island of Ispara in war with Greeks.
1884 France presents the US with the Statue of Liberty, commemorating the French and American revolutions.
1894 Republic of Hawaii is proclaimed, with Sanford Dole as president
1903 The first trans-Pacific telegraph cable is inaugurated, running between Honolulu, Midway, Guam and Manila.
1906 Ethiopia is granted independence by Britain, France and Italy.
1934 Hungarian-born American scientist Dr Leo Szilard patents the nuclear chain-reaction
1938 Suzanne Lenglen, French tennis player and six-time Wimbledon winner, dies.
1946 The Republic of the Philippines is founded after 47 years of US rule.
1974 Ethiopia’s Emperor Haile Selassie agrees to military supervision of his government and a speed-up of democratic reforms.
1982 Dominican President Antonio Guzman is shot and killed.
1987 Emirates airline takes delivery of first Airbus 310-300 at Dubai International Airport.
1990 France performs nuclear test at Muruora Island.
1991 Former Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze renounces his membership in the Communist Party.
1992 The US Navy’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George Washington is commissioned.
1994 Tutsi rebels seize most of Kigali, ending the worst of the genocide by Hutu militants.
1997 Pathfinder lands on Mars, the first visit to the planet in more than 20 years.
2003 Three suspected Muslim militants attack a Shiite mosque in Quetta, Pakistan, opening fire during Friday prayers and killing 53 people.
2005 The UAE Cabinet approves joining the UN Convention against Corruption.
2006 North Korea test-fires long-range missile and four other missiles in an exercise.
2007 Yuriko Koike is sworn in as Japan’s first female defence minister.
2008 At least 38 people are dead after a ferry sinks in a river in Myanmar.
2009 North Korea launches seven ballistic missiles into waters off its east coast in a show of military firepower that defies UN resolutions.
2012 French military hands over Kapisa, a key Afghan province to local forces, completing its withdrawal from the war-torn country.
2013 Egypt’s chief justice Adly Mansour is sworn in as interim president.
2015 A shoe factory collapses in Wenling, China, killing at least 11 people.
2016 Suicide bombers strike in Madinah, Qatif and Jeddah of Saudi Arabia, killing four people.
