August 3, 2002: Wallabies win Bledisloe Cup

Wallabies win Bledisloe Cup

2002 - World champion Wallabies conjured another last-gasp victory over great rugby rivals New Zealand to retain the Bledisloe Cup in a titanic struggle in Sydney. Centre Matthew Burke landed a pressure-laden penalty goal on the siren to steal a 16-14 victory for the Australians, which lifted them to the position of joint toppers of the Tri-Nations rugby series with New Zealand. The tournament will now be decided in South Africa, where they each have to play a match against the hosts over the next fortnight. New Zealand have now suffered three killer Wallaby blows in the past three seasons.

August 3

1675 - French defeat Dutch and Spanish fleets and annex Sicily.

1858 - English explorer John Speke discovers Lake Victoria.

1900 - The Firestone Tire & Rubber Company is established in Akron, Ohio.

1911 - Airplanes are used for the first time in a military capacity when Italian planes reconnoitre Turkish lines near Tripoli.

1914 - Germany declares war on France.

1933 - The Mickey Mouse watch goes on sale for the first time.

1936 - Jesse Owens wins the 100-metre dash, defeating Ralph Metcalfe, in the Berlin Olympic Games.

1958 - Submarine USS Nautilus makes the first undersea voyage to geographic North Pole.

1960 - Niger gains independence from France.

1974 - The Front for the Liberation of Mozambique declares a de facto ceasefire between rebel and Portuguese troops.

1989 - Hashemi Rafsanjani is sworn in as President of Iran.

1992 - Millions of South African blacks join a nationwide strike against white-led rule.

1993 - UN begins its withdrawal of 20,000 peacekeepers in Cambodia.

1996 - Denmark’s defence chief Admiral Hans Joergen Garde is killed in a Royal Danish Air Force plane crash in the Faroe Islands.

1997 - Mohammad Khatami takes over as president of Iran.

2003 - At least 31 people are killed when a huge blast causes a three-storey building to collapse in India’s western state of Gujarat.

2004 - Nasa launches a messenger to Mercury, the first spacecraft in 30 years to head to the sun’s closest planet.

2005 - Mauritania’s army ousts President Maaouya Ould Taya.

2008 - More than 145 people are killed and 50 injured in a stampede at a Hindu shrine in Himachal Pradesh, India.

2010 - South Africa’s former police chief and the ex-president of Interpol, Jackie Selebi is jailed for 15 years for accepting bribes from organised crime.

2013 - Al Ain Football team signs Brazilian footballer Michel Bastos for €4 million.

2014 - A strong earthquake strikes in southern China’s Yunnan province, killing more than 367 people.

2015 - A new large-scale leisure, residential and hospitality development called Meydan One is launched in Dubai.

2016 - Emirates flight EK521 from Kerala, India, carrying 300 people catches fire shortly after landing at Dubai International Airport.