August 16, 2009: The Fastest Human Ever Measured

August 16, 2009: Usain Bolt, just short of his 23rd birthday, becomes the fastest human being ever measured.

Usain St. Leo Bolt was born on August 21, 1986 in Sherwood Content, Jamaica. He has donated millions of dollars to rebuilding projects in that small town. Competing for Jamaica, he won 3 Gold Medals in 3 straight Olympics, winning the 100 meters, the 200 meters, and the 4-by-100-meter relay in Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Rio de Janeiro 2016.

The winner of the Olympic 100 meters has long been unofficially called "the fastest man in the world." We may never know who was really the fastest man who has ever lived, but when he set a record of 9.58 seconds in the 100 meters in the 2009 IAAF World Championships of Athletics at the Olympiastadion in Berlin, he reached a top speed of 27.8 miles per hour.

How fast is that? When Secretariat, a horse, won the 1973 Belmont Stakes by 31 lengths, his average speed was 37.5 MPH. Bolt was 74 percent of the way to beating Secretariat.

Or, to put it another way: Theoretically, if a sprinting speed could be maintained (it can’t), then, at 27.8 MPH, Usain Bolt could run from Times Square to Kennedy Airport in under 34 minutes. Try getting from Times Square to JFK in 34 minutes in a car!

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August 16, 2009 was a Sunday. These Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Seattle Mariners, 10-3 at Safeco Field (now T-Mobile Park) in Seattle. Doug Fister outpitched Joba Chamberlain. Ken Griffey Jr., having returned to the Mariners, went 1-for-5. Nick Swisher homered for the Yankees. Derek Jeter went 3-for-4 with an RBI. Alex Rodriguez went 1-for-4.

* The New York Mets beat the San Francisco Giants, 3-2 at Citi Field. Daniel Murphy singled Jeff Francoeur home with the winning run in the bottom of the 9th inning, making Francisco Rodríguez a winning pitcher, in relief of Mike Pelfrey. Luis Castillo hit a home run for the Mets.

* The Los Angeles Angels beat the Baltimore Orioles, 17-8 at Camden Yards in Baltimore. The Orioles scored a run in the 8th and another in the 9th to send the game to extra innings. But the Angels started the top of the 13th with 5 straight singles, and ended it wit 9 runs, including a 3-run home run by Juan Rivera.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Atlanta Braves, 4-1 at Turner Field (now Center Parc Stadium) in Atlanta. J.A. Happ outpitched Javier Vázquez. Ryan Howard went 3-for-3 with a home run, a walk, and 4 RBIs.

* The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 5-2 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.

* A doubleheader was split at Land Shark Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami Gardens, Florida. The Florida Marlins won the opener, 10-3. The Colorado Rockies won the nightcap, 7-3.

* The Washington Nationals beat the Cincinnati Reds, 5-4 at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Detroit Tigers, 3-2 at Comerica Park in Detroit. Ryan Rayburn, the Tigers' 3rd baseman made 2 errors in the top of the 10th inning, giving the Royals the win.

* The Houston Astros beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 8-5 at Miller Park (now American Family Field) in Milwaukee.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Minnesota Twins, 7-4 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the San Diego Padres, 7-5 at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Boston Red Sox, 4-3 at Rangers Ballpark in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. David Ortiz and Dustin Pedroia hit home runs for the Red Sox.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 9-3 at Chase Field in Phoenix.

* And the Oakland Athletics beat the Chicago White Sox, 3-2 at the Oakland Coliseum. Mark Ellis hit a home run in the bottom of the 9th inning.

February 14, 2013: Oscar Pistorius Kills Reeva Steenkamp

February 14, 2013: A great feel-good story comes to a terrible end -- and on Valentine's Day, no less.

Oscar Leonard Carl Pistorius was born on November 22, 1986 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Both of his feet were amputated when he was 11 months old, as a result of a congenital defect: He was born missing the outside of both feet and both fibulae.

Wearing specialized prostheses that earned him the nickname "The Blade Runner," he ran in both nondisabled sprint events and in sprint events for below-knee amputees. He did more to elevate the Olympic Games-accompanying Paralympic Games than any other athlete, winning Gold Medals in sprinting events in 2004 in Athens, in 2008 in Beijing, and in 2012 in London. He was cited as an inspiration to millions by organizations and publications all over the world.

In November 2012, he began dating Reeva Steenkamp. A model and a law student, she had also overcome physical difficulty, breaking her back in a horse-riding accident, and had to learn to walk again. She had appeared in several TV commercials, and was a correspondent for the European show FashionTV. She wasn't as famous as he was, but, as so often happens with such couples, each one's famed fed the other's.

On February 14, 2013, Pistorius fired 4 shots through the door of a locked bathroom cubicle in his Pretoria home, 3 of which struck Steenkamp, who was on the other side. Immediately following this, Pistorius proceeded to break down the bathroom door with a cricket bat to reach Steenkamp. He attempted to render emergency medical assistance, and called for help. One of the first responders to the scene was a neighbor, Dr. Johan Stipp, who determined that she had been mortally wounded. She was 29 years old.

Pistorius was arrested, and charged with murder. He admitted that he shot her, but said he believed he was shooting an intruder. On September 12, 2014, he was found not guilty of murder, but guilty of culpable homicide in the case. On October 21, 2014, he was sentenced to 5 years in prison, but was released after only 10 months.

On December 3, 2015, South Africa's Supreme Court of Appeals overturned the culpable homicide verdict, and found Pistorius guilty of murder. He was sentenced to 6 years in prison for murder, despite South Africa carrying a minimum sentence of 15 years for this offense. On November 24, 2017, the Court of Appeal extended his prison term to 13 years and 5 months, with the possibility of parole starting in 2023.

UPDATE: He was paroled on January 5, 2024.

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February 14, 2013 was a Thursday. Baseball and football were out of season. There were 2 games in the NBA. The Miami Heat beat the Oklahoma City Thunder, 110-100 at the Ford Center (now the Paycom Center) in Oklahoma City. Kevin Durant scored 40 points in defeat for the Thunder. And the Los Angeles Clippers beat their arch-rivals, the Los Angeles Lakers, 125-101 at their joint home, the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Aerna) in Los Angeles.

There were 6 games in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders beat their arch-rivals, the New York Rangers, 4-3 in a shootout at Madison Square Garden.

* The Carolina Hurricanes beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 3-1 at the PNC Arena (now the Lenovo Center) in Raleigh, North Carolina.

* The Washington Capitals beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 4-3 at the Tampa Bay Times Forum (now the Benchmark International Arena) in Tampa.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Florida Panthers, 1-0 at the BB&T Center (now the Amerant Bank Arena) in the Miami suburb of Sunrise, Florida. Rene Bourque scored the winning goal, and the only goal, with 2:50 left in overtime.

* The Nashville Predators beat the Phoenix Coyotes, 3-0 at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.

* And the Colorado Avalanche beat the Minnesota Wild, 4-3 in a shootout at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota.