On this day 25 July

SuperKev!

A Sunderland legend is born...

 

For most Sunderland fans, 1973 is a year that they know all about. The year that a heavily-fancied second division side shocked the country by beating reigning champions Leeds in the FA Cup. Ian Porterfield, Jimmy Montgomery, Bob Stokoe et al. But not long after the cup win, on this day in that very same year, a future Sunderland legend was born, in Hitchin. Kevin Mark Phillips may not have reached the heights he could, and should, have done since leaving Wearside, but during his six years there he did very little wrong, even when his team did. Following a £350k move from Watford, he went on to surpass Gary Rowell as Sunderland's postwar record goalscorer, with 115 goals in 209 appearances, including European Boot winner for the 1999-2000 season when Sunderland finished a skyscraping seventh. Still, he's no Roy O'Donovan...

Meanwhile in 1978, the first baby was born through IVF in Oldham and District General Hospital. Louise Brown's arrival seemed miraculous at the time, but the practice is now common, with over 300,000 women conceiving through IVF by 1999 with a success rate of 17per cent.

Talking of the birth and all that, it's quchjaj qoSlIj! as they say in Klingon to comedy-actor in search of a good script Matt LeBlanc (41), artschool punk incarnate Thurston Moore from alternative music legends Sonic Youth (50) and striking clothes horse and Mrs David Bowie Iman (53).