By Cordillia Marvine
Dame Lydia Ko DNZM (born 24 April 1997) is a New Zealand professional golfer, member of the LPGA Hall of Fame, and the reigning Olympic champion. She first reached number one in the Women’s World Golf Rankings on 2 February 2015 at 17 years, 9 months and 9 days of age, making her the youngest player of either gender to be ranked No. 1 in professional golf.
Ko had much success from an early age holding many youngest accolades on the LPGA Tour. Until 2017, she was the youngest ever (age 15) to win an LPGA Tour event. In August 2013, she became the only amateur to win two LPGA Tour events. Upon winning The Evian Championship in France on 13 September 2015, she became the youngest woman, at age 18 years, 4 months and 20 days, to win a major championship. Her closing round of 63 was a record lowest final round in the history of women’s golf majors, but she lowered that record with a 62 at the 2021 ANA Inspiration. She had previously won the ANA Inspiration on 3 April 2016 for her second consecutive major championship, where she also became the youngest player to win two women’s major championships.
In 2014, Ko was named as one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people. In both 2014 and 2015, Ko was named in the EspnW Impact25 list of 25 athletes and influencers who have made the greatest impact for women in sports.
In 2016, Ko was named Young New Zealander of the Year, and in the 2019 New Year Honours, she was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to golf.
In November 2022, Ko won the CME Group Tour Championship with its $2 million first-place prize, completing the LPGA Tour season with three wins, the LPGA Player of the Year award for the second time in her career, the Vare Trophy for the lowest scoring average, the 2022 leading money winner,[13] and rose to number two in the Women’s World Golf Rankings.
In August 2024, she won the gold medal in women’s golf at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics, a victory that qualified her for the LPGA Hall of Fame, the 35th and youngest inductee at age 27. Combined with her bronze medal from the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and silver medal from the Rio 2016 Olympics, she attained the complete set of Olympic medals, becoming the first golfer in the modern era to achieve all three medals at three different Olympic Games.
Ko is a player director on the LPGA Board.
Ko was made a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2025 New Year Honours, for services to golf. She is believed to be the youngest dame or knight of the modern era.
TODAY’S ALMANAC
Founder of The Old Farmer’s Almanac. Born in Grafton, Massachusetts, nine years before the start of the American Revolution, Thomas was brought up on a farm in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. He was fascinated by science and at age 16 read Ferguson’s Astronomy, which he came across in his father’s library. He later wrote that “it was from the pleasing study of this work I first imbibed the idea of calculating an almanack.” With this dream in mind, he became a bookseller, taught school, built a store and bindery near the family farm, and studied astronomy in his spare time. In early 1792, he went to Boston to study mathematics under the tutelage of another almanac maker, Osgood Carlton, and that fall delivered the copy for the first edition of what he called The Farmer’s Almanac to printers Joseph Belknap and Thomas Hall. With its format and contents established, it was ready for the longest publishing tenure in American history. Although Thomas died more than 150 years ago and 12 Almanac editors have followed him, no other name but his has ever appeared on the cover of The Old Farmer’s Almanac. Read more about the life and times of Robert B. Thomas.
Question of the Day
Advice of the Day
Home Hint of the Day
Word of the Day
Puzzle of the Day
Born
- Robert B. Thomas (founder of The Old Farmer’s Almanac) –
- Robert Penn Warren (poet) –
- Shirley MacLaine (actress) –
- Jill Ireland (actress) –
- Barbra Streisand (singer & actress) –
- Kelly Clarkson (singer) –
- Lydia Ko (golfer) –
Died
- Reverend Eleazar Wheelock (founded Dartmouth College) –
- Lucy Maud Montgomery (author) –
- Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov (became the first person to die during a space mission) –
- Bud Abbott (comedian & actor) –
- Estée Lauder (started a kitchen business blending face creams and built it into a multimillion-dollar international cosmetics empire) –
- Elizabeth Post (etiquette expert) –
Events
- La Marseillaise composed –
- U. S. Library of Congress established –
- The soda fountain was patented –
- Joshua Slocum left Boston on his 37-foot sloop named Spray. He arrived in Newport, Rhode Island, on June 27, 1898, becoming the first sailor to have circumnavigated the globe alone –
- Spain declared war on the United States (Spanish-American War) –
- British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II –
- Hubble space telescope launched –
- Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger inaugurated as Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. He took the name Pope Benedict XVI –
Weather
- A local windstorm blew down commercial buildings and damaged ships in Galveston, Texas –
COURTESY www.almaanc.com
