Dean Lukin, Australian weightlifter
Dinko "Dean" Lukin, OAM (born 26 May 1960) is a retired weightlifter from Australia. Lukin won the gold medal in the Super Heavyweight category at the 1984 Summer Olympics, held in Los Angeles. He carried the Australian flag during the closing ceremony of the 1984 games, and remains Australia's only Olympic gold medalist for weightlifting. He also saw success in the Commonwealth Games, winning gold medals in the super heavyweight division of the 1982 Brisbane games and the 1986 Edinburgh games.
Lukin was born in Sydney, but his family moved to the South Australian town of Port Lincoln when he was 5 years old. Lukin was a tuna fisherman who shot to fame as a weightlifter in the 1980s, then returned to run the family fishery business. In 2000, a portrait of him was hung in the Archibald Prize called Strongest Man of the Games, painted by David Bromley.
In a press conference following his 1984 Los Angeles Olympics gold medal, Lukin reportedly told assembled journalists that instead of focusing upon his victory, they should assemble for the disabled games and show those competitors as much time and respect as they had shown him. This was because their achievements were "far greater than mine."
In a bid to get healthier during the late 1980s, Lukin went on a diet and lost a lot of the weight that made him one of the top Super Heavyweight weightlifters in the world, claiming that his waist was now the size that his upper thighs were during the 1984 Olympic Games.
Lukin was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1985.
1960May, 26
Dean Lukin
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U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the National Security Council directive on the anti-Cuban covert action program that will ultimately lead to the Bay of Pigs Invasion. - 21Apr
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Brasília, Brazil's capital, is officially inaugurated. At 09:30, the Three Powers of the Republic are simultaneously transferred from the old capital, Rio de Janeiro. - 9May
Combined oral contraceptive pill
The Food and Drug Administration announces it will approve birth control as an additional indication for Searle's Enovid, making Enovid the world's first approved oral contraceptive pill. - 4Jul
Flag of the United States
Due to the post-Independence Day admission of Hawaii as the 50th U.S. state on August 21, 1959, the 50-star flag of the United States debuts in Philadelphia, almost ten and a half months later (see Flag Act). - 29Oct
Muhammad Ali
In Louisville, Kentucky, Cassius Clay (who later takes the name Muhammad Ali) wins his first professional fight.