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Sports That Happened On This Day in History

Sports events in history: 301 entries across 208 dates. Open any date for the full story.

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January 1 1
  • 2010 A suicide car bomber detonates at a volleyball tournament in Lakki Marwat, Pakistan, killing 105 and injuring 100 more.
January 2 1
  • 1971 The second Ibrox disaster kills 66 fans at a Rangers-Celtic association football match.
January 7 1
  • 1989 Sutton United, a team in the fifth tier of English league football, defeated top-tier Coventry City in one of the biggest upsets in FA Cup history.
January 8 1
  • 2010 Gunmen from an offshoot of the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda attack a bus carrying the Togo national football team on its way to the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations, killing three people and injuring another nine.
January 10 1
  • 2015 A traffic accident between an oil tanker truck and passenger coach en route to Shikarpur from Karachi on the Pakistan National Highway Link Road near Gulshan-e-Hadeed, Karachi, killing at least 62 people.
January 11 1
  • 1973 Major League Baseball owners vote in approval of the American League adopting the designated hitter position.
January 12 1
  • 1969 The New York Jets of the American Football League defeat the Baltimore Colts of the National Football League to win Super Bowl III in what is considered to be one of the greatest upsets in sports history.
January 16 1
  • 2001 US President Bill Clinton awards former President Theodore Roosevelt a posthumous Medal of Honor for his service in the Spanish–American War.
January 18 1
  • 1983 The International Olympic Committee restores Jim Thorpe's Olympic medals to his family.
January 22 2
  • 1973 In a bout for the world heavyweight boxing championship in Kingston, Jamaica, challenger George Foreman knocks down champion Joe Frazier six times in the first two rounds before the fight is stopped by referee Arthur Mercante Sr..
  • 1927 Teddy Wakelam gives the first live radio commentary of a football match, between Arsenal F.C. and Sheffield United at Highbury.
January 25 1
  • 1924 The 1924 Winter Olympics opens in Chamonix, in the French Alps, inaugurating the Winter Olympic Games.
January 26 2
  • 2001 Diane Whipple, a lacrosse coach, is killed in a dog attack in San Francisco. The resulting court case clarified the meaning of implied malice murder.
  • 1945 World War II: Audie Murphy displays valor and bravery in action for which he will later be awarded the Medal of Honor.
January 28 1
  • 1960 The National Football League announces expansion teams for Dallas to start in the 1960 NFL season and Minneapolis-St. Paul for the 1961 NFL season.
January 29 1
  • 1936 The first inductees into the Baseball Hall of Fame are announced.
February 1 2
  • 2012 Seventy-four people are killed and over 500 injured as a result of clashes between fans of Egyptian football teams Al Masry and Al Ahly in the city of Port Said.
  • 1981 The Underarm bowling incident of 1981 occurred when Trevor Chappell bowls underarm on the final delivery of a game between Australia and New Zealand at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).
February 2 3
  • 2007 Police officer Filippo Raciti is killed when a clash breaks out in the Sicily derby between Catania and Palermo, in the Serie A, the top flight of Italian football. This event led to major changes in stadium regulations in Italy.
  • 2004 Swiss tennis player Roger Federer becomes the No. 1 ranked men's singles player, a position he will hold for a record 237 weeks.
  • 1876 The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs of Major League Baseball is formed.
February 4 1
  • 1974 M62 coach bombing: The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) explodes a bomb on a bus carrying off-duty British Armed Forces personnel in Yorkshire, England. Nine soldiers and three civilians are killed.
February 8 1
  • 1879 England's cricket team, led by Lord Harris, is attacked in a riot during a match in Sydney.
February 9 1
  • 1971 Satchel Paige becomes the first Negro league player to be voted into the USA's Baseball Hall of Fame.
February 10 2
  • 1996 IBM supercomputer Deep Blue defeats Garry Kasparov in chess for the first time.
  • 1933 In round 13 of a boxing match at New York City's Madison Square Garden, Primo Carnera knocks out Ernie Schaaf. Schaaf dies four days later.
February 11 2
  • 2001 A Dutch programmer launches the Anna Kournikova virus infecting millions of emails via a trick photo of the tennis star.
  • 1990 Buster Douglas, a 42:1 underdog, knocks out Mike Tyson in ten rounds at Tokyo to win boxing's world Heavyweight title.
February 16 2
  • 1930 The Romanian Football Federation joins FIFA.
  • 1899 Iceland's first football club, Knattspyrnufélag Reykjavíkur, is founded.
February 17 1
  • 1996 In Philadelphia, world champion Garry Kasparov beats the Deep Blue supercomputer in a chess match.
February 18 1
  • 1906 Édouard de Laveleye forms the Belgian Olympic Committee in Brussels.
February 20 2
  • 1998 American figure skater Tara Lipinski, at the age of 15, becomes the youngest Olympic figure skating gold-medalist at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.
  • 1952 Emmett Ashford becomes the first African-American umpire in organized baseball by being authorized to be a substitute umpire in the Southwestern International League.
February 21 1
  • 1896 An Englishman raised in Australia, Bob Fitzsimmons, fights an Irishman, Peter Maher, in an American promoted event which technically takes place in Mexico, winning the 1896 World Heavyweight Championship in boxing.
February 23 1
  • 1958 Five-time Argentine Formula One champion Juan Manuel Fangio is kidnapped by rebels involved in the Cuban Revolution, on the eve of the Cuban Grand Prix. He was released the following day after the race.
February 29 1
  • 1924 The Victorian Football League created the Brownlow Medal to honour deceased administrator Charles Brownlow, now awarded to the "fairest and best" player in the Australian Football League.
March 1 1
  • 1921 The Australian cricket team captained by Warwick Armstrong becomes the first team to complete a whitewash of The Ashes, something that would not be repeated for 86 years.
March 3 1
  • 1585 The Olympic Theatre, designed by Andrea Palladio, is inaugurated in Vicenza.
March 4 1
  • 1990 American basketball player Hank Gathers dies after collapsing during the semifinals of a West Coast Conference tournament game.
March 9 1
  • 1908 Inter Milan is founded on Football Club Internazionale, following a schism from A.C. Milan.
March 13 1
  • 2012 The Sierre coach crash kills 28 people, including 22 children.
March 14 1
  • 1980 LOT Polish Airlines Flight 007 crashes during final approach near Warsaw, Poland, killing 87 people, including a 14-man American boxing team.
March 15 1
  • 1877 First ever official cricket test match is played: Australia vs England at the MCG Stadium, in Melbourne, Australia.
March 16 1
  • 2012 Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar becomes the first batter in history to score 100 centuries in international cricket.
March 21 3
  • 1985 Canadian paraplegic athlete and humanitarian Rick Hansen begins his circumnavigation of the globe in a wheelchair in the name of spinal cord injury medical research.
  • 1946 The Los Angeles Rams sign Kenny Washington, making him the first African American player in professional American football since 1933.
  • 1928 Charles Lindbergh is presented with the Medal of Honor for the first solo trans-Atlantic flight.
March 22 1
  • 1934 The first Masters Tournament is held at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia.
March 23 1
  • 1888 In England, The Football League, the world's oldest professional association football league, meets for the first time.
March 25 1
  • 1905 The Greek football club P.A.E. G.S. Diagoras is founded in the city of Rhodes.
March 26 1
  • 1915 The Vancouver Millionaires win the 1915 Stanley Cup Final, the first championship played between the Pacific Coast Hockey Association and the National Hockey Association.
March 27 1
  • 1871 The first international rugby football match, when Scotland defeats England in Edinburgh at Raeburn Place.
March 28 1
  • 1990 United States President George H. W. Bush posthumously awards Jesse Owens the Congressional Gold Medal.
March 31 1
  • 1931 A Transcontinental & Western Air airliner crashes near Bazaar, Kansas, killing eight, including University of Notre Dame head football coach Knute Rockne.
April 2 1
  • 2011 India wins the Cricket World Cup for the second time in history under the captaincy of MS Dhoni.
April 3 3
  • 1975 Bobby Fischer refuses to play in a chess match against Anatoly Karpov, giving Karpov the title of World Champion by default.
  • 1961 LAN-Chile Flight 621 crashes in the Andes mountains, killing 21 people, including Argentinian football player Eliseo Mouriño.
  • 1905 Association football club Boca Juniors is founded in Buenos Aires, Argentina
April 5 1
  • 1902 A stand box collapses at Ibrox Park (now Ibrox Stadium) in Glasgow, Scotland, which led to the deaths of 25 and injuries to more than 500 supporters during an international association football match between Scotland and England.
April 6 2
  • 1973 The American League of Major League Baseball begins using the designated hitter.
  • 1957 The flag carrier airline of Greece for decades, Olympic Airways, is founded by Aristotle Onassis following the acquisition of "TAE - Greek National Airlines".
April 10 1
  • 1896 Summer Olympics: The Olympic marathon is run ending with the victory of Greek athlete Spyridon Louis.
April 11 2
  • 2017 The tour bus of the German football team Borussia Dortmund is attacked with roadside bombs in Dortmund, Germany. Three bombs exploded as the bus ferried the team to the Westfalenstadion for the first leg of their quarter-final against Monaco.
  • 2001 The Australia national men's soccer team sets a world record for the largest victory in an international association football match, winning the game 31–0 against American Samoa at the 2002 FIFA World Cup qualifiers for OFC. Australia's Archie Thompson also breaks the record for most goals scored by a player in an international match by scoring 13 goals.
April 12 2
  • 1980 Canadian runner and athlete Terry Fox begins his Marathon of Hope Run in St. John's, NF
  • 1937 Sir Frank Whittle ground-tests the first jet engine designed to power an aircraft, at Rugby, England.
April 13 2
  • 2025 Rory McIlroy wins the Masters Tournament, becoming just the sixth person to complete the Grand Slam in golf.
  • 1997 Tiger Woods becomes the youngest golfer to win the Masters Tournament.
April 14 1
  • 1929 The inaugural Monaco Grand Prix takes place in the Principality of Monaco. William Grover-Williams wins driving a Bugatti Type 35.
April 15 2
  • 2013 Two bombs explode near the finish line at the Boston Marathon in Boston, Massachusetts, killing three people and injuring over 500 others.
  • 1947 Jackie Robinson debuts for the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking baseball's color line.
April 18 1
  • 1946 Jackie Robinson makes his regular season debut for the Montreal Royals of the International League, to make them the first integrated modern professional baseball team.
April 19 2
  • 2013 Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev is killed in a shootout with police. His brother Dzhokhar is later captured hiding in a boat inside a backyard in the suburb of Watertown.
  • 1925 Colo-Colo, the most successful and popular soccer football team in the South American nation of Chile, was founded at the El Llano Stadium in San Miguel, Santiago, by footballer David Arellano and some of his teammates who had also left the Deportes Magallanes club.
April 20 1
  • 1908 Opening day of competition in the New South Wales Rugby League.
April 21 1
  • 1982 Baseball: Rollie Fingers of the Milwaukee Brewers becomes the first pitcher to record 300 saves.
April 22 1
  • 1876 The first National League baseball game is played at the Jefferson Street Grounds in Philadelphia.
April 26 2
  • 1920 Ice hockey makes its Olympic debut at the Antwerp Games with center Frank Fredrickson scoring seven goals in Canada's 12–1 drubbing of Sweden in the gold medal match.
  • 1903 Atlético Madrid Association football club is founded.
April 27 1
  • 1993 Most of the Zambia national football team lose their lives in a plane crash off Libreville, Gabon en route to Dakar, Senegal to play a 1994 FIFA World Cup qualifying match against Senegal.
April 28 2
  • 1967 Vietnam War: Boxer Muhammad Ali refuses his induction into the United States Army and is subsequently stripped of his championship and license.
  • 1930 The Independence Producers host the first night game in the history of Organized Baseball in Independence, Kansas.
April 29 2
  • 2015 A baseball game between the Baltimore Orioles and the Chicago White Sox sets the all-time low attendance mark for Major League Baseball. Zero fans were in attendance for the game, as the stadium was officially closed to the public due to the 2015 Baltimore protests.
  • 1967 After refusing induction into the United States Army the previous day, Muhammad Ali is stripped of his boxing title.
April 30 1
  • 1994 Formula One racing driver Roland Ratzenberger is killed in a crash during the qualifying session of the San Marino Grand Prix run at Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari outside Imola, Italy.
May 1 1
  • 1994 Three-time Formula One champion Ayrton Senna is killed in an accident during the San Marino Grand Prix.
May 2 1
  • 1920 The first game of the Negro National League baseball is played in Indianapolis.
May 4 2
  • 1949 The entire Torino football team (except for two players who did not take the trip: Sauro Tomà, due to an injury and Renato Gandolfi, because of coach request) is killed in a plane crash.
  • 1871 The National Association, the first professional baseball league, opens its first season in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
May 5 1
  • 1904 Pitching against the Philadelphia Athletics at the Huntington Avenue Grounds, Cy Young of the Boston Americans throws the first perfect game in the modern era of baseball.
May 8 1
  • 1898 The first games of the Italian football league system are played.
May 9 1
  • 2001 In Ghana, 129 football fans die in what became known as the Accra Sports Stadium disaster. The deaths are caused by a stampede (caused by the firing of tear gas by police personnel at the stadium) that followed a controversial decision by the referee.
May 11 2
  • 2014 Fifteen people are killed and 46 injured in Kinshasa, DRC, in a stampede caused by tear gas being thrown into soccer stands by police officers.
  • 1997 Deep Blue, a chess-playing supercomputer, defeats Garry Kasparov in the last game of the rematch, becoming the first computer to beat a world-champion chess player in a classic match format.
May 13 1
  • 1950 The inaugural Formula One World Championship race takes place at Silverstone Circuit. The race was won by Giuseppe Farina, who would go on to become the inaugural champion that year.
May 14 2
  • 1900 Opening of World Amateur championship at the Paris Exposition Universelle, also known as Olympic Games.
  • 1870 The first game of rugby in New Zealand is played in Nelson between Nelson College and the Nelson Rugby Football Club.
May 17 1
  • 1939 The Columbia Lions and the Princeton Tigers play in the United States' first televised sporting event, a collegiate baseball game in New York City.
May 19 1
  • 1917 The Norwegian football club Rosenborg BK is founded.
May 22 1
  • 1987 First ever Rugby World Cup kicks off with New Zealand playing Italy at Eden Park in Auckland, New Zealand.
May 23 1
  • 1900 American Civil War: Sergeant William Harvey Carney is awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism in the Assault on the Battery Wagner in 1863.
May 24 1
  • 1935 The first night game in Major League Baseball history is played in Cincinnati, Ohio, with the Cincinnati Reds beating the Philadelphia Phillies 2–1 at Crosley Field.
May 27 2
  • 2014 The football club Kerala Blasters FC and its first supporters' group Manjappada are formed.
  • 1975 Dibbles Bridge coach crash near Grassington, in North Yorkshire, England, kills 33, the highest ever death toll in a road accident in the United Kingdom.
May 29 2
  • 1985 Heysel Stadium disaster: Thirty-nine association football fans die and hundreds are injured when a dilapidated retaining wall collapses.
  • 1985 Amputee Steve Fonyo completes cross-Canada marathon at Victoria, British Columbia, after 14 months.
May 30 1
  • 1899 Pearl Hart, a female outlaw of the Old West, robs a stage coach 30 miles southeast of Globe, Arizona.
June 1 1
  • 1993 Dobrinja mortar attack: Thirteen are killed and 133 wounded when Serb mortar shells are fired at a soccer game in Dobrinja, west of Sarajevo.
June 2 1
  • 1962 During the FIFA World Cup, police intervene multiple times in fights between Chilean and Italian players in one of the most violent games in football history.
June 6 1
  • 1985 The grave of "Wolfgang Gerhard" is opened in Embu, Brazil; the exhumed remains are later proven to be those of Josef Mengele, Auschwitz's "Angel of Death"; Mengele is thought to have drowned while swimming in February 1979.
June 10 1
  • 1944 In baseball, 15-year-old Joe Nuxhall of the Cincinnati Reds becomes the youngest player ever in a major-league game.
June 11 1
  • 2010 The first FIFA World Cup held on African soil kicks off in South Africa.
June 12 1
  • 1939 The Baseball Hall of Fame opens in Cooperstown, New York.
June 13 2
  • 1973 In a game versus the Philadelphia Phillies at Veterans Stadium, Los Angeles Dodgers teammates Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, Ron Cey and Bill Russell play together as an infield for the first time, going on to set the Major League Baseball record of staying together for 8+1⁄2 years.
  • 1956 Spanish football club Real Madrid CF wins the inaugural European Cup, UEFA's premier club competition, by winning 4–3 against French club Stade de Reims in the final.
June 14 1
  • 2017 Republican U.S. House Majority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana, and three others, are shot and wounded while practicing for the annual Congressional Baseball Game.
June 16 1
  • 1981 US President Ronald Reagan awards the Congressional Gold Medal to Ken Taylor, Canada's former ambassador to Iran, for helping six Americans escape from Iran during the hostage crisis of 1979–81; he is the first foreign citizen bestowed the honor.
June 18 1
  • 1994 The Troubles: Members of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) attack a crowded pub with assault rifles in Loughinisland, Northern Ireland. Six Catholic civilians are killed and five wounded. It was crowded with people watching the 1994 FIFA World Cup.
June 19 2
  • 2005 Following a series of Michelin tire failures during the United States Grand Prix weekend at Indianapolis, and without an agreement being reached, 14 cars from seven teams in Michelin tires withdraw after completing the formation lap, leaving only six cars from three teams on Bridgestone tires to race.
  • 1846 The first officially recorded, organized baseball game is played under Alexander Cartwright's rules on Hoboken, New Jersey's Elysian Fields with the New York Base Ball Club defeating the Knickerbockers 23–1. Cartwright umpired.
June 22 1
  • 1986 The famous Hand of God goal, scored by Diego Maradona in the quarter-finals of the 1986 FIFA World Cup match between Argentina and England, ignites controversy. This was later followed by the Goal of the Century. Argentina wins 2–1 and later goes on to win the World Cup.
June 23 4
  • 2018 Twelve boys and an assistant coach from a soccer team in Thailand are trapped in a flooding cave, leading to an 18-day rescue operation.
  • 2012 Ashton Eaton breaks the decathlon world record at the United States Olympic Trials.
  • 1968 Seventy-four people were killed and 150 others injured in a stampede at a football match between Boca Juniors and Club Atlético River Plate in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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June 24 3
  • 2010 At Wimbledon, John Isner of the United States defeats Nicolas Mahut of France, in the longest match in professional tennis history.
  • 1995 Rugby World Cup: South Africa defeats New Zealand and Nelson Mandela presents Francois Pienaar with the Webb Ellis Cup in an iconic post-apartheid moment.
  • 1922 The American Professional Football Association is renamed the National Football League.
June 25 1
  • 1978 Hosts Argentina defeat the Netherlands by a score of 3–1 in the final to win their first ever FIFA World Cup.
June 26 1
  • 1959 Swedish boxer Ingemar Johansson becomes world champion of heavyweight boxing, by defeating American Floyd Patterson on technical knockout after two minutes and three seconds in the third round at Yankee Stadium.
June 27 1
  • 1954 The FIFA World Cup quarterfinal match between Hungary and Brazil, highly anticipated to be exciting, instead turns violent, with three players ejected and further fighting continuing after the game.
June 28 1
  • 1948 Boxer Dick Turpin beats Vince Hawkins at Villa Park in Birmingham to become the first black British boxing champion in the modern era.
June 29 1
  • 1986 The Argentina national football team wins the FIFA World Cup held in Mexico after defeating the West Germany national football team by a score of 3–2 in the final at the Estadio Azteca.
July 4 2
  • 2015 Chile claims its first title in international football by defeating Argentina in the 2015 Copa América final.
  • 1939 Lou Gehrig, recently diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, informs a crowd at Yankee Stadium that he considers himself "The luckiest man on the face of the earth", then announces his retirement from major league baseball.
July 5 2
  • 1980 Swedish tennis player Björn Borg wins his fifth Wimbledon final and becomes the first male tennis player to win the championships five times in a row (1976–1980).
  • 1946 Micheline Bernardini models the first modern bikini at a swimming pool in Paris.
July 6 2
  • 1957 Althea Gibson wins at the Wimbledon Championships, becoming the first black athlete to do so.
  • 1933 The first Major League Baseball All-Star Game is played in Chicago's Comiskey Park. The American League defeated the National League 4–2.
July 7 1
  • 2019 The United States defeated the Netherlands 2–0 at the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup final in Lyon, France.
July 8 1
  • 1990 West Germany win the FIFA World Cup final against defending champions Argentina, with Andreas Brehme scoring the game's only goal.
July 9 2
  • 2006 Italy win their fourth World Cup title, defeating France 5–3 on penalties following a 1–1 draw after extra time.
  • 1922 Johnny Weissmuller swims the 100 meters freestyle in 58.6 seconds, breaking the world swimming record and the 'minute barrier'.
July 10 3
  • 2018 Tham Luang cave rescue: A group of Thai school children and their football coach are all rescued from a cave after being stuck there for 18 days; one Thai Navy SEAL diver dies during the rescue mission.
  • 1999 In women's association football, the United States defeats China in a penalty shoot-out at the Rose Bowl near Los Angeles to win the final match of the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup. Watched by 90,185 spectators, the final sets a new world record for attendance at a women's sporting event.
  • 1991 The South African cricket team is readmitted into the International Cricket Council following the end of Apartheid.
July 11 6
  • 2010 In Johannesburg, Spain defeat the Netherlands 1–0 after extra time to win their first FIFA World Cup title.
  • 1982 Italy defeats West Germany 3–1 to win the FIFA World Cup.
  • 1977 Martin Luther King Jr., assassinated in 1968, is posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
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July 12 2
  • 1998 France win their first World Cup title, defeating defending champions Brazil 3–0.
  • 1862 The Medal of Honor is authorized by the United States Congress.
July 13 2
  • 2014 Germany wins the FIFA World Cup, defeating Argentina in the final 1–0 after extra time.
  • 1930 The inaugural FIFA World Cup begins in Uruguay.
July 14 1
  • 1951 Ferrari take their first Formula One grand prix victory at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.
July 15 1
  • 2018 France win their second World Cup title, defeating Croatia 4–2.
July 16 1
  • 1950 Uruguay beats hosts Brazil 2–1 to win the World Cup in a match dubbed as the Maracanazo.
July 17 1
  • 1994 Brazil win their fourth World Cup title, defeating Italy 3–2 on penalties.
July 18 1
  • 1976 Nadia Comăneci becomes the first person in Olympic Games history to score a perfect 10 in gymnastics at the 1976 Summer Olympics.
July 20 1
  • 1969 A cease fire is announced between Honduras and El Salvador, six days after the beginning of the "Football War".
July 22 1
  • 1981 The first game of the 1981 South Africa rugby union tour of New Zealand and the United States is held in Gisborne, New Zealand.
July 23 1
  • 1962 Jackie Robinson becomes the first African American to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
July 24 1
  • 1980 The Quietly Confident Quartet of Australia wins the men's 4 x 100 metre medley relay at the Moscow Olympics, the only time the United States has not won the swimming event at Olympic level.
July 27 3
  • 1996 In Atlanta, United States, a pipe bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park during the 1996 Summer Olympics.
  • 1959 The Continental League is announced as baseball's "third major league" in the United States.
  • 1947 In Vatican City, Rome, canonization of Catherine Labouré, the saint whose apparitions of the Virgin Mary originated the worldwide distribution of the Miraculous Medal.
July 28 2
  • 2001 Australian Ian Thorpe becomes the first swimmer to win six gold medals at a single World Championship meeting.
  • 1984 Olympic Games: Games of the XXIII Olympiad: The summer Olympics were opened in Los Angeles.
July 29 2
  • 1973 Driver Roger Williamson is killed during the Dutch Grand Prix, after a suspected tire failure causes his car to pitch into the barriers at high speed.
  • 1948 Olympic Games: The Games of the XIV Olympiad: After a hiatus of 12 years caused by World War II, the first Summer Olympics to be held since the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, open in London.
July 30 3
  • 2011 Marriage of Queen Elizabeth II's eldest granddaughter Zara Phillips to former rugby union footballer Mike Tindall.
  • 1966 England defeats West Germany to win the FIFA World Cup at Wembley Stadium 4–2 after extra time.
  • 1930 In Montevideo, Uruguay wins the first FIFA World Cup by beating Argentina.
August 1 1
  • 1976 Niki Lauda has a severe accident that almost claims his life at the German Grand Prix at Nürburgring.
August 2 1
  • 1784 The first British mail coach service runs from Bristol to London.
August 3 1
  • 1921 Major League Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis confirms the ban of the eight Chicago Black Sox, the day after they were acquitted by a Chicago court.
August 6 1
  • 1956 After going bankrupt in 1955, the American broadcaster DuMont Television Network makes its final broadcast, a boxing match from St. Nicholas Arena in New York in the Boxing from St. Nicholas Arena series.
August 7 2
  • 1926 The first British Grand Prix was held at Brooklands.
  • 1858 The first Australian rules football match is played between Melbourne Grammar and Scotch College.
August 8 2
  • 2008 The 29th modern summer Olympic Games take place in Beijing, China until August 24.
  • 1988 The first night baseball game in the history of Chicago's Wrigley Field (game was rained out in the fourth inning).
August 9 1
  • 1936 Summer Olympics: Jesse Owens wins his fourth gold medal at the games.
August 10 1
  • 1971 The Society for American Baseball Research is founded in Cooperstown, New York.
August 11 1
  • 1929 Babe Ruth becomes the first baseball player to hit 500 home runs in his career with a home run at League Park in Cleveland, Ohio.
August 12 2
  • 1994 Major League Baseball players go on strike, eventually forcing the cancellation of the 1994 World Series.
  • 1964 South Africa is banned from the Olympic Games due to the country's racist policies.
August 13 1
  • 1969 The Apollo 11 astronauts enjoy a ticker-tape parade in New York City. That evening, at a state dinner in Los Angeles, they are awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by U.S. President Richard Nixon.
August 14 2
  • 1959 Founding and first official meeting of the American Football League.
  • 1920 The 1920 Summer Olympics, having started four months earlier, officially open in Antwerp, Belgium, with the newly adopted Olympic flag and the Olympic oath being raised and taken at the Opening Ceremony for the first time in Olympic history.
August 15 1
  • 1970 Patricia Palinkas becomes the first woman to play professionally in an American football game.
August 16 1
  • 1920 Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians is hit on the head by a fastball thrown by Carl Mays of the New York Yankees. Next day, Chapman will become the second player to die from injuries sustained in a Major League Baseball game.
August 17 1
  • 2008 American swimmer Michael Phelps becomes the first person to win eight gold medals at one Olympic Games.
August 20 1
  • 1920 The National Football League is organized as the American Professional Football Conference in Canton, Ohio.
August 21 2
  • 2000 American golfer Tiger Woods wins the 82nd PGA Championship and becomes the first golfer since Ben Hogan in 1953 to win three majors in a calendar year.
  • 1968 James Anderson Jr. posthumously receives the first Medal of Honor to be awarded to an African American U.S. Marine.
August 22 4
  • 2007 The Texas Rangers defeat the Baltimore Orioles 30–3, the most runs scored by a team in modern Major League Baseball history.
  • 2006 Grigori Perelman is awarded the Fields Medal for his proof of the Poincaré conjecture in mathematics but refuses to accept the medal.
  • 1989 Nolan Ryan strikes out Rickey Henderson to become the first Major League Baseball pitcher to record 5,000 strikeouts.
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August 26 1
  • 2018 Three people are killed and eleven wounded during a mass shooting at a Madden NFL '19 video game tournament in Jacksonville, Florida.
September 3 2
  • 1950 "Nino" Farina becomes the first Formula One Drivers' champion after winning the 1950 Italian Grand Prix.
  • 1895 John Brallier becomes the first openly paid professional American football player, when he was paid US$10 by David Berry, to play for the Latrobe Athletic Association in a 12–0 win over the Jeanette Athletic Association.
September 4 1
  • 1972 Mark Spitz becomes the first competitor to win seven medals at a single Olympic Games.
September 5 2
  • 1972 Munich massacre: A Palestinian terrorist group called "Black September" attacks and takes hostage 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic Games. Two die in the attack and nine are murdered the following day.
  • 1960 Muhammad Ali (then known as Cassius Clay) wins the gold medal in the light heavyweight boxing competition at the Olympic Games in Rome.
September 6 1
  • 1972 Munich massacre: Nine Israeli athletes die (along with a German policeman) at the hands of the Palestinian "Black September" terrorist group after being taken hostage at the Munich Olympic Games. Two other Israeli athletes were slain in the initial attack the previous day.
September 7 1
  • 1963 The Pro Football Hall of Fame opens in Canton, Ohio with 17 charter members.
September 8 1
  • 2023 The 2023 Rugby World Cup, the tenth men's Rugby World Cup is held in France. The opening ceremony, directed and written by Jean Dujardin, Olivier Ferracci and Nora Matthey, took place at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, before the opening match between France and New Zealand, which saw the host nation winning 27 to 13.
September 10 3
  • 1961 In the Italian Grand Prix, a crash causes the death of German Formula One driver Wolfgang von Trips and 15 spectators who are hit by his Ferrari, the deadliest accident in F1 history.
  • 1960 At the Summer Olympics in Rome, Abebe Bikila becomes the first sub-Saharan African to win a gold medal, winning the marathon in bare feet.
  • 1936 The first world individual Speedway World Championship was held at London's Wembley Stadium.
September 11 1
  • 1995 The first game of the PCA World Chess Championship 1995, pitting incumbent champion Garry Kasparov against challenger Viswanathan Anand, takes place on the 107th floor of the World Trade Center's South Tower in New York City.
September 12 1
  • 1984 Dwight Gooden sets the baseball record for strikeouts in a season by a rookie with 276, previously set by Herb Score with 246 in 1954. Gooden's 276 strikeouts that season, pitched in 218 innings, set the current record.
September 13 1
  • 2007 The McLaren F1 team are found guilty of possessing confidential information from the Ferrari team, fined $100 million, and excluded from the constructors' championship standings.
September 14 1
  • 1994 The rest of the Major League Baseball season is canceled because of a strike.
September 17 1
  • 1920 The National Football League is organized as the American Professional Football Association in Canton, Ohio.
September 19 2
  • 2011 Mariano Rivera of the New York Yankees surpasses Trevor Hoffman to become Major League Baseball's all-time career saves leader with 602.
  • 1926 Football stadium San Siro is inaugurated in Milan, Italy
September 20 3
  • 1982 NFL season: American football players in the National Football League begin a 57-day strike.
  • 1973 Billie Jean King beats Bobby Riggs in the Battle of the Sexes tennis match at the Houston Astrodome.
  • 1911 The White Star Line's RMS Olympic collides with the British warship HMS Hawke.
September 25 2
  • 1977 About 4,200 people take part in the first running of the Chicago Marathon.
  • 1974 Dr. Frank Jobe performs first ulnar collateral ligament replacement surgery (better known as Tommy John surgery) on baseball player Tommy John.
September 28 3
  • 2008 The Singapore Grand Prix is held as Formula One's inaugural night race, with Fernando Alonso winning the event. Almost a year later it was revealed that Alonso's team-mate Nelson Piquet Jr. had been ordered to crash his car to help bring out the safety car and give Alonso the advantage and win.
  • 1941 Ted Williams achieves a .406 batting average for the season, and becomes the last major league baseball player to bat .400 or better.
  • 1892 The first night game for American football takes place in a contest between Wyoming Seminary and Mansfield State Normal.
September 30 1
  • 1939 NBC broadcasts the first televised American football game.
October 1 2
  • 2022 One hundred and thirty-five are killed in a human crush following a football match at Kanjuruhan Stadium in East Java, Indonesia.
  • 1975 Muhammad Ali defeats Joe Frazier in a boxing match in Manila, Philippines.
October 2 1
  • 1970 An aircraft carrying the Wichita State University football team, administrators, and supporters crashes in Colorado, killing 31 people.
October 4 1
  • 1895 Horace Rawlins wins the first U.S. Open Men's Golf Championship.
October 7 1
  • 1916 Georgia Tech defeats Cumberland University 222–0 in the most lopsided college football game in American history.
October 8 3
  • 1944 World War II: Captain Bobbie E. Brown earns a Medal of Honor for his actions during the Battle of Crucifix Hill, just outside Aachen.
  • 1921 KDKA in Pittsburgh's Forbes Field conducts the first live broadcast of a football game.
  • 1918 World War I: Corporal Alvin C. York kills 28 German soldiers and captures 132, for which he was awarded the Medal of Honor.
October 12 2
  • 2019 Eliud Kipchoge from Kenya becomes the first person to run a marathon in less than two hours with a time of 1:59:40 in Vienna.
  • 1945 World War II: Desmond Doss is the first conscientious objector to receive the U.S. Medal of Honor.
October 13 1
  • 2019 Kenyan Brigid Kosgei sets a new women's world record with a time of 2:14:04 at the 2019 Chicago Marathon.
October 14 1
  • 1998 Eric Rudolph is charged with six bombings, including the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta, Georgia.
October 16 2
  • 1996 Eighty-four football fans die and 180 are injured in a massive crush at a match in Guatemala City.
  • 1968 Tommie Smith and John Carlos are ejected from the US Olympic team for participating in the Olympics Black Power salute.
October 20 2
  • 1951 The "Johnny Bright incident" occurs during a football game between the Drake Bulldogs and Oklahoma A&M Aggies.
  • 1910 British ocean liner RMS Olympic is launched.
October 21 2
  • 2007 Finnish driver Kimi Räikkönen of Scuderia Ferrari won the Brazilian Grand Prix in Formula One. With this result, Räikkönen became world champion, surpassing McLaren drivers Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso by one point in the drivers' standings.
  • 1984 Niki Lauda claims his third and final Formula One Drivers' Championship Title by half a point ahead of McLaren team-mate Alain Prost at the Portuguese Grand Prix.
October 23 2
  • 2011 Motorcycle racer Marco Simoncelli dies in a racing accident at the Malaysian Grand Prix.
  • 1945 Jackie Robinson of the Kansas City Monarchs signs a contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers' minor league team, the Montreal Royals, breaking Major League Baseball's color barrier.
October 24 2
  • 2004 Arsenal Football Club loses 2–0 to Manchester United in a match dubbed the Battle of the Buffet, ending their Premier League record 49-match unbeaten streak.
  • 1992 The Toronto Blue Jays become the first Major League Baseball team based outside the United States to win the World Series.
October 26 1
  • 1863 The Football Association is founded.
October 28 1
  • 2023 The 2023 Rugby World Cup final is held at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, France. It saw South Africa defeat New Zealand 12 to 11, claiming their fourth Webb Ellis Cup, becoming the first nation to do so.
October 29 1
  • 1960 An airplane carrying the Cal Poly football team crashes on takeoff in Toledo, Ohio.
October 30 1
  • 1980 El Salvador and Honduras agree to put the border dispute fought over in 1969's Football War before the International Court of Justice.
October 31 1
  • 1903 The Purdue Wreck, a railroad train collision in Indianapolis, kills 17 people, including 14 players of the Purdue University football team.
November 2 2
  • 2016 The Chicago Cubs defeat the Cleveland Indians in the World Series, ending the longest Major League Baseball championship drought at 108 years.
  • 2008 Lewis Hamilton secured his maiden Formula One Drivers' Championship Title by one point ahead of Felipe Massa at the Brazilian Grand Prix, after a pass for fifth place against the Toyota of Timo Glock on the final lap of the race.
November 6 1
  • 1869 In New Brunswick, New Jersey, Rutgers College defeats Princeton University (then known as the College of New Jersey), 6–4, in the first official intercollegiate American football game.
November 8 1
  • 1966 U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs into law an antitrust exemption allowing the National Football League to merge with the upstart American Football League.
November 9 1
  • 1985 Garry Kasparov, 22, of the Soviet Union, becomes the youngest World Chess Champion by beating fellow Soviet Anatoly Karpov.
November 10 1
  • 2006 The National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, Virginia is opened and dedicated by U.S. President George W. Bush, who announces that Marine Corporal Jason Dunham will posthumously receive the Medal of Honor.
November 11 1
  • 2002 Russian mathematician Grigori Perelman posts the first of three preprint texts with his proof of the Poincaré conjecture. It remains the only of the Millennium Prize Problems in mathematics to be solved. He later refused both the prize money from Clay Mathematics Institute as well as the Fields Medal for his work.
November 13 3
  • 1982 Ray Mancini defeats Duk Koo Kim in a boxing match held in Las Vegas. Kim's subsequent death (on November 18) leads to significant changes in the sport.
  • 1954 Great Britain defeats France to capture the first ever Rugby League World Cup in Paris in front of around 30,000 spectators.
  • 1945 FC Dynamo Moscow open their exhibition tour of the United Kingdom with a 3–3 draw against Chelsea, breaking the record attendance for a British club football match.
November 14 1
  • 1970 Southern Airways Flight 932 crashes in the mountains near Huntington, West Virginia, killing 75, including almost all of the Marshall University football team.
November 15 1
  • 2020 Lewis Hamilton wins the Turkish Grand Prix and secures his seventh drivers' title, equalling the all-time record held by Michael Schumacher.
November 16 1
  • 2005 Following a 31-year wait, Australia defeats Uruguay in a penalty shootout to qualify for the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
November 17 1
  • 1968 Viewers of the Raiders–Jets football game in the eastern United States are denied the opportunity to watch its exciting finish when NBC broadcasts Heidi instead, prompting changes to sports broadcasting in the U.S.
November 19 2
  • 2023 The 2023 Cricket World Cup final takes place at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, India, played between host nation India and Australia.
  • 1969 Association football player Pelé scores his 1,000th goal.
November 20 2
  • 2022 The 2022 FIFA World Cup begins in Qatar. This is the first time the tournament was held in the Middle East.
  • 2016 Jimmie Johnson wins his seventh NASCAR Cup Series championship to tie Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt for the most all-time.
November 24 1
  • 1906 A 13–6 victory by the Massillon Tigers over their rivals, the Canton Bulldogs, for the "Ohio League" Championship, leads to accusations that the championship series was fixed and results in the first major scandal in professional American football.
November 26 1
  • 1968 Vietnam War: United States Air Force helicopter pilot James P. Fleming rescues an Army Special Forces unit pinned down by Viet Cong fire. He is later awarded the Medal of Honor.
November 28 1
  • 2016 LaMia Flight 2933 crashes near Medellín, Colombia, killing 71 of 77 people on board, including members of the Brazilian football club Chapecoense
November 29 1
  • 1899 FC Barcelona is founded by Catalan, Spanish and Englishmen. It later develops into one of Spanish and world football's most iconic and strongest teams.
November 30 1
  • 1872 The first-ever international football match takes place at Hamilton Crescent, Glasgow, between Scotland and England.
December 3 1
  • 1898 The Duquesne Country and Athletic Club defeats an all-star collection of early football players 16–0, in what is considered to be the first all-star game for professional American football.
December 5 3
  • 2017 The International Olympic Committee bans Russia from competing at the 2018 Winter Olympics for doping at the 2014 Winter Olympics.
  • 1964 Vietnam War: For his heroism in battle earlier in the year, Captain Roger Donlon is awarded the first Medal of Honor of the war.
  • 1921 The Football Association bans women's football in England from league grounds, a ban that stays in place for 50 years.
December 7 2
  • 2025 British racing driver Lando Norris wins the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in 2025 with McLaren.
  • 1963 Instant replay makes its debut during the Army-Navy football game in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.
December 8 1
  • 1969 Olympic Airways Flight 954 strikes a mountain outside of Keratea, Greece, killing 90 people in the worst crash of a Douglas DC-6 in history.
December 10 1
  • 2016 Two explosions outside a football stadium in Istanbul, Turkey, kill 38 people and injure 166 others.
December 12 2
  • 2024 Indian Grandmaster Gukesh Dommaraju became the undisputed World Chess Champion in a tournament held in Singapore, making him the 18th and the youngest champion in chess history.
  • 2021 Dutch Formula One racing driver Max Verstappen wins the controversial 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, beating seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton to become the first Formula One World Champion to come from the Netherlands.
December 16 2
  • 1905 In rugby union, the "Match of the Century" is played between Wales and New Zealand at Cardiff Arms Park.
  • 1882 Wales and England contest the first Home Nations (now Six Nations) rugby union match.
December 17 2
  • 1967 Harold Holt, Prime Minister of Australia, disappears while swimming near Portsea, Victoria, and is presumed drowned.
  • 1933 The first NFL Championship Game is played at Wrigley Field in Chicago between the New York Giants and Chicago Bears. The Bears win 23–21.
December 18 2
  • 2022 Argentina win the FIFA World Cup final, defeating title holders France 4–2 on penalties following a 3–3 draw after extra time.
  • 1932 The Chicago Bears defeat the Portsmouth Spartans in the first NFL playoff game to win the NFL Championship.
December 19 1
  • 1983 The original FIFA World Cup trophy, the Jules Rimet Trophy, is stolen from the headquarters of the Brazilian Football Confederation in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
December 21 1
  • 1861 Medal of Honor: Public Resolution 82, containing a provision for a Navy Medal of Valor, is signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln.
December 26 1
  • 1860 First Rules derby is held between Sheffield F.C. and Hallam F.C., the oldest football fixture in the world.
December 28 2
  • 1958 "Greatest Game Ever Played": The Baltimore Colts defeat the New York Giants in the first ever National Football League sudden death overtime game at New York's Yankee Stadium to win the NFL Championship.
  • 1902 The Syracuse Athletic Club defeat the New York Philadelphians, 5–0, in the first indoor professional football game, which was held at Madison Square Garden.