May 27

1823 — A $20,000 match race between American Eclipse (representing The North) and Henry (representing The South) is held at Union Course, Long Island, N.Y. American Eclipse wins in two-of-three heats, after his original jockey, William Crafts, is replaced by Samuel Purdy before the second heat. The race, witnessed by 60,000 spectators, is the first to have been timed by split-second chronometers, which were imported for the event.

1873 — Survivor is the winner of the first Preakness Stakes.

1882 — Trainer Robert Walden wins his fifth consecutive Preakness Stakes, with Vanguard. Walden would win a total of seven Preaknesses, a record for a trainer.

1968 — “Papa Bear” George Halas retires as head coach of the Chicago Bears. Halas finishes with 318 regular-season wins and six NFL titles.

1972 — Mark Donohue wins the Indianapolis 500 over two-time defending champion Al Unser with a record average speed of 162.962 mph.

1975 — Philadelphia goaltender Bernie Parent blanks the Buffalo Sabres 2-0 in Game 6 to give the Flyers their second straight Stanley Cup title. Parent earns the Conn Smythe Trophy to become the first back-to-back winner of the award and the second player, after Bobby Orr, to win it twice.

1981 — Willie Shoemaker wins his 8,000th race and then three more. Shoemaker gets the milestone on top of War Allied in the first race at Hollywood Park.

1981 — Julius Erving of the Philadelphia 76ers is named the NBAs Most Valuable Player, making him the only player to win MVP honors in both the NBA and the ABA.

1984 — Rick Mears wins the Indianapolis 500 by the largest margin in 17 years with a record-setting 163.612 mph. Mears beats Roberto Guerrero and Al Unser by two laps. Fifteen of the 33 drivers are eliminated during two crashes.

1990 — Arie Luyendyk wins the fastest Indianapolis 500 by overpowering former winner Bobby Rahal over the final 33 laps, for his first Indy car victory in 76 races. His average speed of 185.984 mph breaks Rahal’s record of 170.722 in 1986. Luyendyk becomes the first to finish the race in under three hours.

1994 — Stephane Matteau of the New York Rangers scores at 4:24 of the second overtime period to give his team a 2-1 win over the New Jersey Devils in the seventh and deciding game of the Eastern Conference final at Madison Square Garden. A record three games in the series are decided in double overtime, with Matteau scoring the winner in two of them.

1998 — In one of the biggest upsets in Grand Slam history, Pete Sampras is ousted at the French Open by 21-year-old Ramon Delgado of Paraguay, ranked 97th in the world, 7-6 (8-6), 6-3, 6-4.

2011 — Top-ranked Caroline Wozniacki loses to Daniela Hantuchova 6-1, 6-3 in the third round of the French Open. It marks the first time in the Open era that the top two seeded women fail to make the round of 16 at a Grand Slam tournament. Kim Clijsters, the No. 2 seed, lost on May 26.

2014 — The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater becomes the only school in NCAA history to win championships in football, men’s basketball and baseball in the same school year. The baseball team takes home the Division III World Series trophy with a 7-0 win over Emory University.

2016 — Senior Kaylee Puailoa’s pinch-hit, two-run homer with two outs in the seventh lifts No. 16 seed Georgia to a 3-2 win over No. 1 Florida, giving the Bulldogs a surprise berth in the Women’s College World Series. Georgia didn’t just beat the top seed, the Bulldogs beat a team that won the past two national championships.

May 28

1901 — Parader, ridden by Fred Landry, overcomes a bad start to win the Preakness Stakes by two lengths over Sadie S.

1904 — Bryn Mawr, ridden by Eugene Hildebrand, wins the Preakness Stakes by one length over Wotan.

1946 — The Washington Senators beat New York 2-1 in the first night game at Yankee Stadium.

1956 — Dale Long of the Pittsburgh Pirates hits a home run in his eighth consecutive game for a major league record. Long connects off Brooklyn’s Carl Erskine at Forbes Field.

1978 — Al Unser wins his third Indianapolis 500, the fifth driver to do so, edging Tom Sneva by 8.19 seconds.

1985 — The San Diego Sockers beat the Baltimore Blast 5-3 to win the MISL title in five games.

1995 — Jacques Villeneuve overcomes one penalty and wins by another in the Indianapolis 500. Villeneuve drives to victory after fellow Canadian Scott Goodyear is penalized for passing the pace car on the final restart.

2000 — Dutch swimming star Inge de Bruijn sets her third world record in three days, adding the 100 freestyle mark to the 50 and 100 butterfly marks she set previously at the Sheffield Super Grand Prix. De Bruijn becomes the first swimmer to finish under 54.00 in the 100 freestyle at 53.80 seconds.

2006 — Sam Hornish Jr. overcomes a disastrous mistake in the pits and a pair of Andrettis — Marco and father Michael — to win the second-closest Indianapolis 500 ever, by .0635 seconds.

2006 — Barry Bonds hits his 715th home run during the San Francisco Giants’ 6-3 loss to the Colorado Rockies to slip past Babe Ruth and pull in right behind Hank Aaron, whose long-standing record of 755.

2007 — Duke has an almost unfathomable comeback fall short in a 12-11 loss to Johns Hopkins in the NCAA lacrosse championship game. The Blue Devils never finished their 2006 season, and then makes it all the way back to the title game.

2011 — Novak Djokovic extends his perfect start to the season at the French Open, beating Juan Martin del Potro 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 for his 40th straight victory this year. Djokovic’s 40-0 start to 2011 is the second-best opening streak in the Open era, which started in 1968.

2016 — Klay Thompson makes a playoff-record 11 3-pointers and scores 41 points, and the defending champion Golden State Warriors force a seventh game in the Western Conference finals with a 108-101 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder.

2017 — Angelique Kerber becomes the first women’s No. 1 seed to lose in the French Open’s first round in the Open era. Kerber loses 6-2, 6-2 to the 40th-ranked Ekaterina Makarova of Russia.

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May 29

1922 — The Supreme Court rules organized baseball is primarily a sport and not a business and therefore not subject to antitrust laws and interstate commerce regulations.

1946 — Chakoora and Uleta become the first thoroughbreds to complete a transcontinental flight. The 2-year-old fillies are flown from New York to Inglewood, Calif., by the American Air Express Corp., a 2,446-mile trip that lasts 20 hours because of bad weather.

1971 — Al Unser wins his second straight Indianapolis 500 with a record speed of 157.735 mph and finishes 22 seconds ahead of Peter Revson. The pace car, ridden by Eldon Palmer, crashes into the portable bleachers and injures 20 people.

1977 — A.J. Foyt becomes the first driver to win four Indianapolis 500 races and Janet Guthrie becomes the first woman in the race. Guthrie is forced to drop out after 27 laps with mechanical problems.

1983 — After three second-place finishes, Tom Sneva wins the Indianapolis 500 by 11 seconds over three-time champion Al Unser.

1988 — Rick Mears overcomes an early one-lap deficit, then overpowers the rest of the field on the way to his third Indianapolis 500 victory. Mears gives team-owner Roger Penske an unprecedented seventh victory and fourth in five years.

1990 — Stefan Edberg and Boris Becker lose at the French Open by European teenagers, the first time the top two men’s seeds are eliminated in the first round of a Grand Slam tournament. Edberg is swept in straight sets by 19-year-old Sergi Bruguera of Spain; Becker is beaten by 18-year-old Yugoslav Goran Ivanisevic.

1993 — Wayne Gretzky’s overtime goal gives the Los Angeles Kings a 5-4 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs in Game 7 of the Western Conference finals. The Maple Leafs become the first NHL team to play the full 21 games in the first three rounds.

2005 — Dan Wheldon wins the Indianapolis 500 when Danica Patrick’s electrifying run falls short. Patrick is the first woman to lead at Indy, getting out front three separate times for a total of 19 laps. But Wheldon passes her with seven of the 200 laps to go and holds on.

2006 — Rafael Nadal passes Guillermo Vilas as the King of the clay courts and begins his pursuit of a second successive French Open trophy. Nadal earns his 54th consecutive win on clay, breaking the Open era record he shared with Vilas by beating Robin Soderling in straight sets in the first round at Roland Garros.

2010 — Philadelphia’s Roy Halladay pitches the 20th perfect game in major league history, beating the Florida Marlins 1-0. Halladay strikes out 11 and goes to 3-1 or 3-2 counts seven times, twice in the game’s first three batters alone.

2012 — Serena Williams loses in the first round of a major tournament for the first time, falling to Virginie Razzano of France 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3 at the French Open. Williams enters the day with a 46-0 record in first-round matches at Grand Slam tournaments.

2014 — Shelly Sterling signs a binding contract to sell the Los Angeles Clippers to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer for a record-breaking $2 billion.

2016 — Alexander Rossi wins the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500. The rookie managed to conserve fuel while the leaders pit in the closing laps, coasting across the finish line on fumes to give Andretti Herta Autosport a stunning victory in the centennial race. The last rookie to win the showcase race was Helio Castroneves in 2001.

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