July 8
1889 — John L. Sullivan defeats Jake Kilrain in the 75th round in Richburg, Miss., for the U.S. heavyweight championship. It’s the last bare-knuckle boxing match before the Marquis of Queensbury rules are introduced.
1922 — Suzanne Lenglen beats Molla Bjurstedt Mallory, 6-2, 6-0 for her fourth straight singles title at Wimbledon.
1939 — Bobby Riggs beats Elwood Cooke in five sets to win the men’s singles title at Wimbledon.
1941 — Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox hits a three-run, two-out homer in the ninth inning to give the American League a dramatic 7-5 victory in the All-Star game at Detroit’s Briggs Stadium.
1955 — Peter Thomson wins his second consecutive British Open finishing two strokes ahead of John Fallon. Thomson shoots a 7-under 281 at the Old Course in St Andrews, Scotland.
1967 — Billie Jean King sweeps three titles at Wimbledon. King beats Ann Hayden Jones 6-3, 6-4, for the singles title; teams with Rosie Casals for the women’s doubles title, and pairs with Owen Davidson for the mixed doubles title.
1978 — Bjorn Borg beats Jimmy Connors, 6-2, 6-2, 6-3 to win his third straight men’s title at Wimbledon.
1984 — John McEnroe whips Jimmy Connors 6-1, 6-1, 6-2 in 100-degree temperatures to take the men’s singles title at Wimbledon.
1990 — West Germany wins the World Cup as Andreas Brehme scores with 6 minutes to go for a 1-0 victory over defending champion Argentina in a foul-marred final.
1991 — Michael Stich upsets three-time champion Boris Becker to win the men’s singles title at Wimbledon, 6-4, 7-6 (4), 6-4.
1995 — Top-ranked Steffi Graf wins her sixth Wimbledon singles title, beating Arantxa Sanchez Vicario 4-6, 6-1, 7-5.
1996 — Switzerland’s Martina Hingis becomes the youngest champion in Wimbledon history at 15 years, 282 days, teaming with Helena Sukova to beat Meredith McGrath and Larisa Neiland 5-7, 7-5, 6-1 in women’s doubles.
2000 — Venus Williams beats Lindsay Davenport 6-3, 7-6 (3) for her first Grand Slam title. Williams is the first black women’s champion at Wimbledon since Althea Gibson in 1957-58.
2007 — Roger Federer wins his fifth straight Wimbledon championship, beating Rafael Nadal 7-6 (7), 4-6, 7-6 (3), 2-6, 6-2. I’s also Federer’s 11th Grand Slam title overall.
2010 — Paul Goydos becomes the fourth golfer in PGA Tour history to shoot a 59. Goydos puts together his 12-under, bogey-free round on the opening day of the John Deere Classic. Goydos makes the turn at 4-under, then birdies all but one hole on the back nine at the 7,257-yard TPC Deere Run course.
2012 — Roger Federer equals Pete Sampras’ record of seven men’s singles titles at the All England Club, and wins his 17th Grand Slam title overall, by beating Andy Murray 4-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-4.
2014 — Germany hands Brazil its heaviest World Cup loss ever with an astounding 7-1 rout in the semifinals that stuns the host nation. Miroslav Klose scores a record-setting 16th career World Cup goal in a five-goal spurt in the first half and Germany goes on to score the most goals in a World Cup semifinal.
2016 — Roger Federer loses in the Wimbledon semifinals for the first time in his career, falling to Milos Raonic 6-3, 6-7 (3), 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 on Centre Court. The 34-year-old Federer had been 10-0 in Wimbledon semifinals, winning seven of his finals.
2018 — South Korean golfer Sei Young Ki breaks the LPGA 72-hole scoring record with a 31-under par 257 in winning the Thornberry Creek Classic.
2021 — San Diego Padres relief pitcher Daniel Camarena records his first MLB hit, a Grand Slam, in his second at bat against the Washington Nationals' Max Sherzer.
_____
July 9
1922 — Johnny Weissmuller is the first to swim the 100-meter freestyle under 1 minute as he breaks Duke Kahanamoku’s world record with a time of 58.6 seconds.
1932 — The NFL awards a franchise to Boston under the ownership of George Preston Marshall, Vincent Bendix, Jay O’Brien, and Dorland Doyle. The Boston Braves will change their nickname to Redskins in 1933 and move to Washington after the 1936 season.
1940 — The National League registers the first shutout, 4-0, in the All-Star game.
1954 — Peter Thomson becomes the first Australian to win the British Open. Thomson shoots a 9-under 283 at Royal Birkdale Golf Club, edging Bobby Locke, Dai Rees and Syd Scott by one stroke.
1965 — Peter Thomson wins his fifth British Open title by two strokes over Brian Huggett and Christy O’Connor Sr. Thomson shoots a 7-under 285 at the Royal Birkdale Golf Club in Southport, England. Thomson’s previous Open victory was in 1958. It’s the last to conclude with two rounds on Friday.
1966 — Jack Nicklaus wins the British Open with a 282 at Muirfield to join Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan and Gary Player as the only men to win the four majors.
1967 — Mark Spitz and Catie Ball, both 17, swim to world records, and 14-year-old Debbie Meyer sets two records in one race in the Santa Clara International Invitational swim meet. Spitz sets a 100-meter butterfly record at 56.3 and Ball becomes the first U.S. swimmer to set a world record for the breaststroke with a 2:40.5 time for 200 meters. Meyer breaks the 800-meter freestyle record in 9 minutes, 35.8 seconds on the way to a record 18:11.1 in the 1,500.
1989 — Boris Becker and Steffi Graf claim a West German sweep of the Wimbledon singles crowns in the first double finals day in 16 years. Becker wins his third Wimbledon title in five years, rolling past defending champion Stefan Edberg 6-0, 7-6 (1), 6-4, while Graf takes her second straight championship over Martina Navratilova 6-2, 6-7 (1), 6-1.
1991 — South Africa is readmitted by the International Olympic Committee to the Olympic movement, ending decades of sports isolation and clearing the way for its participation in the 1992 Games.
1995 — Pete Sampras becomes the first American to win Wimbledon three straight years by beating Boris Becker 6-7, 6-2, 6-4, 6-2.
2000 — Pete Sampras passes Roy Emerson for the most Grand Slam championships and ties Willie Renshaw, a player in the 1880s, for the most Wimbledon titles with a four-set victory over Pat Rafter. Sampras, winner of seven Wimbledon titles, 13 Grand Slam championships, extends his mark at Wimbledon to 53-1 over the past eight years.
2001 — Goran Ivanisevic becomes one of Wimbledon’s most improbable champions, beating Patrick Rafter. Two points away from defeat, Ivanisevic rallies to beat Rafter 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 2-6, 9-7 and becomes the second player to win a Wimbledon singles title without being seeded.
2006 — Roger Federer ends a five-match losing streak to Rafael Nadal, winning 6-0, 7-6 (5), 6-7 (2), 6-3 to earn his fourth straight Wimbledon title and eighth Grand Slam championship. Nadal had beaten Federer in four finals this year.
2006 — Italy wins its fourth World Cup title winning the shootout 5-3 against France, after a 1-1 draw. Outplayed for an hour and into extra time, the Italians win it after French captain Zinedine Zidane is ejected in the 107th for a vicious butt to the chest of Marco Materazzi.
2011 — Derek Jeter homers for his 3,000th hit, making him the first player to reach the mark with the New York Yankees.
2016 — Serena Williams wins her record-tying 22nd Grand Slam title by beating Angelique Kerber 7-5, 6-3 in the Wimbledon final. Williams pulls even with Steffi Graf for the most major championships in the Open era, which began in 1968. This is Williams’ seventh singles trophy at the All England Club.
2021 — British road cyclist Mark Cavendish wins Nimes to Carcassonne stage 13 of the Tour de France for his 34th career state win. The win ties Eddy Merckx for most career stage wins.
_____
July 10
1926 — Bobby Jones wins the U.S. Open golf tournament for the second time with a 293 total.
1934 — Carl Hubbell strikes out Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Al Simmons and Joe Cronin in succession, but the American League comes back to win the All-Star game 9-7 at the Polo Grounds.
1936 — Philadelphia’s Chuck Klein hits four home runs in a 9-6 10-inning victory over the Pirates at Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field.
1951 — Britain’s Randy Turpin defeats Sugar Ray Robinson in 15 rounds to win the world middleweight title and give Robinson his second loss in 135 bouts.
1971 — Lee Trevino rebounds from a double-bogey on the next to last hole with a birdie on the final hole to win the 100th British Open by one stroke over Lu Liang-Huan. Trevino, who won the U.S. Open a month earlier, is the fourth golfer to win both championships in the same year, joining Bobby Jones (1926, 1930), Gene Sarazen (1932), and Ben Hogan (1953).
1976 — Johnny Miller shoots a 66 in the final round to beat 19-year-old Spaniard Seve Ballesteros by six strokes to take the British Open. Ballesteros, who starts the final round two strokes ahead of Miller, shoots a 74 and ends tied for second place with Jack Nicklaus.
1992 — The Major Soccer League, the only major nationwide professional soccer competition in the United States, folds after 14 seasons.
1999 — Team USA wins the Women’s World Cup over China in sudden death. The Americans win 5-4 in penalty kicks, with defender Brandi Chastain kicking in the game winner.
2010 — Paula Creamer wins her first major tournament, never giving up the lead during a steady final round of the U.S. Women’s Open. Creamer shoots a final-round 2-under 69 for a 3-under 281 for the tournament.
2010 — Spain wins soccer’s World Cup after an exhausting 1-0 victory in extra time over the Netherlands. In the end, it’s Andres Iniesta breaking free and scoring a right-footed shot from 8 yards just past the outstretched arms of goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg.
2011 — The United States advances to the semifinals after one of the most exciting games ever at the Women’s World Cup in Dresden, Germany. The U.S. beat Brazil 5-3 on penalty kicks after a 2-2 tie. Abby Wambach scores a thrilling goal to tie it in the 122nd minute, and goalkeeper Hope Solo denies the Brazilians again.
2016 — Andy Murray wins his second Wimbledon title by beating Milos Raonic 6-4, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (2) on Centre Court.
2016 — Brittany Lang wins her first career major at the U.S. Women’s Open when Anna Nordqvist touches the sand with her club in a bunker for a two-stroke penalty in the three-hole aggregate playoff. The penalty occurs on the second hole of the playoff and is not delivered to the players until they were on the final hole after officials review replays in the latest controversy at a USGA event. Lang seals the win with a short par putt on the final playoff hole, while Nordqvist makes bogey to lose by three shots.
2017 — An independent review of the scoring in Manny Pacquiao’s contentious WBO welterweight world title loss to Jeff Horn confirms the outcome in favor of the Australian. A Philippines government department asked the WBO to review the refereeing and the judging of the so-called “Battle of Brisbane” in Australia on July 2 after Horn, fighting for his first world title, won a unanimous points decision against Pacquiao, an 11-time world champion. The WBO said three of the five independent judges who reviewed the bout awarded it to Horn, one awarded it to Pacquiao and one scored a draw.
2021 — Ashleigh Barty of Australia wins Wimbledon defeating Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-7, 6-3.
_____
July 11
1914 — Babe Ruth makes his major league pitching debut for the Boston Red Sox against Cleveland, getting the 4-3 victory over the Indians.
1950 — Red Schoendienst hits a home run in the 14th inning to give the NL a 4-3 victory in the All-Star game.
1967 — Tony Perez homers in the 15th inning off Catfish Hunter to give the National League a 2-1 win in the longest game in All-Star history.
1979 — Renaldo Nehemiah of the United States sets a Pan American Games record in the 110 hurdles with a time of 13.20 seconds.
1981 — Britain’s Sebastian Coe breaks his own world record in the 1,000-meter run with a time of 2:12.18 in a meet in Oslo, Norway. Seven runners shatter the 3-minute, 51-second barrier in the mile led by Steve Ovett at 3:49.25. Steve Scott finishes third and sets an American record in 3:49.68.
1985 — Nolan Ryan of the Houston Astros becomes the first pitcher in major league history to reach 4,000 strikeouts when he fans New York’s Danny Heep in the sixth inning.
1992 — Treboh Joe, a 9-year-old gelding, makes harness racing history by losing his 162nd consecutive race. Treboh Joe finishes fourth to break the North American record of 161 straight losses held by Shiaway Moses.
1993 — Alain Prost gets his 50th Formula One victory by taking the British Grand Prix.
1995 — Maryland quarterback Scott Milanovich, the most prolific passer in school history, is suspended for eight games by the NCAA for gambling on college sports.
2008 — Spanish cyclist Manuel Beltran tests positive for the performance-enhancer EPO and is immediately kicked out of the Tour de France and suspended by his team, Liquigas.
2011 — So Yeon Ryu wins the U.S. Women’s Open, defeating Hee Kyung Seo by three shots in a three-hole playoff. Ryu becomes the fifth South Korean to win the Open and the fourth in the last seven years.
2015 — Serena Williams wins her sixth title at the All England Club, beating Garbine Muguruza of Spain 6-4, 6-4 in the women’s final. For Williams, it’s her second “Serena Slam” — holding all four major titles at the same time. Overall, it’s the 21st major title for Williams, one shy of Graf’s Open era record.
2017 — Venus Williams reaches the semifinals at Wimbledon for the 10th time. The five-time champion at the All England Club advances by beating Jelena Ostapenko 6-3, 7-5 under a closed roof on Centre Court.
2021 — Novak Dokovic beats Matteo Berrettini of Italy, 6-7, 6-4, 6-4, 6-3, to win the Wimbledon Title. The win is Dokovic's 20th Grand Slam title.