Today’s historic sporting moment:
In 1935, the first roller derby began in Chicago by promoter Leo Seltzer.
As of this date:
1919 — Upset wins Man o’ War in the Sanford Memorial Stakes at Saratoga. The loss is Big Red’s only one in 21 starts.
1933 — Gene Sarazen wins the PGA Championship, defeating Willie Goggin 5 and 4 in the final round.
1979 — Lou Brock of the St. Louis Cardinals reaches 3,000 career hits with an infield hit off Chicago Cubs pitcher Dennis Lamp.
1987 — Jackie Joyner-Kersee ties the world record in the women’s long jump — 24 feet, 5½ inches — at the Pan American Games in Indianapolis. She ties the record set in 1986 by Heike Dreschler of East Germany.
1995 — Cuban Ana Quirot, badly burned in a kitchen accident in 1993, wins the 800 meters at the world championships in Gothenburg, Sweden.
1995 — Steve Elkington shoots a 64 in the final round and birdies the first playoff hole to beat Colin Montgomerie and win the PGA Championship. The 64 is the highest final score by a PGA Championship winner.
1997 — Wilson Kipketer breaks Sebastian Coe’s 16-year-old 800-meter record, finishing in 1 minute, 41.24 seconds in Zurich, Switzerland. Haile Gebrselassie also shatters his own 5,000-meter record with a time of 12 minutes, 41.86 seconds.
2002 — Natalie Coughlin breaks the world record in the 100-meter backstroke with a time of 59.58 seconds at the U.S. National Championships. She is the first American woman to hold the world record since Catherine Ferguson in 1966.
2008 — Michael Phelps makes history as the winningest Olympian of all time, winning his 10th and 11th career gold medals and setting five world records in five events at the Beijing Games. He wins the 200-meter butterfly and leads the U.S. 800-meter freestyle relay team.
2016 — The U.S. 4×100-meter medley relay team of Rio winners Kathleen Baker, Lilly King, Dana Vollmer, and Simone Manuel win the 1,000th gold medal in Summer Olympic history. Michael Phelps closes out the Rio Games with a gold medal in the butterfly event of the 4×100-meter medley relay. Phelps finishes his career with 28 medals, having won five gold and one silver at these Games.
