- 1864 Saratoga Racecourse, America's oldest thoroughbred racetrack, opens its inaugural meet with four days of racing
- 1906 Chicago White Sox beat Boston Americans 3-0 to start an AL record 19-game MLB win streak
Walter Johnson's First Game
1907 Legendary pitcher Walter Johnson, at 19, begins his 21-year Baseball Hall of Fame playing career with Washington with a 3-2 loss against Detroit
- 1912 US Open Men's Golf, CC of Buffalo: John McDermott successfully defends title by 2 strokes from Tom McNamara
- 1921 After three hours of deliberation, a Chicago jury acquits eight Chicago White Sox players accused in the Black Sox scandal; the next day, they are banned from organized baseball for life
- 1924 A's first baseman Joe Hauser sets an AL record of 14 total bases in a game with three home runs and a double as Philadelphia beats the Cleveland Indians 12-4 at Dunn Field
- 1929 Philadelphia first baseman Don Hurst sets an NL record with six consecutive games hitting a home run in the Phillies' 2-0 win against the Pittsburgh Pirates
- 1936 30th Tour de France: Sylvère Maes of Belgium wins his second title, besting Frenchman Antone Magne
- 1936 Americans Cornelius Johnson, Dave Albritton, and Delos Thurber sweep the high jump medals at the Berlin Olympics
- 1936 Finnish trifecta in the 10,000 m final at the Berlin Olympics as Ilmari Salminen beats teammates Arvo Askola and Volmari Iso-Hollo
- 1938 MLB conducts the first test of bright yellow baseballs during Brooklyn Dodgers vs. St. Louis Cardinals doubleheader
- 1948 Danish swimmer Greta Andersen (1:06.3) touches out American Ann Curtis by 0.2 seconds in the women's 100 m freestyle at the London Olympics
- 1948 Fanny Blankers-Koen of the Netherlands wins the 100 m in 11.9 at the London Olympics, her first of unprecedented three individual track and field gold medals
- 1948 Italians Adolfo Consolini and Giuseppe Tosi go 1-2 in the men's discus final at the London Olympics
Patterson Wins Gold
1952 17-year-old future world champion Floyd Patterson wins the gold medal in the middleweight division at the Helsinki Olympic Games with a first-round KO of Romanian Vasile Tita
- 1952 Hungarian boxer László Papp wins his second consecutive Olympic gold medal
Willie McCovey's 1st HR
1959 Future Hall of Fame first baseman Willie McCovey hits the first of his 521 MLB home runs in the SF Giants' 5-3 win against the Pittsburgh Pirates
- 1959 Milwaukee Braves outfielder Bill Bruton hits three triples in an 11-5 win against the St. Louis Cardinals; two of them with bases loaded, the first time in the 20th century
- 1959 PGA Championship Men's Golf, Minneapolis GC: Bob Rosburg wins by one stroke from Jerry Barber and Doug Sanders
- 1960 Baseball's new Continental League formally disbands without ever having played a game after established MLB promises of expansion, including New York City, achieve the owners' desired effect
- 1961 St. Louis Cardinals (NFL) beat Toronto Argonauts (CFL) 36-7 in an exhibition game in Toronto, Canada
- 1967 NFL New Orleans Saints play their first-ever preseason game, losing to the Los Angeles Rams 16-7 at Anaheim Stadium in California
- 1968 Ron Hansen (Washington Senators) and Tim Cullen (Chicago White Sox) become the first MLB players to be traded for each other twice in the same season; they had been traded in February in opposite directions
George Brett Debuts
1973 Future Baseball Hall of Fame third baseman George Brett gets his first MLB hit on debut for the Kansas City Royals in a 3-1 win over the Chicago White Sox
- 1977 In his comeback Test, England cricket batsman Geoff Boycott is unbeaten on 80 after a first innings 107 as England beats Australia by seven wickets in the third Test at Trent Bridge
- 1979 MLB New York Mets purchase contract of outfielder José Cardenal from Philadelphia Phillies between games of a double-header between the two teams
- 1979 Washington, D.C. trial attorney Edward Bennett Williams buys MLB's Baltimore Orioles from Jerold Hoffberger for a reported $12.3 million
- 1980 Cuban super-heavyweight Teofilo Stevenson becomes the first fighter to win three Olympic gold medals in the same division, scoring a 4-1 points decision over Pyotr Zayev (Soviet Union) in Moscow
Cricket History
1981 England cricket all-rounder Ian Botham takes 5 for 11 to end Australia's chase of a 151 target, all out for 121 in a 29-run defeat in the fourth Test at Edgbaston
Baseball Record
1982 Oakland A's outfielder Rickey Henderson steals his 100th MLB base of the season in a 6-5 win against Seattle, becoming the first to steal 100 bases twice in the modern era
- 1984 Jeff Blatnick becomes the first American to win a gold medal in Greco-Roman wrestling at the Los Angeles Olympics while in remission for Hodgkin’s disease
Cricket History
1985 England captain David Gower scores his 5,000th run in Test cricket during the drawn fourth Test against Australia at Old Trafford
Jackie Joyner-Kersee
1986 American athlete Jackie Joyner-Kersee beats her own world heptathlon record by 13 points (7,161) in Houston
- 1986 Curtis Cup Women's Golf, Prairie Dunes CC: Great Britain & Ireland beat the US 13-5, the visitors' first win on American soil
- 1986 Lee Elder fires a record 11-under-par 61 on his way to winning the Senior PGA Merrill Lynch/Golf Digest Commemorative at Sleepy Hollow CC; the record stands for 11 years
- 1987 Cincinnati outfielder Eric Davis is seventh to hit 30 home runs and steal 30 bases in one season as he homers in Reds 5-4 win against the Giants
1987 Federation Cup Tennis Final: Steffi Graf and Claudia Kohde-Kilsch defeat Chris Evert and Pam Shriver in the doubles as Germany defeats the US 2-1 in Vancouver, Canada
- 1987 Michael Andretti runs the fastest Indy car race in history (171.49 mph) to win the Marlboro 500 at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Michigan
- 1990 Yankees rookie first baseman Kevin Maas hits his 10th MLB homer in a 6-5 loss against Detroit, becoming the fastest to reach that milestone in just 77 at-bats
- 1992 American Jacki Joyner-Kersee becomes first athlete to win consecutive gold medals in the gruelling heptathlon with a 199 point win over Irina Belova (Soviet Union) at the Barcelona Olympics
1992 Tom Seaver, Rollie Fingers, Hal Newhouser, and Bill McGowan are inducted into Baseball Hall of Fame
- 1992 Vitaly Scherbo of Belarus becomes the first gymnast to win six gold medals at one Olympics in Barcelona and the first to win four golds in one day's competition (pommel horse, vault, rings, and parallel bars)
- 1993 Maryland investors, led by Baltimore attorney Peter Angelos, buy the MLB Baltimore Orioles team at auction in New York for $173 million, nearly $50 million more than ever paid for a baseball team
Dream Team III
1996 The star-studded United States men's basketball team, Dream Team III, beat Yugoslavia 95-69 to win the gold medal at the Atlanta Olympics
- 1998 85th Tour de France: Marco Pantani of Italy makes it a Tour & Giro d'Italia double, German Erik Zabel is points winner
1998 Canadian Open Women's Golf (du Maurier Classic), Essex GC: Brandie Burton wins by 1 shot from Annika Sörenstam
- 1998 Curtis Cup Women's Golf, Minikahda GC: US beats Great Britain & Ireland 10-8
- 2003 South African cricket batsman Graeme Smith blazes 259, and fast bowler Makhaya Ntini takes five wickets in each England innings as Proteas win the second Test by an innings and 92 runs at Lord's
2009 British Open Women's Golf, Royal Lytham, and St Annes GC: Catriona Matthew wins her only major title, three strokes ahead of runner-up Karrie Webb, becoming the first Scot to win the title
World Records Galore
2009 Michael Phelps ends the World Swimming Championships in Rome with his fifth gold medal as part of the US 4 x 100 m medley relay team, which records the 43rd world record of the controversial meet
2009 US Senior Open Men's Golf, Crooked Stick GC: Fred Funk wins by six strokes from Joey Sindelar with a tournament record score of -20
- 2012 American swimmer Michael Phelps wins an unprecedented third consecutive gold medal in the 200 m individual medley in 1:54.27 at the London Olympics
- 2012 American swimmer Rebecca Soni becomes the first woman to win the 200 m breaststroke twice with a world record of 2:19.59 at the London Olympics
- 2014 Super Rugby Final, ANZ Stadium, Sydney: NSW Waratahs win their first SR title in a nail-biting 33-32 home effort against New Zealand's Canterbury Crusaders
2015 British Open Women's Golf, Turnberry: Inbee Park of South Korea shoots final found 65 (−7) to win her 7th major title, 3 strokes ahead of compatriot Ko Jin-young
- 2024 Australian Kaylee McKeown joins Roland Matthes of Germany (1968, 72) as the only swimmers to achieve the Olympic 100/200 m backstroke double when McKeown wins the 200m event in Paris
- 2024 In a rare podium sweep, France wins the men's BMX with Joris Daudet, Sylvain André, and Romain Mahieu going 1-2-3 at the Paris Olympics
- 2024 SF Giants pitcher Blake Snell no-hits Cincinnati Reds 3-0 at Great American Ballpark, Cincinnati, Ohio
- 2025 MLB Speedway Classic: regular season record crowd of 91,032 gathers for a baseball game at the Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tennessee, but game gets rained out in bottom of first inning
