1980 Chantal Langlace sets women's record for fastest 100K run (7h27m22s)

1930 Brooklyn Dodgers beat Phillies 22-8

1893 – British expatriates in Italy founded the Genoa Cricket & Athletic Club, today one of Italy's oldest association football clubs.

1895 – The first game of what would become known as rugby league football is played, in England, starting the 1895–96 Northern Rugby Football Union season.

1963 – The Pro Football Hall of Fame opens in Canton, Ohio with 17 charter members.

1970 – Bill Shoemaker sets record for most lifetime wins as a jockey (passing Johnny Longden).

1979 – The Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, better known as ESPN, makes its debut.

1888 – In England the first six Football League matches are played.

1984 - 98th US Womens Tennis: M Navratilova beats Chris E L Mills (4-6 6-4 6-4)

On September 8, 1998 at 8:18 p.m. CDT, St. Louis Cardinals slugger Mark McGwire hit a pitch by the Chicago Cubs' Steve Trachsel over the left field wall for his 62nd home run of the season, breaking the record for most home runs in a single season. (He would go on to hit 70.)

1960 – At the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Abebe Bikila becomes the first sub-Saharan African to win a gold medal, winning the marathon in bare feet.

1961 – Italian Grand Prix, a crash causes the death of German Formula One driver Wolfgang von Trips and 13 spectators who are hit by his Ferrari.

1972 – The United States suffers its first loss of an international basketball game in a disputed match against the Soviet Union at Munich, Germany.

1989 - Boris Becker beats Yvan Lendl for the US Open championship

1885 – Arbroath 36–0 Bon Accord, a world record scoreline in professional football.

1930 – Wilfred Rhodes ends his 1110-game first-class career by taking 5 for 95 for H.D.G. Leveson Gower's XI against the Australians.

1984 – Dwight Gooden sets the baseball record for strikeouts in a season by a rookie with 246, previously set by Herb Score in 1954. Gooden's 276 strikeouts that season, pitched in 218 innings, set the current record.

2004 – National Hockey League commissioner Gary Bettman announces lockout of the players union and cessation of operations by the NHL head office.

1985 - Tony Jacklin's team of golfers beats the United States in the Ryder Cup for the first time in 28 years after dominating the final day of the competition.

2000 - Opening ceremony of the XXVII Olympics in Sydney, Australia

1978 - Muhammad Ali beats Leon Spinks in 15 for heavyweight boxing title

1975 - Mike Vail extends hitting streak ton rookie-record 23 straight game

1961 - 61st US Golf Amateur Championship won by Jack Nicklaus

1920 – The American Professional Football Association (later renamed National Football League) is organized in Canton, Ohio, United States.

1939 – Taisto Mäki becomes the first man to run the 10,000 metres in under 30 minutes, in a time of 29:52.6

1919 – Fritz Pollard becomes the first African-American to play professional football for a major team, the Akron Pros.

September 18, 2006: The Dodgers entered the bottom of the 9th inning of their game, trailing 9-5 to the Padres, but four players hit back-to-back-to-back-to-back solo home runs to tie the game up and send it into extra innings. The Padres got a run in the 10th to retake the lead, 10-9, but Nomar Garciaparra hit a 2-run homer to win the game 11-10.

1973 – Billie Jean King beats Bobby Riggs in The Battle of the Sexes tennis match at the Houston Astrodome in Houston, Texas.

1982 – The National Football League players begin a 57-day strike.

1927 – Jack Dempsey loses the "Long Count" boxing match to Gene Tunney.

1845 – The Knickerbockers Baseball Club, the first baseball team to play under the modern rules, is founded in New York.

1983 – Gerrie Coetzee of South Africa becomes the first African boxing world heavyweight champion.

1986 – Jim Deshaies of the Houston Astros sets the major-league record by striking out the first eight batters of the game against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

1977 – About 4,200 people took part in the first running of the Chicago Marathon.

2011 - Patrick Makau Musyoki runs an (unofficial) marathon world record holder with a time of 02:03:38 in the 2011 Berlin Marathon

1983 – The racing yacht Australia II, captained by John Bertrand, won the America's Cup, ending the New York Yacht Club's 132-year defense of the trophy.

1908 – Ed Reulbach becomes the first and only pitcher to throw two shutouts in one day against the Brooklyn Dodgers

1981 – Baseball: Nolan Ryan sets a Major League record by throwing his fifth no-hitter.

1930 – Bobby Jones wins the U.S. Amateur Championship to complete the Grand Slam of golf. The old structure of the grand slam was the U.S. Open, British Open, U.S. Amateur, and British Amateur.

1951 – The first live sporting event seen coast-to-coast in the United States, a college football game between Duke and the University of Pittsburgh, is televised on NBC.

1927 – Babe Ruth becomes the first baseball player to hit 60 home runs in a season.

1947 – The World Series, featuring the New York Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers, is televised for the first time.

1903 – Baseball: The Boston Americans play the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first game of the modern World Series.

1975 – Thrilla in Manila: Muhammad Ali defeats Joe Frazier in a boxing match in Manila, Philippines.

October 1, 1961: Roger Maris of the New York Yankees hit his 61st home run of the season, breaking a record set by Babe Ruth 34 years earlier.

2009 – During the 121st Session of the International Olympic Committee, Rio de Janeiro was elected to be the host city of the 2016 Summer Olympics and Paralympics.

October 2, 2004: The Dodgers entered the 9th inning of their game against the Giants down 3-0, but tied up the game...and loaded up the bases for Steve Finley, who hit a walkoff grand slam to win the game 7-3, thereby eliminating the Giants from playoff contention.

1919 – Cincinnati Reds pitcher Adolfo Luque becomes the 1st Latin player to appear in a World Series.

1951 – The "Shot Heard 'Round the World", one of the greatest moments in Major League Baseball history, occurs when the New York Giants' Bobby Thomson hits a game winning home run in the bottom of the ninth inning off of the Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Ralph Branca, to win the National League pennant after being down 14 games.

1895 – The first U.S. Open Men's Golf Championship administered by the United States Golf Association is played at the Newport Country Club in Newport, Rhode Island.

1895 – The first individual time trial for racing cyclists is held on a 50-mile course north of London.

1921 – Baseball: The World Series is broadcast on the radio for the first time.

1921 – Baseball: The World Series is broadcast on the radio for the first time.

and the first World Series to involve the Yankees (who eventually lost it to the New York Giants).

October 5, 2001: Barry Bonds hit his 71st home run of the season, breaking a record set by Mark McGwire 3 years earlier. He would go on to hit two more during the weekend.

1945 – Baseball: Billy Sianis and his pet billy goat are ejected from Wrigley Field during Game 4 of the 1945 World Series (see Curse of the Billy Goat).

October 6, 2010: Roy Halladay of the Philadelphia Phillies threw the second no-hitter in postseason history (and the first of which that wasn't a perfect game) in Game One of the NLDS against the Cincinnati Reds. Only one baserunner was allowed, by means of a walk.

1916 – Georgia Tech defeats Cumberland University 222-0 in the most lopsided college football game in American history.

1916 – Georgia Tech defeats Cumberland University 222-0 in the most lopsided college football game in American history.

October 7, 2001: Barry Bonds finished the MLB season with 73 home runs, a record for a single season that still stands today.

1921 – KDKA in Pittsburgh's Forbes Field conducts the first live broadcast of a football game.

1956 – New York Yankees's Don Larsen pitched the only perfect game in a World Series; one of only 20 perfect games in MLB history.

1919 – Black Sox scandal: The Cincinnati Reds win the World Series.

1964 – The opening ceremony at The 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, is broadcast live in the first Olympic telecast relayed by geostationary communication satellite.

1967 – The first game in the history of the American Basketball Association is played as the Anaheim Amigos lose to the Oakland Oaks 134-129 in Oakland, California.

1908 – The Chicago Cubs defeat the Detroit Tigers, 2-0, clinching the World Series. It would be their last one to date.

1968 – Jim Hines of the United States of America becomes the first man ever to break the so-called "ten-second barrier" in the 100-meter sprint in the Summer Olympic Games held in Mexico City with a time of 9.95 seconds.

2003 – Chicago Cubs fan Steve Bartman becomes infamously known as the scapegoat for the Cubs losing game 6 of the 2003 National League Championship Series to the Florida Marlins. This has become known as the Steve Bartman incident.

1989 – Wayne Gretzky becomes the all-time leading points scorer in the NHL.

1908 – The Chicago Cubs defeat the Detroit Tigers, 2-0, clinching the World Series. It would be their last one to date.


95 years later to the day, they were only a few outs away from advancing to the World Series...but a fan's interference spawned a downward turning point.

October 15, 1988: In Game One of the World Series between the Oakland A's and the L.A. Dodgers, Oakland led 4-3 going to the bottom of the 9th, with the Dodgers down to their final three outs, and Kirk Gibson (who was not expected to play at all that day) came up to hit a two-run walkoff home run to give his team a 5-4 win and a 1-0 series lead. It would be Gibson's only appearance in the World Series. (And that was also a Saturday, October 15th, just like today.)

1860 – First The Open Championship (referred to in North America as the British Open).

October 17, 1989: A massive earthquake rocked the San Francisco Bay Area, where the World Series was being held (since the Oakland A's and San Francisco Giants were facing off in the World Series that year). Game Three was about to begin in San Fran, but the earthquake postponed the game for about ten days.

October 18th 1968 – At the Summer Olympics in Mexico City, American Bob Beamon set a world record of 8.90 m in the long jump, a mark that stood for 23 years.

On this date (October 19) in 1981 (known as "Blue Monday" to Dodger fans), Rick Monday's ninth-inning solo home run powered the Dodgers to a 2-1 win in the decisive Game 5 of the NLCS as Los Angeles clinched the NL pennant. Remembering the win, Tommy Lasorda said: "We didn’t think anybody could beat us"... and he was right as the Dodgers went on to beat the Yankees in the World Series.

1991: World Series game 1 between Braves and Twins: Twins won 5-2.
1996: World Series game 1 between Braves and Yankees: Braves pounded the Yankees 12-1.
2002: The Angels reached the World Series for the first time, but the Giants won the opening game 4-3.

1873 – Yale, Princeton, Columbia, and Rutgers universities draft the first code of American football rules.

1982 – During the UEFA Cup match between FC Spartak Moscow and HFC Haarlem, 66 people are crushed to death in the Luzhniki disaster.

1973 – Fred Dryer of the then Los Angeles Rams becomes the first player in NFL history to score two safeties in the same game.

1973 – Fred Dryer of the then Los Angeles Rams becomes the first player in NFL history to score two safeties in the same game.

He would later go into acting, and during the 80's he starred on the cop drama series "Hunter."

October 21, 1993: Curt Schilling pitched a complete-game shutout for the Phillies in game 5 of the World Series against the Toronto Blue Jays, 2-0. He threw over 140 total pitches in the game; no pitcher nowadays would make that many pitches.

1878 – The first rugby match under floodlights takes place in Salford, between Broughton and Swinton.

1884 - Sporting Life announces that both pennant winners will meet in 3 game series Oct 23-25 at Polo Grounds NYC to determine baseball champion

On this date in 2000 and again in 2003, Roger Clemens started a World Series game, both times for the Yankees. These games were against the Mets (which he won against) and Marlins (which his team lost to, but he had a no decision), respectively.

1857 – Sheffield F.C., the world's first football club, is founded in Sheffield, England.

October 25, 1986: One of the most notable gaffes occurred in World Series history: a routine ball hit to Bill Buckner of the Boston Redsox went right under his glove and allowed the Mets to score the winning run of the game, tying the series up at 3 games apiece.

2004 – Major League Baseball: The Boston Red Sox complete a four-game sweep of the 2004 World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals, giving the team their first World Series championship since 1918.

2004 – Major League Baseball: The Boston Red Sox complete a four-game sweep of the 2004 World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals, giving the team their first World Series championship since 1918.


A series to remember.

Exactly two years earlier to the day, the Angels won their first World Series, defeating the San Francisco Giants in a decisive Game Seven by a score of 4-1.

1921 – The Harvard University football team loses to Centre College, ending a 25 game winning streak. This is considered one of the biggest upsets in college football.

1960 – In Louisville, Kentucky, Cassius Clay (who later takes the name Muhammad Ali) wins his first professional fight.

October 29th 2008 – The Philadelphia Phillies claim the world series title over the Tampa Bay Rays 4-3. This was the first major sports title in Philadelphia for 25 years and was 28 years since the Phillies last World Series title in 1980.

1991 - Buck Showalter replaces Stump Merrill as NY Yankee manager

1986 - West Indies all out for 53 v Pakistan (Abdul Qadir 6-16)

1945 – Jackie Robinson of the Kansas City Monarchs signs a contract for the Brooklyn Dodgers to break the baseball color barrier.

1974 – The Rumble in the Jungle boxing match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman takes place in Kinshasa, Zaire.

October 29th 2008 – The Philadelphia Phillies claim the world series title over the Tampa Bay Rays 4-3. This was the first major sports title in Philadelphia for 25 years and was 28 years since the Phillies last World Series title in 1980.

I remember that. In fact, on that day, they continued their suspended game from two days earlier, since the rain had been coming down hard. Also, their 1980 title was their only other.

A year later, they returned to the World Series, only to lose in 6 games to the Yankees.

November 1st...

10 years ago, the World Series was played in November for the first time. In Game Five, which had started at 8pm Eastern time, the Yankees overcame another deficit and won, thus taking a 3-games-to-2 series lead.

2 years ago, the World Series reached Game Four, with the Yankees taking a 3-games-to-1 series lead. This was only the second time that the World Series spilled over into November, due to the latest start in postseason history.

1 year ago, the San Francisco Giants claimed their first title in 56 years (and their first as the San Francisco Giants), defeating the Texas Rangers 4 games to 1; Edgar Renteria, who hit a go-ahead 3-run home run off Cliff Lee in the game, was named the series MVP.

1938 – Seabiscuit defeats War Admiral in an upset victory during a match race deemed "the match of the century" in horse racing.

1946 – The New York Knicks played against the Toronto Huskies at the Maple Leaf Gardens, in the first Basketball Association of America game. The Knicks would win 68–66.

1959 – Montreal Canadiens goaltender Jacques Plante wears a protective mask for the first time in an NHL game.

1898 – Cheerleading is started at the University of Minnesota with Johnny Campbell leading the crowd in cheering on the football team.

November 2, 2009: The Phillies salvaged a World Series game on their home turf in Philadelphia to send the series back to New York two days later.

Ten years ago, the Arizona Diamondbacks evened up the World Series at 3 games apiece by crushing the Yankees 15-2, with the bulk of the runs coming in the 3rd inning, chasing Andy Pettitte.

November 4, 2001: The New York Yankees and Arizona Diamondbacks faced off for the seventh and final game of the World Series. Yankees took a 2-1 lead on a home run by Alfonso Soriano, and it stayed that way until the bottom of the 9th inning, when ace reliever Mariano Rivera took the mound. The first Arizona batter he faced got a hit, the next batter bunted and Rivera attempted to nail the lead runner at second base but threw the ball away. But the next batter bunted into a force play, nailing the lead runner at third base. The next batter after that doubled to tie the score at 2-2, and then a batter was hit by a pitch to load the bases. The next batter, Luis Gonzalez (the sixth man to come up in the inning) hit a bloop single to score the winning run for Arizona and give them the series win, 4 games to 3. The MVP award went to pitchers Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson.

1991 – Professional basketball player Magic Johnson announced his retirement from the game because of his infection with HIV.

1861 – The first documented football match in Canada is played at University College, University of Toronto.

1984 – The first Breeders' Cup takes place at Hollywood Park Racetrack.

1892 – William "Pudge" Heffelfinger becomes the first professional American football player on record, participating in his first paid game for the Allegheny Athletic Association.

1954 – Great Britain defeats France to capture the first ever Rugby League World Cup in Paris in front of around 30,000 spectators.

1982 – Ray Mancini defeats Duk Koo Kim in a boxing match held in Las Vegas, Nevada. Kim's subsequent death (on November 17) leads to significant changes in the sport.

1859 – Sponsored by businessman Evangelos Zappas, the first modern revival of the Olympic Games took place in Athens, Greece.

Manchester United striker Michael Owen out of action for six weeks with thigh injury

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.

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.

An event I remember hearing about on a showcase of TV bloopers. NBC later apologized for the screw-up, according to info I read online.

1969 – Football player Pelé scores his 1,000th goal.

1902 – While discussing how to promote the newspaper L'Auto, sports journalist Henri Desgrange came up with the idea of holding a cycling race that later became known as the Tour de France.

1986 – Mike Tyson defeats Trevor Berbick to become youngest Heavyweight champion in boxing history.

1906 – A local newspaper accused members of two American football teams of conspiring to deliberately lose games, the first known case of professional gamblers attempting to fix a professional sport.

1917 – The National Hockey League is formed, with the Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Wanderers, Ottawa Senators, Quebec Bulldogs, and Toronto Arenas as its first teams.

1872 – The first-ever international football match takes place at Hamilton Crescent, Glasgow, between Scotland and England.

1995 - Jack Russell takes 11 catches in Test Cricket vs South Africa, a record

1909 – The Montreal Canadiens, the oldest professional ice hockey club in the world, was founded as a charter member of the National Hockey Association.

1909 – 1st Grey Cup game is played. The University of Toronto Varsity Blues defeat the Toronto Parkdale Canoe Club 26–6.

1974 – In American football, the Birmingham Americans would win what would eventually be the only World Bowl in World Football League history.

1956 – A violent water polo match between Hungary and the USSR takes place during the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, against the backdrop of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.

1936 – Australian cricketer Jack Fingleton becomes the first player to score centuries in four consecutive Test innings.

1963 – Instant replay is used for the first time in an Army-Navy game by its inventor, director, Tony Verna.

1989 – Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran complete their trilogy of boxing fights nine years after their first two fights, at the opening of the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada; Leonard retains his WBC world Super Middleweight title by a 12 round unanimous decision.

2008 – The first NFL game is played in Canada at Rogers Centre in Toronto.

1998 – The Australian Cricket Board's cover-up of Shane Warne and Mark Waugh's involvement with bookmakers is revealed.

1886 – The London-based football club Arsenal, then known as Dial Square, played their first match on the Isle of Dogs.

1932 – The Chicago Bears defeat the Portsmouth Spartans 9-0 in the first ever NFL Championship Game. Because of a blizzard, the game is moved from Wrigley Field to the Chicago Stadium, the field measuring 80 yards (73 m) long.

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.

1936 - Don Bradman's 2nd consecutive Test Cricket duck! Australia all out 80

1951 - Joe DiMaggio announces his retirement

1860 – The first ever inter-club football match takes place between Hallam F.C. and Sheffield F.C. at the Sandygate Road ground in Sheffield, England.

1919 – Babe Ruth of the Boston Red Sox is sold to the New York Yankees by owner Harry Frazee.

1990 - Desert Orchid won the'King George VI Chase'at Kempton Park for a record fourth time

1944 – Maurice Richard becomes the first player to score 8 points in one game of NHL ice hockey.

1958 – "Greatest Game Ever Played" – Baltimore Colts defeat the New York Giants in the first ever National Football League sudden death overtime game at New York's Yankee Stadium.

1981 – In the 39th game of his 3rd NHL season Wayne Gretzky scores 5 goals giving him 50 on the year setting a new NHL record previously held by Maurice Richard and Mike Bossy who earlier had each scored 50 goals in 50 games.