July 12
1901 — Cy Young of the Boston Red Sox wins his 300th game with a 5-3 victory over the Philadelphia A’s.
1930 — Bobby Jones wins the U.S. Open. Jones, who also won the British Open, the American Amateur and the British Amateur, becomes the only golfer to take all four events in the same year.
1954 — The Major League Baseball Players Association is founded.
1964 — Mickey Wright wins the U.S. Women’s Open for the fourth time by defeating Ruth Jessen by two strokes in a playoff.
1970 — Jack Nicklaus wins his second British Open, beating Doug Sanders by one stroke in an 18-hole playoff at the Old Course in St Andrews, Scotland. It’s the first playoff at The Open since 1963 and the first at 18 holes.
1975 — Tom Watson wins an 18-hole playoff by one stroke over Jack Newton to win the British Open at Carnoustie Golf Links in Scotland.
1980 — Mary Decker has her fourth record-setting performance of the year, setting an American mark in the 1,500-meter run with a time of 4:01.17 at an international meet at Stuttgart.
1995 — Noureddine Morceli of Algeria shatters his world record for 1,500 meters at the Nikaia Grand Prix in Nice, France, with a time of 3:27.37. It is the second world record for Morceli in 10 days.
1996 — Michael Jordan signs a NBA contract with the Chicago Bulls, for 1 year for $30.1 million.
1996 — Kirby Puckett, MLB centerfielder, retires after 12 seasons from Minnesota Twins, due to loss of vision in one eye.
1998 — France wins soccer’s World Cup, beating heavily favored Brazil 3-0 in the championship match.
1999 — The U.S. men’s basketball team wins its sixth straight World University Games gold medal and 40th straight game — both records — by routing Yugoslavia 79-65 in the final.
2012 — Every country competing at the London Games includes female athletes for the first time in Olympic history after Saudi Arabia agreed to send two women to compete in judo and track and field.
2014 — Mario Goetze volleys in the winning goal in extra time to give Germany its fourth World Cup title with a 1-0 victory over Argentina. The win is Germany’s first as a united country. West Germany won the World Cup in 1954, 1974 and 1990.
2015 — Novak Djokovic gets the better of Roger Federer at Wimbledon, beating him in four sets to win his third Wimbledon title and ninth Grand Slam championship.
2015 — South Korea’s In Gee Chun birdies four of the last seven holes to rally for a one-stroke victory at the U.S. Women’s Open. The 20-year old Chun shoots a 4-under 66 in the final round and finished at 8 under, becoming the first player to win her U.S. Open debut since Birdie Kim in 2005.
2017 — Sam Querrey stuns top-seeded Andy Murray in five sets in the Wimbledon quarterfinals, 3-6, 6-4, 6-7 (4), 6-1, 6-1.
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July 13
1881 — William Renshaw sets the record for the shortest men’s championship match by time and games by beating John T. Hartley 6-0, 6-1, 6-1 in 37 minutes at Wimbledon.
1934 — Babe Ruth hits his 700th career home run against Detroit.
1941 — The PGA tournament is won by Vic Ghezzi with a 1-up 38-hole victory over Byron Nelson. at Cherry Hills CC Denver
1943 — The first night game in All-Star history is played at Philadelphia’s Shibe Park. Boston’s Bobby Doerr provides the big blow, a three-run homer, for the AL’s 5-3 win.
1963 — Early Wynn wins his 300th and last MLB game at 43.
1968 — Gary Player wins the British Open by two strokes over Bob Charles and Jack Nicklaus. It’s the second Open championship for Player and his fifth major title.
1971 — Reggie Jackson hits a mammoth home run off the power generator on the right-field roof at Tiger Stadium to highlight a barrage of six homers — three by each team — as the AL beats the NL 6-4 in the All-Star game.
1972 — Robert Irsay buys the stock of the Los Angeles Rams for $19 million and swaps the franchise for the Baltimore Colts. The players and coaches are not affected.
1980 — Amy Alcott shoots a record score of 280 to win the U.S. Women’s Open by nine strokes over Hollis Stacy.
1994 — Tonya Harding’s ex-husband Jeff Gillooly sentenced to 2 years in prison for attack on American Olympic figure skater Nancy Kerrigan.
1996 — Cigar matches Citation’s modern North American record of 16 consecutive wins, pulling away to take the $1.05 million Arlington Citation Challenge by 3½ lengths.
1997 — Alison Nicholas holds off Nancy Lopez for a one-stroke victory in the U.S. Women’s Open. Nicholas shoots a 72-hole total of 10-under 274, the most under par in the 52-year history of the event.
2003 — Beth Daniel becomes the oldest winner in LPGA Tour history, birdying the final two holes to beat Juli Inkster by a stroke in the Canadian Women’s Open. At 46 years, 8 months and 29 days, Daniel breaks the age record set by JoAnne Carner in 1985.
2011 — Abby Wambach breaks a tense tie with a thunderous header in the 79th minute, and the United States earns its first trip to the Women’s World Cup final since winning it in 1999 with a 3-1 victory over France. Japan upsets Sweden 3-1 in the other semifinal.
2014 — Mo Martin hits the best shot of her life to become a major champion in the Women’s British Open. Martin hit a 3-wood that hit the pin on the par-5 closing hole at Royal Birkdale, settling 6 feet for an eagle. Martin closes with an even-par 72 and finishes at 1-under 287 for a one-shot win over Inbee Park and Shanshan Feng.
2014 — Mario Goetze volleys in the winning goal in extra time to give Germany its fourth World Cup title with a 1-0 victory over Argentina.
2017 — Venus Williams reaches her ninth Wimbledon final and first since 2009, turning in her latest display of gutsy serving to beat Johanna Konta 6-4, 6-2. At 37, Williams becomes the oldest finalist at the All England Club since Martina Navratilova was the 1994 runner-up at that age. She also stops Konta’s bid to become the first woman from Britain in 40 years to win Wimbledon. In the opening semifinal, Garbine Muguruza overwhelms Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia 6-1, 6-1 in just over an hour.
2019 — Wimbledon Women’s Tennis: Simona Halep beats Serena Williams 6-2, 6-2 in just 55 minutes; first Romanian to win a Wimbledon singles title.
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July 14
1912 — Kenneth McArthur runs Olympic record marathon (2:36:54.8).
1951 — Citation is the first horse to win $1 million in a career by taking the Hollywood Gold Cup by four lengths in Inglewood, Calif. Citation retires after the race with total earnings of $1,085,760. In 45 starts, Citation ran out of the money only once.
1964 — Jacques Anquetil wins his fifth Tour de France. It’s his fourth straight title of the cycling event.
1967 — Eddie Mathews of the Astros hits his 500th home run off San Francisco’s Juan Marichal at Candlestick Park. Houston beats the Giants 8-6.
1968 — Hank Aaron hits his 500th home run off Mike McCormick as the Atlanta Braves beat the San Francisco Giants 4-2.
1973 — Tom Weiskopf wins the British Open by three strokes over Johnny Miller and Neil Coles. Weiskopf goes wire-to-wire and his total of 12-under-par 276 matches the Open Championship record set by Arnold Palmer on the same Troon Golf Club course in 1962.
1985 — Kathy Baker beats Judy Clark by three strokes to win the U.S. Women’s Open golf title.
1985 — The Baltimore Stars defeat the Oakland Invaders 28-24 to win the United States Football League championship.
1986 — Jane Geddes beats Sally Little in an 18-hole playoff to take the U.S. Women’s Open championship.
1991 — Meg Mallon shoots a 4-under 67 for a two-stroke victory over Pat Bradley in the 46th U.S. Women’s Open. Mallon finishes with a 1-under 283.
1995 — Ramon Martinez throws a no-hitter, giving the Los Angeles Dodgers a 7-0 victory over the Florida Marlins.
2001 — John Campbell scores an unprecedented sixth victory in the $1 million Meadowlands Pace as Real Desire beats favored Bettor’s Delight in the stretch. Real Desire paces the mile in 1:49.3 in matching the record set by The Panderosa two years ago in the race that gave Campbell his fifth win. Campbell, 46, is a winner of a $1 million race 19 times.
2005 — In Oklahoma City, the United States is beaten in an international softball game for the first time since 2002, losing 2-1 to Canada in the inaugural World Cup of Softball.
2009 — The American League continues its dominance over the National League with a 4-3 win in the All-Star game. The AL is 12-0-1 since its 1996 defeat at Philadelphia — the longest unbeaten streak in All-Star history.
2011 — Kaio breaks former grand champion Chiyonofuji career sumo victory record, beating Mongolian Kyokutenho for No. 1,046. The 39-year-old Kaio forces out Kyokutenho in the Nagoya Grand Sumo Tournament.
2011 — Amateur Tom Lewis shoots a record 5-under 65 in the opening round of the British Open. The 20-year-old Lewis posts the lowest round ever by an amateur in golf’s oldest major to pull even with Thomas Bjorn at Royal St. George’s.
2013 — Jordan Spieth becomes the youngest winner on the PGA Tour in 82 years. The 19-year-old outlasts David Hearn and Zach Johnson on the fifth hole of a playoff to win the John Deere Classic. He’s the first teenager to win since Ralph Guldahl took the Santa Monica Open in 1931.
2015 — Mike Trout becomes the first player in 38 years to lead off the All-Star Game with a home run, and the American League beats the National League 6-3 to secure home-field advantage in the World Series for the third straight time and 10th in 13 years. Trout also becomes the first player to be selected the game’s MVP two years in row.
2018 — Angelique Kerber claims her first Wimbledon title with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over seven-time champion Serena Williams.
2019 — Novak Dokovic wins the longest ever Wimbledon title over Roger Federer 7-6, 1-6, 7-6, 4-6, 13-12 in 4 hours 57 minutes.
2019 — English Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton wins a record 6th British Formula 1 Grand Prix at Silverstone; moves him 1 win clear of Jim Clark and Alain Prost (5).
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July 15
1912 — Jim Thorpe wins the decathlon at the Stockholm Olympics and, in the closing ceremony, Sweden’s King Gustav proclaims Thorpe the world’s greatest athlete.
1921 — NY Yankees slugger Babe Ruth ties MLB record of 138 career home runs (held by Roger Connor since 1895).
1922 — Gene Sarazen shoots a final-round 68 to beat out Bobby Jones and John Black for the U.S. Open golf championship.
1923 — Amateur Bobby Jones beats Bobby Cruikshank by two strokes in a playoff to win the U.S. Open golf title.
1927 — Bobby Jones wins the British Open shooting a championship record 7-under 285 at the Old Course in St Andrews, Scotland. It’s the second straight Open title for the amateur, who goes wire-to-wire for a six-stroke victory over Aubrey Boomer and Fred Dobson.
1945 — Byron Nelson defeats Sam Byrd in the final round of the PGA golf tournament.
1961 — Arnold Palmer shoots a 284 at Royal Birkdale to win his first British Open title.
1967 — Argentina’s Roberto DeVicenzo wins the British Open by two strokes over defending champion Jack Nicklaus.
1972 — Lee Trevino wins his second consecutive British Open title by beating Jack Nicklaus by one stroke.
1978 — Jack Nicklaus shoots a 281 at St. Andrews to win his third and final British Open.
1984 — Hollis Stacy wins her third U.S. Women’s Open golf title, beating Rosie Jones by one stroke.
1990 — Betsy King overcomes an 11-shot deficit over the final 33 holes to win her second consecutive U.S. Women’s Open as Patty Sheehan blows an eight-shot lead over the final 23 holes.
1991 — Sandhi Ortiz-DelValle becomes the first woman to officiate a men’s professional basketball game, working a United States Basketball League game between the New Haven Skyhawks and the Philadelphia Spirit.
2000 — Lennox Lewis stops Francois Botha at 2:39 of the second round to retain his WBC and IBF heavyweight titles in London.
2007 — BYU star Daniel Summerhays becomes the first amateur winner in Nationwide Tour history. Summerhays scores a two-stroke victory over Chad Collins and Chris Nallen in the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Invitational.
2007 — The Philadelphia Phillies lose their 10,000 game, 10-2 to St. Louis. The franchise, born in 1883 as the Philadelphia Quakers and later called the Blue Jays in the mid-1940s, fall to 8,810-10,000.
2007 — Copa América Final, Maracaibo, Venezuela: Defending champions Brazil win their 8th title with a 3-0 win over Argentina.
2008 — Justin Morneau slides home just in time on Michael Young’s sacrifice fly in the 15th inning, giving the American League a 4-3 victory in the All-Star game at Yankee stadium.
2010 — Rory McIlroy, a 21-year-old from Northern Ireland, ties the major championship record by shooting a 9-under 63 in the opening round of the British Open at the Old Course in St. Andrews, Scotland.
2010 — Caster Semenya wins her first race since being cleared to return to competition after undergoing gender tests, winning the 800 meters in a modest time against a weak field at a low-key meet in Finland.
2018 — Novak Djokovic wins his fourth Wimbledon title with a 6-2, 6-2 7-6 (3) victory over Kevin Anderson. It’s Djokovic’s 13th major trophy, the fourth-highest total in the history of men’s tennis, trailing only Roger Federer’s 20, Rafael Nadal’s 17 and Pete Sampras’ 14. At No. 21, Djokovic is the lowest-ranked Wimbledon titlist since Goran Ivanisevic in 2001.
2018 — France wins its second World Cup title with a 4-2 win over Croatia in a dramatic final in Moscow.
2019 — Tampa Bay catcher Travis d’Arnaud becomes first player in MLB history to hit 3 home runs while catching and batting leadoff in the Rays’ 5-4 win over the NY Yankees.
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