August 20
1888 Longest US men’s single tennis tournament match Palmer Presbrey defeats T S Tailer, 19-21, 8-6, 6-1, 6-4, an 80 game 1st-round contest 1900 Great Britain beats France in cricket in Olympic Games
1912 Wash Senator Carl Cushion no-hits Cleveland Indians, 2-0 in 6 innings
1915 White Sox obtain Joe Jackson from Cleve in exchange for Robert Roth, Larry Chappell, Ed Klepfer, & $31,500
1919 Wichita outfielder Joe Wilhoit (Western League) fails to get a hit, ending a 69-game streak (155 hits in 299 at bats for a .505 avg)
1920 American Professional Football Association forms, which would later become the National Football League (NFL)
1920 Preliminary meeting is conducted in Akron, Ohio to form American Professional Football Association and elect officers, installing Jim Thorpe as president
1920 Red Sox-Indians game postponed in Boston to allow Indian players to attend Ray Chapman’s funeral in Cleveland
1921 US National Championship Women’s Tennis, Germantown CC, PA: Molla Bjurstedt Mallory wins her 6th US singles title; beats 3-time champion Mary Browne 4-6, 6-4, 6-2
1922 1st world championship athletics for women, held in Paris
1930 Bradman scores 232 in 5th Test Cricket at The Oval
1931 US National Championship Women’s Tennis, Forest Hills, NY: Helen Wills Moody beats Eileen Bennett Whittingstall of England 6-4, 6-1 for her 7th and final US singles title
1938 Lou Gehrig hits record 23rd & last grand slam
1944 PGA Championship Men’s Golf, Manito G & CC: Bob Hamilton wins his only major title, 1 up in the 36-hole final over heavily favoured Byron Nelson
1945 Dodgers Tommy Brown, 17, is youngest player to hit a HR
1947 Boston Braves hit a million attendance for 1st time 1948 15th NFL Chicago All-Star Game: Chi Cards 28, All-Stars 0 (101,220)
1949 78,382 watch White Sox play Indians at Cleveland
1957 Chicago White Sox Bob Keegan no-hits Washington Senators, 6-0
1958 Cubs use 1st baseman Dale Long as their 1st major league lefty catcher since 1906
1961 Philadelphia Phillies beat Milwaukee Braves, 7-4 at County Stadium; end losing streak with dubious MLB record of 23 straight loses
1964 Rex Sellers bowls 5-1-17- 0 v India in only Test Cricket innings
1964 Yankee Phil Linz plays harmonica on bus despite Yogi Berra’s orders
1965 Eddie Mathews & Hank Aaron (1954-65) pass Babe Ruth-Lou Gehrig hitting 772 HRs while playing together on the same team
1967 LPGA Western Open Women’s Golf, Pekin CC: Kathy Whitworth wins by 7 strokes from Sandra Haynie
1974 Brooklyn pitcher Dan Bankhead is 1st black to homer in his 1st at bat
1974 Nolan Ryan pitch measured at record 161.6 kph (100.4 mph)MLB Pitching Legend
Nolan Ryan
1980 NY Yankee Bob Watson hits Seattle Kingdome speaker, 2nd straight day
1980 Cleve Dan Spillner, 545 ERA, is 2 outs from a no-hitter when White Sox rookie Leo Sutherland singles
1982 Don Lever becomes first captain of NHL New Jersey Devils
1985 1st NL pitcher to strike out 200+ in 1st 2 seasons (Dwight Gooden)
1989 Howard Johnson joins Barry Bonds & Willie Mays hitting 30 HRs & steal 30 bases
1990 Gene Michael names NY Yankee VP/GM replacing Harding Peterson
1990 George Steinbrenner steps down as NY Yankee owner
1990 NY Yankee Kevin Maas is quickest to reach 15 HRs (approx 132 at bat)
1991 Norbert Rosza swims world record 100m breast stroke (1:01.29)
1991 Dolphin Dan Marino surpasses Joe Montana as the highest paid NFL player with a 5-year extension for $25 million
1993 Colin Jackson runs world record 110m hurdles (12.91)
1994 Vuyani Bungu, the South African junior featherweight, wins the IBF World Boxing Title
1995 British Open Women’s Golf, Woburn, Duke’s Course: Australian Karrie Webb scores a 6 stroke win over runners-up Annika Sörenstam and Jill McGill
1999 7th Athletics World Championships open at Seville, Spain
2000 PGA Championship Men’s Golf, Valhalla GC: Tiger Woods becomes first since Ben Hogan (1953) to win 3 majors in a calendar year; wins backto-back PGA titles in 3-hole playoff with Bob May
2004 Ethiopian runners Kenenisa Bekele (27:05.10 OR) and Sileshi Sihine go 1-2 in the 10,000m at the Athens Olympics
2004 American swimmer Michael Phelps wraps up the 100/200m butterfly double at the Athens Olympics when he wins the 100m (51.25 OR) ahead of teammate Ian Croker
2006 PGA Championship Men’s Golf, Medinah CC: Tiger Woods wins his 3rd PGA C’ship by 5 strokes from Shaun Micheel
2008 Russian long-distance swimmer Larisa Ilchenko wins inaugural women’s open water marathon (10k) in 1:59:27.7 at the Beijing Olympics
2008 Usain Bolt of Jamaica wraps up the 100/200m double in style with a new 200m world record 19.30 at the Beijing Olympics
2009 12th Athletics World Championships: Usain Bolt wins 200m
2011 Senior Players Championship Men’s Golf, Westchester CC: Fred Couples wins first of 2 Champions Tour major titles with birdie on 3rd playoff hole against John Cook
2012 South Africa become the top-ranked test cricket nation after defeating England
2016 German canoeist Sebastian Brendel teams with Jan Vandrey to win the C-2 1,000m at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics; wraps up C-1 / C-2 1,000m double
2016 The Hungarian crew wins canoe sprint K-4 500m at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics; Danuta Kozák becomes the only female to win K1, K2 and K4 at the same Olympics
2016 Canoeists Max Rendschmidt and Marcus Gross part of winning German crew in K-4 100m at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics; wrap up K-2 / K-4 1,000m double
2016 Star British runner Mo Farah wins the men’s 5,000m in 13:03.30 at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics; wraps up 5k/10k double which he also completed in London 2012
2016 Controversial South African middle distance runner Caster Semenya retains her Olympic women’s 800m title in a time of 1:55.28 in the final in Rio de Janeiro
2016 4 women’s high jump competitors tie at clearing winning height 1.97m at the Rio Olympics; all then fail at 2.00m; Ruth Beitia of Spain wins the gold based on having no misses prior to bar being raised to 2.00m
2016 Chinese diver Chen Aisen does the Olympic 10m platform double in Rio de Janeiro; having already won the synchronised event, he wins the individual gold by a comfortable margin
2016 South Korean golfer Inbee Park wins the inaugural Olympic women’s individual gold with a final score of 16 under par in Rio de Janeiro; Lydia Ko (New Zealand) 11 under par; Shanshan Feng (China) 10 under par
2016 In a blanket finish American triathlete Gwen Jorgensen takes the Olympic gold medal at the Rio de Janeiro Games in 1:56.16; 0.40 ahead of Nicola Spirig Hug of Switzerland, and Great Britain’s Vicky Holland by 0:45
2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics: team sports - China beats Serbia, 3-1 for the women’s indoor volleyball gold; in the men’s water polo final, Serbia downs Croatia, 11-7 for first Olympic title
2017 Solheim Cup Women’s Golf, Des Moines G & CC: US retains Cup 16½- 11½; down by 5, Europe can only halve the singles 6-6
August 21
1878 Edward Pooley completes record 8 stumpings in a cricket match
1883 Providence shuts out Phillies 28-0
1887 Mighty (Dan) Casey struck-out in a game with NY Giants
1899 US National Championship Men’s Tennis, Newport, RI: Malcolm Whitman wins second of 3 consecutive US singles titles; beats J. Parmly Paret 6-1, 6-2, 3-6, 7-5
1900 US National Championship Men’s Tennis, Newport, RI: Malcolm Whitman beats William Larned 6-4, 1-6, 6-2, 6-2 to win his third straight US singles title
1901 Joe McGinnity, suspended from NL for punching & spitting on an umpire
1914 US Open Men’s Golf, Midlothian CC: 21-year old Walter Hagen holds off amateur Chick Evans by 1 stroke to win the first of his 2 Open titles; first of 11 major championships
1915 Australasian Championships Men’s Tennis, Brisbane: Englishman Gordon Lowe beats Horace Rice of Australia 4-6, 6-1, 6-1, 6-4
1920 PGA Championship Men’s Golf, Flossmoor CC: American based Scotsman Jock Hutchison beats J. Douglas Edgar of England, 1-up; first of Hutchinson’s 2 majors 1925 BV Emmen soccer team forms
1926 White Sox Ted Lyons no hits Red Sox 6-0 in just 67 minutes at Fenway
1931 Babe Ruth hits his 600th HR, off George Blaeholder of BrownsBaseball Legend Babe Ruth
1936 Red Sox pitcher Wes Ferrell, walks off the mound after receiving poor fielding, Sox suspend him
1947 1st Little League World Series Maynard Midgets of Williamsport PA win
1948 Indians 47-inning scoreless streak broken by White Sox Aaron Robinson
1953 Baseball player reps Ralph Kiner (NL) & Allie Reynolds (AL) hire John Norman Lewis at $15,000 to give legal advice to players in negotiation
1966 LPGA Western Open Women’s Golf, Rainbow Springs CC; Mickey Wright wins her 13th and final major title by 1 from Margie Masters & Jo Ann Prentice
1967 Ken Harrelson becomes baseball’s 1st free agent
1977 Donna Patterson Brice sets high speed water skiing record (111.11 mph)
1979 Mets win a protested game against Astros, 5-0
1982 Rollie Fingers (Brewers) becomes 1st pitcher to get save #300
1986 Ian Botham takes worldrecord 356th Test Cricket wkt (v NZ, The Oval)
1986 Red Sox Spike Owens scores 6 runs in a 24-5 rout of Cleveland Indians
1986 With 2 outs in 6th inning, Red Sox score 11 runs
1987 “Mack Lobell” set harness racing’s trotting mil (1:52)
2004 The archery competition concludes at the Athens Olympics with South Korea dominant with 3 of 4 gold medals; venue is the Panathenaic Stadium, in which the 1896 games were held
2004 Belarusian sprinter Yulia Nestsiarenka runs 10.93 to beat American Lauryn Williams and win the 100m gold medal at the Athens Olympics
2004 Nicolás Massú & Fernando González win the men’s doubles tennis at the Athens Olympics beating German pair Nicolas Kiefer & Rainer Schüttler in 5 sets; it’s Chile’s first Olympic gold medal
2004 American super-swimmer Michael Phelps wins his 6th gold medal of the Athens Olympics even though he doesn’t swim the final of men’s 4 x 100m medley relay; US wins in world record 3:30.68
2004 The Australian women’s 4 x 100m medley relay team of Giaan Rooney, Leisel Jones, Petria Thomas & Jodie Henry smashes the world record to take gold in 3:57.32 at the Athens Olympics
2004 South Africa clinch their 2nd Tri Nations Rugby Series on points differential with a 23-19 win over Australia in Durban; Wallabies score 3 tries to 2, but Percy Montgomery lands 5 goals for Springboks
2008 After winning the event in Athens, Jamaican sprinter Veronica Campbell-Brown makes it consecutive 200m Olympic titles beating American Allyson Felix by 0.19 in Beijing
2008 Dutch swimmer and cancer survivor Maarten van der Weijden wins inaugural men’s open water marathon (10k) in 1:51:51.6 at the Beijing Olympics
2008 American pair Misty May-Treanor & Kerry Walsh dominate China’s Tian Jiathe & Wang Jie 21-18, 21-18 in the beach volleyball final to repeat of their gold medal from Athens; don’t lose a set in the competition
2008 An American sweep of the 400m medals at the Beijing Olympics; LeShawn Merritt wins gold in 43.75 ahead of Jeremy Wariner and David Neville
2008 Japan edges the United States 3-1 for the gold medal in the final of the women’s softball tournament at the Beijing Olympics 2008 Daniëlle de Bruijn scores
2008 Daniëlle de Bruijn scores a match winning 7 goals as the Netherlands upset the United States 9-8 to take the women’s water polo gold medal at the Beijing Olympics 2008 Striker Carli Lloyd scores
2008 Striker Carli Lloyd scores in extra time as the United States beat Brazil 1-0 to take the women’s Football Gold Medal at the Beijing Olympics
2010 New Zealand clinch their 10th Tri Nations Rugby Series with one match remaining, scoring 2 tries in the last 3 minutes to beat South Africa, 29–22 in the first-ever Test at FNB Stadium in Johannesburg
2016 Kevin Durant scores 30 as the US retains the Olympic men’s basketball title with a comfortable 96-66 win over Serbia at the Rio de Janeiro Games
2016 Kenyan runner Eliud Kipchoge wins the Olympic men’s marathon gold medal at the Rio de Janeiro Games in a time of 2:08.44; Feyisa Lilesa (Ethiopia) second in 2:09:54, and Galen Rupp (US) third in 2:10:05
2016 Brazil takes 3rd Olympic men’s indoor volleyball gold medal at the Rio Games with 25–22, 28–26, 26–24 win over Italy