1950: Joe DiMaggio becomes 1st to hit 3 HR in a game at Griffith Stadium.
1960: Future Hall of Famer Jerry Lucas scores 23 points as the US wins its 5th straight men’s basketball Olympic gold medal with a 90-63 drubbing of Brazil at the Rome Games.
1961: Italian Grand Prix: a crash causes the death of German driver Wolfgang von Trips, 13 spectators hit by his Ferrari.
1966: Muhammad Ali TKOs Karl Mildenberger in 12 for heavyweight boxing title.
1972: Cuban boxer Teófilo Stevenson wins first of 3 consecutive Olympic heavyweight gold medals when Munich Games opponent Ion Alexe of Romania withdraws from the final because of a broken thumb.
1977: US Open Women’s Tennis, Forest Hills, NY: Chris Evert wins her third straight US singles title; beats Wendy Turnbull of Australia 7-6, 6-2; final time event played at West Side Tennis Club.
1978: Playing for National Bank against Punjab in Lahore, future Test wicketkeeper Taslim Arif became the first from Pakistan to effect 10 dismissals in a first-class match. Punjab were dismissed for 74 and 143 and lost by an innings. Taslim’s haul remained a national record until Wasim Yousoufi made 11 dismissals for Peshawar v Bahawalpur in Peshawar in 1997-98.
1988: US Open Women’s Tennis: Steffi Graf of Germany wins her first US title and completes the Grand Slam; beats Gabriela Sabatini 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.
1997: Mark McGwire joins Babe Ruth as the only players to hit 50 HRs in two consecutive years.
2004: The USA’s first ODI, in the Champions Trophy. And they lost by 210 runs. Nathan Astle (145 not out) and Craig McMillan (64 not out) smashed 13 sixes between them, following which, after a promising start with 52 for the first wicket, USA were rocked by Jacob Oram (5 for 36) and ended up losing nine wickets for 85 runs.
2011: US Open Women’s Tennis: Samantha Stosur becomes first Australian to win a Grand Slam title since 1980; upsets Serena Williams 6-2, 6-3.
2019: St Kitts and Nevis Patriots and Jamaica Tallawahs slugged it out in a CPL runfest to make statisticians rejoice, producing the second highest successful chase in T20 cricket. Six fiend Chris Gayle featured prominently, lashing 116 at the top of the order, with ten sixes; 37 were hit in the match overall, a record. For Patriots, Evin Lewis responded with the fastest CPL fifty, off 17 balls. Either side of him, Devon Thomas and Laurie Evans made 112 together, off 60 balls. In the end it didn’t matter that Carlos Brathwaite made zero: Patriots won, and the match produced 483 runs between the two teams.
