July 20
1858 — Fans are charged for the first time to see a baseball game. Approximately 1,500 fans pay 50 cents to see the New York All-Stars beat Brooklyn 22-18 at Fashion Race Course on Long Island.
1958 — The PGA championship calls for medal play for the first time and Dow Finsterwald beats Billy Casper.
1963 — Mary Mills wins the U.S. Women’s Open golf championship by three strokes over Sandra Palmer and Louise Suggs.
1974 — Carl Rosen’s Chris Evert beats Miss Musket by 50 lengths in the winner-take-all match race at Hollywood Park.
1975 — Sandra Palmer wins the U.S. Women’s Open golf championship by four strokes over Nancy Lopez, Joanne Carner and Sandra Post.
1980 — Tom Watson wins the British Open by four strokes over Lee Trevino. Watson shoots a 13-under 271 at Muirfield Golf Links at Gullane, Scotland. Watson becomes the fourth American to win three Open titles, joining Walter Hagen, Bobby Jones and Jack Nicklaus.
1997 — Justin Leonard closes with a 65 to win the British Open at 12-under 272 at Royal Troon. Leonard, whose closing round is one of the best in major championship history, takes the lead from Jesper Parnevik with a birdie on No. 17.
2002 — Tiger Woods, trying to win the third leg of the Grand Slam, shoots his worst round (81) as a professional, knocking himself out of contention.
2008 — Padraig Harrington is the first European in more than a century to win golf’s oldest championship two years in a row. Harrington pulls away from mistake-prone Greg Norman and holds off a late charge by Ian Poulter for a four-shot victory in the British Open.
2009 — Lauren Lappin homers to start a three-run rally in the third inning, and the United States beats Australia 3-1 in the World Cup of Softball championship game at Oklahoma City.
2013 — China’s Wu Minxia and Shi Tingmao wins the first diving gold medal at the world championships in Barcelona, Spain. Wu earns a record sixth world title in the women’s 3-meter synchronized springboard.
2014 — Rory McIlroy completes a wire-to-wire victory in the British Open to capture the third leg of the career Grand Slam. McIlroy closes with a 1-under 71 for a two-shot victory over Sergio Garcia and Rickie Fowler. McIlroy, winner of the 2011 U.S. Open and the 2012 PGA Championship, joins Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods as the only players with three different majors at age 25 or younger.
2015 — Zach Johnson rolls in a 30-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole and outlasts Louis Oosthuizen and Marc Leishman in a three-man playoff to win the British Open. Jordan Spieth, looking to win his third straight major, falls one shot short of joining the playoff.
July 21
1876 — Princeton takes the team championship in the first IC4A (Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes Association) track and field meet.
1957 — Lionel Herbert wins the PGA championship with a 2-1 final round victory over Dow Finsterwald.
1963 — Jack Nicklaus wins the PGA championship by two strokes over Dave Ragan to become the fourth golfer to win the three major United States titles.
1968 — Arnold Palmer becomes the first PGA golfer to earn $1 million over his career despite losing by one stroke to Julius Boros in the PGA championship.
1974 — Sandra Haynie edges Carol Mann and Beth Stone by one stroke to win the U.S. Women’s Open championship.
1979 — Spain’s Seve Ballesteros captures the British Open by three strokes over Ben Crenshaw and Jack Nicklaus.
1985 — John Henry, the greatest money winner in horse racing history, is retired. The 10-year-old won 39 races in 83 starts and earned $6,597,947 in total purses.
1985 — Sandy Lyle wins the British Open by one stroke over Payne Stewart.
1989 — Mike Tyson knocks down Carl “The Truth” Williams with a left hook and stops him 93 seconds into the first round of his heavyweight title defense. It is the fifth shortest heavyweight title fight in history.
1996 — Tom Lehman shoots a final-round 73 for a 72-hole total of 13-under 271 to win the British Open, two strokes better than Ernie Els and Mark McCumber.
2002 — Ernie Els squanders a three-stroke lead but outlasts Thomas Levet of France to win a four-man playoff that produces the first sudden-death finish in the 142-year history of the British Open.
2007 — Bernard Hopkins, in the twilight of his fighting days, ends Winky Wright’s 7 1/2-year unbeaten streak with a unanimous decision in their 170-pound bout in Las Vegas.
2009 — China’s Guo Jingjing easily wins her fifth straight world championship in 3-meter springboard. She captured her first springboard world title in 2001, and hasn’t lost since in the every-other-year competition.
2013 — Phil Mickelson wins his first British Open title with a spectacular finish. He birdies four of the last six holes for a 5-under 66 to match the best round of the tournament.
2013 — Britain’s Chris Froome wins the 100th Tour de France, having dominated rivals over three weeks. He rides into Paris wearing the yellow jersey he took in Stage 8 in the Pyrenees and never relinquished.
July 22
1921 — Jim Barnes wins the U.S. Men’s Open golf championship by edging Walter Hagen, Leo Diegel, Jock Hutchinson and Fred McLeod.
1962 — Gary Player of South Africa becomes the first nonresident of the United States to win the PGA championship.
1963 — Sonny Liston knocks out Floyd Patterson in 2 minutes, 10 seconds of the first round to retain the world heavyweight title. Liston took the title from Patterson with a first-round knockout in Chicago on Sept. 25, 1962.
1973 — Sue Berning wins the U.S. Women’s Open golf championship for the third time with a five-stroke victory over Gloria Ahret.
1984 — Kathy Whitworth becomes the all-time winner in professional golf tournaments by capturing the Rochester Open. Whitworth, with 85 career wins, passes Sam Snead’s total of 84 PGA tournament victories.
1984 — Seve Ballesteros wins the British Open with a four-round 276, breaking the course record set by Ken Nagle in 1960 by two strokes. Tom Watson and Bernhard Langer finish two strokes behind.
1990 — Nick Faldo wins his second British Open in four years, defeating Payne Stewart and Mark McNulty by five strokes.
1990 — American Greg LeMond wins his second straight Tour de France. LeMond, a three-time winner, does not win an individual stage in the 21-stage race. Italy’s Claudio Chiappucci, the leader two days earlier, finishes second, 2:16 behind.
1996 — Naim Suleymanoglu of Turkey becomes first Olympic weightlifter to win three gold medals. Suleymanoglu takes the 141-pound division by hoisting 413 1/4 pounds.
1998 — Jackie Joyner-Kersee ends her brilliant heptathlon career with a victory at the Goodwill Games. It’s her fourth consecutive Goodwill title. Earlier, the 4×400-meter relay world record of 2:54.29, set by the 1993 U.S. world championship team, is broken. Michael Johnson, the anchor on that 1993 team, anchors this team to a finish of 2:54.20.
2001 — David Duval shoots a 4-under 67 at Royal Lytham & St. Annes to win the British Open title, his first major championship. He beats Sweden’s Niclas Fasth by three strokes.
2012 — Bradley Wiggins becomes the first British cyclist to win the Tour de France by protecting the yellow jersey during the final processional ride into Paris. Fellow Briton and Sky teammate Christopher Froome finishes second, 3 minutes, 21 seconds behind.
2012 — Ernie Els wins his fourth major championship, rallying to beat Adam Scott in the British Open when the Aussie bogeys the last four holes. Els starts the final round six shots behind and completes a flawless back nine with a 15-foot birdie putt for a 2-under 68. Scott was four shots ahead with four holes to play.
2013 — Ryan Braun, the 2011 National League MVP, is suspended for the rest of the season and the postseason, the start of sanctions involving players reportedly tied to a Florida clinic accused of distributing performance-enhancing drugs.
2017 — Branden Grace sets the scoring mark in majors with a 62 in the British Open at Royal Birkdale, the lowest round in 442 major championships.
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