History of sport timeline
The first Olympics, famous finals, records and the birth of the games we play.
206 events, oldest first.
Timeline of History of sport
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776 BC
The first recorded ancient Olympic Games
The only event was a sprint of about 192 metres, won by a cook named Coroebus.
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1457
Golf is banned in Scotland
King James II banned it because it distracted men from archery practice.
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1743
Jack Broughton writes boxing's first rules
Broughton also popularised padded gloves, called 'mufflers', for sparring.
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1776
The St Leger, the oldest classic horse race, is first run
It was first run in the same year as the American Declaration of Independence.
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1780
The first Derby is run at Epsom
It's named after the Earl of Derby, who reportedly won a coin toss against Sir Charles Bunbury.
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1787
The Marylebone Cricket Club is founded
The MCC still writes the Laws of Cricket.
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1814
Lord's cricket ground opens on its current site
Thomas Lord moved his turf to the new ground twice.
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1829
The first Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race
It was started by two school friends, one at each university.
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1839
The first official Grand National is run
The winner was a horse named Lottery.
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1851
The first America's Cup race
The schooner America beat 15 British yachts in a race around the Isle of Wight.
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1860
The first Open Championship in golf
It was played over three rounds of Prestwick's 12-hole course in a single day.
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1861
The first Melbourne Cup
Australians call it 'the race that stops a nation'.
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1863
Pierre de Coubertin is born
He revived the Olympics partly to improve French physical education.
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1863
The Football Association writes its first rules
The original FA laws still allowed players to catch the ball.
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1864
The first Wisden Cricketers' Almanack
Cricket's 'bible' has been published every year since.
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1867
The Queensberry Rules of boxing are published
They introduced three-minute rounds and compulsory gloves.
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1869
The first professional baseball team takes the field
The Cincinnati Red Stockings went unbeaten in their first season.
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1871
The first rugby international
Scotland beat England in Edinburgh.
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1871
The Rugby Football Union is founded
It was founded by 21 clubs at the Pall Mall Restaurant near Trafalgar Square.
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1872
The first FA Cup final
The Wanderers beat the Royal Engineers 1-0 at Kennington Oval.
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1872
The first international football match
Scotland and England drew 0-0 in Glasgow.
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1875
Snooker is invented by British officers in India
Army officer Neville Chamberlain is credited with devising it.
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1875
The first Kentucky Derby
It has been run every year since, even through both World Wars.
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1877
The first Test cricket match
Australia won, and won again by the same margin at the centenary Test in 1977.
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1877
The first Wimbledon Championships
About 200 spectators paid a shilling each to watch Spencer Gore win the first final.
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1882
The Ashes cricket rivalry gets its name
A mock obituary said English cricket would be cremated and 'the ashes taken to Australia'.
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1883
The first Home Nations rugby championship
It eventually grew into today's Six Nations.
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1884
The first women's Wimbledon championship
Maud Watson beat her own sister Lilian in the final.
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1884
The Gaelic Athletic Association is founded
It was founded in the billiard room of a hotel in Thurles.
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1888
The first English Football League season
Preston North End won it without losing a single game.
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1891
Basketball is invented
James Naismith's first game used peach baskets, so the ball had to be fetched out by hand.
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1893
The Stanley Cup is first awarded
Lord Stanley paid ten guineas for it, and never saw a final himself.
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1894
The International Olympic Committee is founded
It was set up at a congress in Paris organised by Pierre de Coubertin.
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1895
W. G. Grace scores his 100th first-class century
He was 46 at the time and went on playing for another decade.
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1896
The first modern Olympic Games
The first modern Games were held in Athens, with athletes from 14 nations.
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1897
The first Boston Marathon
It is the world's oldest annual marathon.
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1900
Croquet's only Olympic appearance
All the players were French, and one event reportedly drew a single paying spectator.
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1900
The first Davis Cup
Harvard student Dwight Davis donated the trophy.
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1900
Women compete at the Olympics for the first time
Tennis player Charlotte Cooper became the first individual female Olympic champion.
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1902
The first Rose Bowl game
Michigan won 49-0, and the next game wasn't played until 1916.
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1903
The first Tour de France
Only 21 of the 60 starters finished the gruelling 2,428 km race.
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1903
The first World Series
Boston beat Pittsburgh in a best-of-nine series.
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1904
FIFA is founded
Its seven founding members were all European.
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1905
The All Blacks' first tour of Britain
The team won 34 of 35 matches, losing only to Wales.
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1907
The first Isle of Man TT motorcycle race is held
Riders were allowed to pedal as well as use their engines, and the winner averaged under 40 mph.
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1908
Jack Johnson becomes heavyweight champion
He was the first Black world heavyweight boxing champion.
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1908
The London Olympic marathon is run over 26.2 miles
The odd distance came from the route, from Windsor Castle to the royal box, and became the standard in 1921.
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1909
The first Giro d'Italia
The leader's pink jersey matches the pink pages of the newspaper that founded the race.
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1911
The first Indianapolis 500
Winner Ray Harroun used one of the first rear-view mirrors fitted to a car.
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1912
Art medals are awarded at the Olympics
Painting, music and literature were Olympic events until 1948.
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1912
Jim Thorpe wins Olympic pentathlon and decathlon
Sweden's king reportedly told him, 'You, sir, are the greatest athlete in the world.'
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1919
Sir Barton becomes the first Triple Crown winner
Nobody called it the Triple Crown at the time; the phrase only caught on in the 1930s.
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1920
The League of Nations is founded
The United States, whose president had proposed it, never joined.
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1920
The NFL is founded
It was founded at a car showroom in Canton, Ohio.
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1920
The Olympic flag flies at the Games
Each of its five rings has a colour found in many national flags.
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1920
The Yankees buy Babe Ruth from Boston
Boston fans blamed the sale for an 86-year World Series drought.
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1920
Tug of war's last Olympic contest
Tug of war was an Olympic sport for five Games; Britain won it twice.
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1923
The first Le Mans 24 Hours
It was won by a French Chenard & Walcker car.
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1923
Wembley hosts its first FA Cup final
In the 'White Horse Final', a police horse helped clear the crowd off the pitch.
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1924
Eric Liddell wins Olympic 400 metres gold
He had refused to run his best event, the 100 metres, because the heats were held on a Sunday.
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1924
Johnny Weissmuller wins Olympic swimming golds
The Olympic champion went on to play Tarzan in Hollywood.
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1924
Paavo Nurmi wins five Olympic golds
The 'Flying Finn' won two of them within an hour.
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1924
The first Cheltenham Gold Cup steeplechase
It was won by a horse called Red Splash.
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1924
The first Winter Olympics
Held in Chamonix, France, they were originally billed as 'International Winter Sports Week'.
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1926
Gertrude Ederle swims the English Channel
She was the first woman to do it, and beat the men's record by around two hours.
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1927
Babe Ruth hits 60 home runs in a season
His record stood for 34 years.
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1927
The first Ryder Cup
It is named after Samuel Ryder, an English seed merchant.
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1927
The Harlem Globetrotters play their first game
Despite the name, the team was formed in Chicago.
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1928
Sonja Henie wins her first Olympic gold
The Norwegian figure skater was only 15.
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1929
The first Monaco Grand Prix
Winner William Grover-Williams later became a British secret agent in the Second World War.
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1930
The first British Empire Games
They were held in Hamilton, Canada, and are now the Commonwealth Games.
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1930
The first FIFA World Cup
Only 13 teams took part, and the hosts Uruguay won.
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1932
Babe Didrikson wins two Olympic golds
She also became one of the greatest golfers of her era.
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1933
Baseball's first All-Star Game is played
Babe Ruth hit the game's first home run, and the event was meant to be a one-off for the Chicago World's Fair.
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1934
The first Masters golf tournament
Augusta's famous green jacket wasn't given to winners until 1949.
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1935
Jesse Owens breaks three world records in 45 minutes
He also tied a fourth, despite an injured back so painful that he could barely bend over before the meet.
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1936
Jesse Owens wins four Olympic golds in Berlin
His triumph at Hitler's Olympics undercut Nazi propaganda about racial superiority.
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1936
The first Olympic torch relay
It was devised for the Berlin Games and has been part of the Olympics ever since.
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1938
Joe Louis knocks out Max Schmeling
The rematch lasted just over two minutes.
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1939
Lou Gehrig's 'luckiest man' speech
He gave it at Yankee Stadium weeks after being diagnosed with ALS.
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1941
Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak
It is still Major League Baseball's record.
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1943
A professional women's baseball league is founded
The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League later inspired the film A League of Their Own.
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1946
The NBA's first game is played
It was played in Toronto, between the Huskies and the New York Knicks.
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1947
Jackie Robinson breaks baseball's colour line
Every MLB player now wears his number 42 on Jackie Robinson Day.
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1948
Don Bradman plays his final Test innings
Out for a duck, he finished with a batting average of 99.94.
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1948
Fanny Blankers-Koen wins four Olympic golds
The Dutch mother of two was nicknamed 'the Flying Housewife'.
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1949
NASCAR holds its first top-level race
The driver who crossed the line first was disqualified for illegally modified rear springs, a moonshiners' trick.
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1950
The first Formula One world championship race
It was held at Silverstone, with King George VI watching.
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1950
Uruguay stuns Brazil in the Maracanã
Brazilians still call the shock defeat the 'Maracanazo'.
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1952
Emil Zátopek wins three Olympic distance golds
He won the marathon at his first attempt at the distance.
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1953
Hungary thrashes England 6-3 at Wembley
It was England's first home defeat by a team from outside the British Isles.
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1954
Roger Bannister runs the first four-minute mile
He was a medical student and trained in his lunch breaks.
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1954
West Germany wins the 'Miracle of Bern'
They beat a Hungary side that had thrashed them 8-3 earlier in the tournament.
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1956
The first European Cup
Real Madrid won the first five tournaments.
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1957
Althea Gibson becomes the first Black Wimbledon champion
She later turned to golf and became the first Black woman to play on the LPGA tour.
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1958
Pelé wins his first World Cup
Aged 17, he is still the youngest player ever to score in a World Cup final.
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1958
The Brooklyn Dodgers move to Los Angeles
They had won their first World Series only three years earlier.
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1959
The first Daytona 500
The result took three days to confirm from photographs.
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1960
Abebe Bikila wins the Olympic marathon barefoot
He ran through the streets of Rome without shoes.
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1960
The first Paralympic Games
They grew out of a sports event for injured Second World War veterans at Stoke Mandeville.
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1962
Brazil wins its second straight World Cup
With Pelé injured early in the tournament, Garrincha carried the team and finished as joint top scorer.
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1962
Wilt Chamberlain scores 100 points in a game
No TV cameras recorded the record-breaking game.
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1964
Cassius Clay wins his first world heavyweight title
He beat Sonny Liston and soon afterwards changed his name to Muhammad Ali.
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1966
England wins the football World Cup
Months earlier the trophy was stolen - and found under a hedge by a dog named Pickles.
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1967
Celtic win the European Cup
Every player in the team was born within about 50 km of Glasgow.
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1967
Kathrine Switzer runs the Boston Marathon
She entered as 'K.V. Switzer', and a race official tried to drag her off the course mid-race.
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1967
The first Super Bowl
Even with tickets priced at $6 to $12, about a third of the seats were empty.
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1968
Bob Beamon's long jump stuns the Olympics
He jumped 8.90 metres, beating the world record by 55 cm.
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1968
Manchester United win the European Cup
They won it ten years after the Munich air disaster.
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1968
Mexico City hosts the Olympics
It was the first Olympics held in Latin America.
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1968
The Black Power salute at the Olympics
Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised gloved fists on the podium in Mexico City.
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1968
The Fosbury Flop wins Olympic gold
Dick Fosbury's backwards technique took over high jumping within a decade.
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1969
Pelé scores his 1,000th goal
He scored it from a penalty at the Maracanã.
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1970
Brazil wins its third World Cup
Brazil kept the Jules Rimet trophy, which was later stolen and never recovered.
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1971
Alan Shepard plays golf on the Moon
He hit two balls with a club head attached to a sample-collecting tool.
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1971
The first one-day international cricket match
It was arranged after rain washed out a Test in Melbourne.
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1972
Bobby Fischer becomes world chess champion
His Cold War match against Boris Spassky in Reykjavik was front-page news worldwide.
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1972
Mark Spitz wins seven Olympic golds
His record stood until Michael Phelps won eight in 2008.
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1973
Billie Jean King wins the 'Battle of the Sexes'
Around 90 million people watched her beat Bobby Riggs.
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1973
Secretariat wins the Triple Crown
He won the Belmont Stakes by 31 lengths.
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1973
The first Iditarod sled dog race
The winner took about 20 days to cross Alaska.
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1974
Ali and Foreman fight the Rumble in the Jungle
Ali used his 'rope-a-dope' tactic to tire out George Foreman.
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1974
Hank Aaron breaks Babe Ruth's home run record
Aaron received bags of hate mail during the chase, but kept going.
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1974
Johan Cruyff shows off the 'Cruyff turn'
He first used it at the World Cup against Sweden.
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1975
Ali and Frazier fight the Thrilla in Manila
Fought in sweltering heat, it ended when Frazier's trainer stopped the bout before the final round.
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1975
Arthur Ashe wins Wimbledon
He was the first Black man to win the men's singles title.
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1975
The first Cricket World Cup
The West Indies won the first final at Lord's.
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1976
Nadia Comăneci scores the first perfect 10
The scoreboard could only show 1.00, as no one had expected a 10.
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1976
The first Winter Paralympics
They were held in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden.
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1977
Kerry Packer launches World Series Cricket
The breakaway series popularised coloured clothing, white balls and day-night matches.
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1977
Red Rum wins his third Grand National
He trained on the sands of Southport beach.
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1978
The first Ironman triathlon
Only 15 people started the race in Hawaii.
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1980
Björn Borg wins his fifth straight Wimbledon
His final against John McEnroe included a famous 18-16 tie-break.
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1980
The Miracle on Ice
A team of US college players beat the Soviet Union's Olympic ice hockey team.
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1981
Ian Botham inspires a famous Ashes comeback
Bookmakers had offered 500-1 against England winning the Headingley Test.
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1981
The first London Marathon
The two leading men crossed the line holding hands.
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1983
Australia II wins the America's Cup
It ended the longest winning streak in sport: 132 years of American victories.
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1984
Carl Lewis wins four Olympic golds
He matched Jesse Owens's haul from 1936.
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1984
Torvill and Dean's perfect Boléro
Every judge gave them a 6.0 for artistic impression.
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1985
Boris Becker becomes the youngest Wimbledon men's champion
He was unseeded, just 17, and the first German to win the men's singles title.
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1986
Jack Nicklaus wins his sixth Masters
At 46, he became the oldest Masters champion.
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1986
Maradona's 'Hand of God' goal
Four minutes later, he scored what was later voted the Goal of the Century.
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1986
Mike Tyson becomes the youngest heavyweight champion
He won the title aged 20.
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1987
The first Rugby World Cup
New Zealand won the first tournament, which it co-hosted with Australia.
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1988
Ayrton Senna wins his first F1 title
He won eight races that season.
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1988
Ben Johnson is stripped of Olympic gold
He tested positive for steroids days after winning the 100 m in Seoul.
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1988
Jamaica's bobsleigh team makes its debut
Their story inspired the film Cool Runnings.
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1988
Steffi Graf wins tennis's Golden Slam
She won all four majors and Olympic gold in one year, a feat no other singles player has matched.
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1990
Buster Douglas knocks out Mike Tyson
Douglas was a 42-to-1 underdog when he floored the unbeaten champion in Tokyo.
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1990
Martina Navratilova wins her ninth Wimbledon singles title
It is still the record for Wimbledon singles titles.
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1991
Michael Jordan wins his first NBA title
His Chicago Bulls beat Magic Johnson's Los Angeles Lakers in the final.
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1991
The first Women's World Cup
Held in China, it was won by the United States.
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1992
Pakistan win the Cricket World Cup
Captain Imran Khan told his struggling side to fight "like cornered tigers"; he later became prime minister.
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1992
The basketball Dream Team plays at the Olympics
The US team of NBA stars won its games by an average of almost 44 points.
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1993
Shane Warne bowls the 'Ball of the Century'
It was his very first ball in an Ashes Test.
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1994
Brian Lara scores a record 375 in a Test match
Weeks later he scored 501 not out for Warwickshire, another world record.
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1995
South Africa win the Rugby World Cup
Nelson Mandela presented the trophy wearing a Springbok shirt.
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1996
Muhammad Ali lights the Olympic cauldron
His role in Atlanta was kept secret until he appeared, trembling from Parkinson's, torch in hand.
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1997
Tiger Woods wins his first Masters
Aged just 21, he won by a record 12 strokes.
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1998
France win the World Cup on home soil
Zinedine Zidane headed two goals in the 3–0 final win over Brazil.
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1998
Michael Jordan wins his sixth NBA title
He was named finals MVP all six times.
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1999
Manchester United win the Treble
They won the Champions League final with two stoppage-time goals against Bayern Munich.
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1999
Serena Williams wins her first Grand Slam title
She won the US Open aged 17.
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2000
Cathy Freeman wins Olympic 400 m gold
She had lit the Olympic flame at the opening ceremony.
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2000
Steve Redgrave wins a fifth Olympic gold
He won golds at five Games in a row.
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2001
Goran Ivanišević wins Wimbledon as a wildcard
Ranked 125th in the world, he is still the only wildcard to win a Wimbledon singles title.
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2002
Brazil win a record fifth World Cup
Ronaldo scored both goals in the final against Germany in Yokohama.
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2003
England win the Rugby World Cup
Jonny Wilkinson's drop goal won it in the final minute of extra time.
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2003
Roger Federer wins his first Wimbledon
He went on to win a record eight Wimbledon men's titles.
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2004
Greece win the European Championship
Long-shot outsiders, they beat hosts Portugal in both the opening game and the final.
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2005
Fernando Alonso becomes F1's youngest champion
His title ended Michael Schumacher's run of five world championships in a row.
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2006
Zidane is sent off in the World Cup final
It was the last match of his career, and Italy went on to win on penalties.
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2007
India win the first T20 World Cup
During the tournament Yuvraj Singh hit six sixes in a single over against England.
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2007
The new Wembley Stadium opens
Its 315-metre arch is the world's longest single-span roof structure, rising 133 metres above the pitch.
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2008
Lewis Hamilton wins his first F1 title
He clinched it on the final corner of the final race.
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2008
Michael Phelps wins eight golds at one Games
He broke Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals at a single Olympics.
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2008
Nadal beats Federer in an epic Wimbledon final
The match lasted nearly five hours and finished in near darkness after rain delays.
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2009
Roger Federer finally wins the French Open
The win completed his career Grand Slam and equalled Pete Sampras's record of 14 major titles.
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2009
Usain Bolt runs 100 metres in 9.58 seconds
His top speed during the race was about 44.7 km/h.
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2010
Isner and Mahut play an 11-hour Wimbledon match
Spread over three days, the final set alone ended 70–68.
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2010
Spain win their first World Cup
It was the first time a European team won the World Cup outside Europe.
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2011
India win the Cricket World Cup on home soil
Captain MS Dhoni sealed the final in Mumbai with a six.
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2012
Bradley Wiggins wins the Tour de France
He was the first British winner, and took Olympic time-trial gold ten days later.
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2012
London hosts its third Summer Olympics
London became the first city to host the Summer Games three times.
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2012
Sachin Tendulkar scores his 100th international century
No other player has scored 100 international centuries.
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2013
Andy Murray wins Wimbledon
He was the first British man to win the singles title since Fred Perry.
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2013
Sir Alex Ferguson retires from Manchester United
He won 38 trophies in more than 26 years in charge.
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2014
Germany beat Brazil 7–1 at the World Cup
Germany scored four goals in about six minutes, and Miroslav Klose became the top World Cup scorer.
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2015
Japan stun South Africa at the Rugby World Cup
Before the 'Brighton Miracle', Japan had won only one World Cup match in their history.
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2016
Leicester City win the Premier League
Bookmakers had offered odds of 5,000-1 against them.
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2016
Rio de Janeiro hosts South America's first Olympics
A Refugee Olympic Team competed for the first time, with ten athletes.
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2016
The Chicago Cubs win the World Series after 108 years
Their long drought spawned the 'Curse of the Billy Goat', blamed on a tavern owner whose goat was turned away from a game.
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2018
France win the World Cup in Russia
Didier Deschamps became only the third man to win it as both player and coach.
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2019
Eliud Kipchoge runs a marathon in under two hours
The run was not an official record because of pacers and other aids.
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2019
England win the Cricket World Cup on boundary count
Both the final and the Super Over were tied, so England won on boundaries scored.
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2021
Italy beat England at Wembley to win the Euros
The tournament kept its original name even though it was played a year late, and Italy won the final on penalties.
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2021
Max Verstappen wins his first F1 world title
He passed Lewis Hamilton on the final lap of the final race in Abu Dhabi.
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2021
Tokyo hosts the delayed Olympics without spectators
Its medals were made from metal recycled from millions of donated old phones and gadgets.
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2022
Argentina wins the World Cup in Qatar
The final against France ended 3-3 before Argentina won on penalties.
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2023
Lionel Messi joins Inter Miami
He scored a stoppage-time free-kick winner on his debut.
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2023
Spain win the Women's World Cup
Spain became only the second country, after Germany, to win both the men's and women's World Cups.
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2024
Paris opens the Olympics with a parade on the Seine
Athletes sailed along the river on boats instead of marching into a stadium.
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2025
India win the Women's Cricket World Cup
India beat South Africa in the final in Navi Mumbai to claim their first world title.
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2025
Paris Saint-Germain win their first Champions League
They beat Inter Milan 5-0, the biggest winning margin in a European Cup final.
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2026
Milan and Cortina host the Winter Olympics
Norway topped the medal table with 18 golds, while the US set a record with 12.
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2026
Spain beat Argentina in the World Cup final
It was the first World Cup with 48 teams, hosted across the USA, Canada and Mexico.
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