Events in Sports History on August 23

August 31, 2024

August 23 Calendar

Mile World Record

1923 Paavo Nurmi of Finland runs world record for 1 mile of 4:10.4 in Stockholm; record stands until 1931

1926 US National Championship Women's Tennis, Forest Hills, NY: Molla Bjurstedt Mallory beats Elizabeth Ryan 4-6, 6-4, 9-7 for her 8th and final US singles title

1930 US National Championship Women's Tennis, Forest Hills, NY: England's Betty Nuthall Shoemaker beats Anna McCune Harper 6-1, 6-4 for her lone major title

1933 First televised boxing match airs on BBC-TV, a 6-round exhibition at Broadcasting House in London between middleweights Archie Sexton and Laurie Raiteri

Feller's 1st Game

1936 17-year-old Cleveland Indians future Baseball HOF pitcher Bob Feller's first MLB game as a starter; strikes out 15 St Louis Browns in 4-1 win at League Park, Cleveland

Johnson Pitches to Ruth

1942 Walter Johnson pitches to Babe Ruth in pregame attraction that draws 69,000 for NYY-Washington MLB doubleheader at Yankee Stadium; raises $80,000 for Army-Navy relief

1946 13th NFL Chicago All-Star Game: All-Stars 16, Los Angeles 0 (97,380)
1947 1st Baseball Little League World Series, Williamsport, Pennsylvania: Maynard Midgets beat Lock Haven All Stars, 16-7
1953 Cyclist Arie Van Vliet becomes world champion sprinter
1953 Former Boston Braves pitcher Phil Paine becomes first major leaguer to play in Japan; on military service with U.S. Air Force plays first of 9 games for Nishitetsu Lions

1953 Italian Ferrari driver Alberto Ascari clinches his second Formula 1 World Drivers Championship by winning Swiss Grand Prix at Bremgarten

1953 Phil Grate sets record for throwing a baseball (443'3")
1964 St Louis Cardinals are 11 games back in NL; go on win Baseball World Series, 4-3 v New York Yankees
1968 Yanks & Tigers play 3-3 tie in 19 due to 1 AM curfew
1969 Audrey McElmory (US) wins World Cycling Championships, Brno Czechoslovakia
1969 France's Une De Mai wins International Trot at Roosevelt Raceway Czechoslovakia (1st American to win cycling race title since 1912)

Baseball Record

1972 Chicago White Sox Dick Allen is 4th player to homer into Comiskey Park's center field bleachers; previously slugged by only Jimmie Foxx, Hank Greenberg, & Alex Johnson

1974 Zaheer Abbas scores 240 Pakistan v England at The Cricket Oval
1980 Charles O. Finley sells Oakland A's MLB franchise for $12.7m to Walter Haas Jr. (owner and CEO of Levi Strauss)

Baseball History

1982 Seattle Mariner pitcher Gaylord Perry ejected for throwing a spitter

1985 Paul Hornung awarded $1,160,000 by a Louisville court against NCAA who barred him as a college football analyst for betting on games

Boxing History

1988 Mike Tyson and Mitch Green brawl at 4 a.m. in Harlem, NYC

1989 LA Dodgers beat Montreal Expos, 1-0, in 22 innings (Rick Dempsey HR)
1991 3rd Athletics World Championships open at Tokyo, Japan
1992 Dennis Eckersley, who previously set record for most consecutive saves (40), is 1st pitcher to record 40 saves in 4 different seasons

Baseball Record

1993 Fred McGriff and David Justice are the sixth to hit back-to-back home runs twice in the same game

2003 9th Athletics World Championships open at Saint-Denis, France
2004 An American sweep in the 400m medals at the Athens Olympics; Jeremy Wariner gold in 44.00 ahead of Otis Harris and Derrick Brew
2004 Outstanding British athlete Kelly Holmes wins 1st leg of her 800/1,500m double at the Athens Olympics taking the gold medal in 1:56.38
2004 Winning pitcher Lisa Fernadez (4-0) leads the US to the softball gold medal at the Athens Olympics, beating Australia 5-1
2008 Australian diver Matthew Mitcham wins the men's 10m platform gold medal with final dive at the Beijing Olympics; prevents Chinese from winning every diving event; achieves highest score for an individual dive in Olympic history (112.10)

Bekele Double Gold

2008 Ethiopian distance runner Kenenisa Bekele wraps up the 5,000/10,000m double at the Beijing Olympics when he takes gold in the 5k in an Olympic record 12:57.82

2008 Midfielder Ángel Di María scores a 58th minute winner as Argentina beats Nigeria 1-0 to take the men's football gold medal at the Beijing Olympics; 89,102 at the National Stadium

US Women's Basketball Gold

2008 The star-studded American women's basketball team led by the likes of Lisa Leslie, Sue Bird & Diana Taurasi win the gold medal at the Beijing Olympics with a convincing 92-65 win over Australia

2009 Solheim Cup Women's Golf, Rich Harvest Farms: US wins 3rd consecutive Cup 16-12; win 8 of 12 singles to dominate final day
2009 The Tradition Senior Men's Golf, Crosswater Club: Mike Reid wins his second Champions Tour major with birdie on first playoff hole against John Cook

Sports History

2014 Alex Puccio places second in the Boulder World Championship in Munich, Germany

2015 Canadian Open Women's Golf, Vancouver GC: Lydia Ko of New Zealand wins in a playoff with Stacy Lewis for her third success in the event

2015 English Indycar driver Justin Wilson suffers a head injury during a race crash at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pennsylvania
2020 British Open Women's Golf, Royal Troon GC: Sophia Popov of Germany claims her first Tour title by 2 strokes from Thailand's Jasmine Suwannapura; at #304, lowest ranked player to win a major
2020 Indianapolis 500: 2017 champion Takuma Sato of Japan wins his 2nd title under yellow caution flag after a crash with 3 laps remaining

2020 UEFA Champions League Final, Lisbon: Kingsley Coman heads German giants Bayern Munich to the club's 6th crown in a 1-0 win over Paris St-Germain

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