May 6
1895 - Jockey James “Soup” Perkins guides Halma to a wire-to-wire victory in the Kentucky Derby. The 15-year-old joins fellow African-American jockey Alonzo Clayton as the youngest rider to win the Derby.
1917 - Bob Groom of the Browns duplicates teammate Ernie Koob’s feat of the previous day by pitching a 3-0 no-hit victory against the Chicago White Sox in the second game of a doubleheader in St. Louis.
1973 - The New England Whalers beat the Winnipeg Jets 9-6 to win the first World Hockey Association championship.
1976 - Philadelphia’s Reggie Leach ties an NHL playoff record, scoring five goals in the Flyers’ 6-3 win over the Boston Bruins. Maurice Richard and Darryl Sittler also accomplished the feat.
1978 - Affirmed, ridden by Steve Cauthen, holds off Alydar’s late charge for a 1½-length victory in the Kentucky Derby. This is Affirmed’s easiest race against Alydar en route to the Triple Crown.
1988 - Rick Stiner is 6-for-8 with 11 RBIs and three home runs and Matt Hyde is 6-for-9 with two homers and seven RBIs as Grand Canyon College sets a college scoring record with a 45-15 victory over Denver.
1991 - Sergei Bubka of the Soviet Union breaks his world outdoor pole vault record and Seppo Raty of Finland smashes the world javelin record during the Toto International Super Track and Field Meet in Japan. Bubka clears 19 feet, 11 inches, breaking his outdoor record of 19-10½. Raty hurls the javelin 301 feet, 9 inches, breaking the world record of 298-6 set.
1994 - Lennox Lewis stops Phil Jackson in the eighth round to retain his WBC heavyweight championship in Atlantic City, N.J.
1996 - The Seattle SuperSonics make a playoff-record 20 3-pointers, including 13 in a row, to beat the Houston Rockets 105-101.
1998 - Rookie Kerry Wood ties the major league record with 20 strikeouts in a nine-inning game, pitching a one-hitter to lead the Chicago Cubs over the Houston Astros 2-0.
2001 - Scott Dixon, a 20-year-old rookie, becomes the youngest winner in major open-wheel racing when he holds off Kenny Brack by 0.366 seconds to capture the CART Lehigh Valley Grand Prix.
2005 - Chicago, with a 94-91 loss to Washington, becomes the ninth NBA team to lose a best-of-seven playoff series after winning the first two games.
2006 - Barbaro storms into the lead at the top of the stretch and wins the Kentucky Derby victory convincingly. Barbaro, ridden by Edgar Prado, wins his sixth consecutive race 6½ lengths ahead of Bluegrass Cat and is the sixth undefeated winner of the Derby.
2006 - Phoenix is the eighth team in NBA history to win a series after trailing 3-1 with a 121-90 victory over Los Angeles Lakers in Game 7 of its Western Conference opening-round series.
2010 - Johan Franzen scores a natural hat trick in a 3:26 span of the first period, scores a fourth goal in the third, and sets a Red Wings playoff record with six points as Detroit stays alive with a 7-1 rout of the San Jose Sharks in Game 4 of the Western Conference semifinals.
2011 - James Hylton, at age 76, becomes the oldest driver to make the field in NASCAR’s top three series by qualifying for the Nationwide event at Darlington Raceway. Hylton surpasses his own mark for racing longevity set three years ago when the then-73-year-old started the Nationwide event at Daytona.
2012 - Dustin Brown scores two goals and the eighth-seeded Los Angeles Kings finish an improbable four-game sweep of the St. Louis Blues with a 3-1 victory, advancing to the conference finals. The Kings become the first No. 8 seed in NHL history to eliminate the conference’s top two seeds in the same postseason.
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May 7
1938 - Lawrin, ridden by Eddie Arcaro, wins the Kentucky Derby by one length over Dauber.
1955 - Swaps, ridden by Willie Shoemaker, wins the Kentucky Derby by 1½ lengths over Nashua.
1972 - The Los Angeles Lakers win their first NBA championship with a 114-100 victory over the New York Knicks in Game 5.
1977 - Heavily favored Seattle Slew, ridden by Jean Cruguet, wins the Kentucky Derby by 1¾ lengths over Run Dusty Run.
1982 - A federal jury rules that the NFL violated antitrust laws when it unsuccessfully attempted to prevent the Oakland Raiders from moving to Los Angeles.
1988 - Winning Colors, ridden by Gary Stevens, leads from start to finish to win the Kentucky Derby by a neck, becoming the first roan and the third filly to win the race.
1993 - Wayne Gretzky of the Los Angeles Kings scores his 100th and 101st playoff goals in a 7-4 win over the Vancouver Canucks.
1994 - The Denver Nuggets, with a 98-94 overtime win against the No. 1-seeded Seattle SuperSonics, become the first eighth-seeded playoff team to win a series. The Nuggets come back from an 0-2 deficit in the best-of-5 series.
1995 - Reggie Miller scores eight points in the last 16 seconds to lead the Indiana Pacers to a 107-105 win over the New York Knicks in the second-round opener of the NBA playoffs.
1997 - The Montreal Expos set two National League records by scoring 18 runs in two consecutive innings. The Expos’ 13 runs in the sixth, an NL record, follows a five-run fifth inning as they beat the San Francisco Giants 19-3.
2005 - Giacomo, a 50-1 shot, defies the odds and wins the Kentucky Derby in a gigantic upset, running down a game Afleet Alex in the final strides and generating a huge payoff. Closing Argument, a 70-1 shot, finishes second with Afleet Alex third in the largest Derby field since 20 started in 1984.
2005 - Dallas’ 116-76 victory over Houston is the most lopsided Game 7 score in NBA history. The Mavericks are the third team in playoff history to win a seven-game series after losing the first two games at home.
2006 - Ilya Bryzgalov ties an NHL rookie record with his third consecutive postseason shutout, blanking Colorado 3-0. He matches the record set by Toronto’s Frank McCool, who had three postseason shutouts in a row as a rookie against Detroit in 1945.
2010 - Before a record hockey crowd of 77,803, the United States loses to Germany 2-1 in the opening game of the world ice hockey championships. Felix Schutz scores the winning goal 21 seconds into overtime at Veltins Arena, ordinarily the home of the Schalke soccer team.
2011 - Justin Verlander throws his second career no-hitter, leading the Detroit Tigers to a 9-0 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays. Verlander barely misses a perfect game. The only runner he allows came with one out in the eighth inning when J.P. Arencibia walks on a full count.
2014 - Russell Westbrook has a triple-double, Kevin Durant falls one assist short and the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Los Angeles Clippers 112-101 to tie their Western Conference semifinal series at one win apiece. Westbrook has 31 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists. Durant has 32 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists before leaving the game with 1:21 remaining. It’s the first time in NBA history - regular season or postseason - that a pair of teammates each had at least 30 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists in a game.
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May 8
1915 - Regret, ridden by Joe Notter, becomes the first filly to win the Kentucky Derby, with a 2-length wire-to-wire victory over Pebbles.
1937 - War Admiral, the favorite ridden by Charles Kurtsinger, wins the Kentucky Derby by 1 3/4 lengths over Pompoon.
1943 - Count Fleet, ridden by Johnny Longden, wins the Preakness Stakes by 8 lengths over Blue Swords.
1954 - World record holder William Parry O’Brien becomes the first man to throw the shot put more than 60 feet with a 60-5¼ toss at a meet in Los Angeles.
1968 - Jim “Catfish” Hunter of the Oakland A’s pitches a perfect game, beating the Minnesota Twins 4-0. It is the first perfect game in the American League regular season in 46 seasons.
1970 - Walt Frazier scores 36 points to lead the New York Knicks to a 113-99 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers and the NBA championship in seven games.
1984 - On the day the Olympic torch relay begins, the Soviet Union announces it will not take part in the 1984 Summer Olympics. The Soviet National Olympic Committee Union said the participation of Soviet athletes would be impossible because of “the gross flouting” of Olympic ideals by U.S. authorities.
1993 - Lennox Lewis of Britain scores a unanimous 12-round decision over Tony Tucker in his first defense of the WBC heavyweight title in Las Vegas.
1995 - New Zealand’s Black Magic 1 takes a 2-0 lead, defeating Young America by the widest margin for a challenger since the 1871 America’s Cup.
2001 - Randy Johnson becomes the third pitcher to strike out 20 in nine innings. He doesn’t finish the game as the Arizona Diamondbacks go on to beat Cincinnati 4-3 in 11 innings.
2003 - Minnesota becomes the first team in NHL history to rebound from two 3-1 series deficits to win in one postseason with a 4-2 victory at Vancouver.
2011 - University of Georgia senior Russell Henley becomes the second amateur winner in PGA Nationwide Tour history, shooting a 3-under 68 for a two-stroke victory in the Stadion Classic.
2012 - Josh Hamilton becomes the 16th player to hit four home runs in a game, launching a quartet of two-run drives against three different pitchers to carry the Texas Rangers to a 10-3 victory over the Baltimore Orioles.
2014 - The Houston Texans takes South Carolina defensive end Jadeveon Clowney with the first pick in the NFL draft. The draft’s other big name, Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel, sits until Cleveland makes its third trade of the round and grabs the 2012 Heisman Trophy winner at No. 22.
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