AP Sportlight

April 15

1918 - Babe Ruth pitched a four-hitter for Boston in the season opener and drove in two runs in a 7-1 win over Philadelphia.

1937 - The Detroit Red Wings beat the New York Rangers 3-0 to take the Stanley Cup in the fifth and final game.

1947 - Jackie Robinson plays his first major league game for the Brooklyn Dodgers. He goes 0-for-3, but scores the deciding run in a 5-3 victory over the Boston Braves at Ebbets Field. He is the first black player to appear in the majors since 1884.

1952 - The Detroit Red Wings beat the Montreal Canadiens 3-0 to capture the Stanley Cup. The Red Wings holds the Canadiens to two goals in the four-game sweep.

1984 - Ben Crenshaw wins the Masters by two strokes over Tom Watson.

1991 - Magic Johnson sets an NBA record for career assists in a 112-106 victory over the Dallas Mavericks. Johnson, who needed nine assists to break Oscar Robertson’s record of 9,887, gets 19.

1993 - Sparky Anderson earns his 2,000th victory as a manager, with the Detroit Tigers rallying past the Oakland Athletics 3-2.

1993 - Andre Dawson becomes the 25th player to hit 400 home runs, and the Boston Red Sox beat the Cleveland Indians 4-3.

1995 - Glen Rice scores 56 points to lead the Miami Heat to a 123-117 victory over the Orlando Magic.

1998 - The first AL-NL doubleheader is held in New York’s Shea Stadium. The New York Yankees beat the Anaheim Angels 6-3 and the New York Mets edge the Chicago Cubs 2-1.

2000 - Cal Ripken becomes the 24th player to reach 3,000 hits when he lines a clean single to center off Twins reliever Hector Carrasco. He reaches the milestone with his third hit in a 6-4 victory over the Minnesota Twins and becomes the seventh major leaguer to get 3,000 hits and 400 home runs.

2005 - Top-ranked Roger Federer’s 25-match winning streak ends when French teenager Richard Gasquet saves three match points before capturing a third-set tiebreaker at the Monte Carlo Masters. Federer’s 35-1 record this year is the best start on the men’s tour since John McEnroe was 39-0 in 1984.

2005 - Two-time Olympic champion Steven Lopez of the U.S. wins his third world taekwondo title, capturing the welterweight gold medal with a 3-2 victory over Ali Tajik of Iran.

2007 - Kobe Bryant scores 50 points in the Los Angeles Lakers’ 109-98 win over Seattle, giving him 50 or more for the 10th time this season. It’s the third-highest total in NBA history behind Wilt Chamberlain’s 45 times with 50 or more in 1961-62, and Chamberlain’s 30 times the following season.

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April 16

1940 - Bob Feller of Cleveland defeats the White Sox 1-0 in Chicago the only opening day no-hitter in major league history.

1949 - The Toronto Maple Leafs, with a 3-1 victory, sweep the Detroit Red Wings for the second straight year in the Stanley Cup Final.

1954 - The Detroit Red Wings edge the Montreal Canadiens 2-1 in the seventh game to win the Stanley Cup.

1957 - The Montreal Canadiens beat the Boston Bruins 5-1 to take the Stanley Cup in five games.

1958 - Arnold Palmer edges Doug Ford by one stroke to win the Masters.

1961 - The Chicago Black Hawks win the Stanley Cup in six games with a 5-1 triumph over the Detroit Red Wings.

1987 - Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls scores 61 points in a 117-114 loss to the Atlanta Hawks and becomes the second player to surpass 3,000 points in a season.

1990 - Gelindo Bordin becomes the first Olympic men’s champion to win the Boston Marathon.

1991 - The St. Louis Blues become the eighth team in NHL playoff history to come back from a 3-1 deficit as they beat the Detroit Red Wings 3-2 in the seventh game.

1992 - Brett Hull of the St. Louis Blues becomes the second player with three straight 70-goal seasons. Hull scores his 70th goal in a 5-3 victory over the Minnesota North Stars, joining Wayne Gretzky, who accomplished the feat twice.

1992 - Mike Gartner of the New York Rangers gets his 500th career assist in a 7-1 rout of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Gartner becomes the first NHL player to record his 500th assist, 500th goal, 1,000th point and play in his 1,000th game all in the same season.

1995 - Utah’s Tom Chambers scores 15 points in a 105-83 win over the Los Angeles Clippers to become the 20th NBA player to score 20,000 points.

1997 - The Chicago Cubs set the mark for worst start in National League history, extending their losing streak to 12 with a 4-0 loss to the Colorado Rockies. Chicago breaks the overall NL record of 0-11 by the 1884 Detroit Wolverines.

2003 - The Anaheim Mighty Ducks beat Detroit 3-2 in overtime, making the Red Wings the first defending Stanley Cup winner in 51 years to be swept the following season in a four-game opening series.

2008 - Jason Kidd gets the 100th triple-double of his career with 27 points, 10 assists and 10 rebounds in Dallas’ 111-98 victory over New Orleans.

2008 - Golden State finishes the season at 48-34 after losing to Seattle 126-121. The Warriors have more wins than any team that failed to make the playoffs since the NBA expanded to the 16-team format in 1984. Houston held the previous mark of 45 wins in 2000-01.

2013 - Two bombs explode near Boston Marathon finish line, killing three people and injuring more than 270 in a bloody scene of shattered glass and severed limbs. Earlier in the day, Lelisa Desisa of Ethiopia wins the 117th edition of the marathon and Rita Jeptoo of Kenya wins the women’s race.

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April 17

1939 - Joe Louis knocks out Jack Roper at 2:20 of the first round in Los Angeles to retain the world heavyweight title.

1976 - Mike Schmidt hits four consecutive home runs and drives in eight runs as the Philadelphia Phillies overcome a 13-2 deficit to beat the Cubs 18-16 in 10 innings at Chicago’s Wrigley Field.

1982 - The Denver Nuggets’ Alex English, Dan Issel and Kiki Vandeweghe each average 20 points a game, the first front court to do so since Bob Pettit, Cliff Hagan and Clyde Lovellette of St. Louis in 1961.

1987 - Julius Erving of the Philadelphia 76ers becomes the third player to score 30,000 points in his pro career. Erving scores 38 points to join Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

1994 - Carl Lewis and his Santa Monica Track Club teammates rewrite their world record in the 800-meter relay at the Mt. San Antonio College Relays. Lewis, Mike Marsh, Leroy Burrell and Floyd Heard are timed at 1:18.68, breaking the record of 1:19.11 they had set on April 25, 1992.

1995 - Wayne Gretzky reaches 2,500 career points when he sets up a power-play goal by Rob Blake in Los Angeles’ 5-2 loss to Calgary.

1997 - The New Jersey Devils’ Martin Brodeur becomes the second NHL goalie to score in the playoffs. Brodeur’s empty net goal caps a three-goal third period that gives the Devils a 5-2 win and a 1-0 lead in a first-round series against Montreal.

1999 - Quarterbacks go 1-2-3 in the NFL Draft as Tim Couch, Donovan McNabb and Akili Smith go to Cleveland, Philadelphia and Cincinnati - the first quarterback trifecta since 1971.

2001 - Barry Bonds becomes the 17th major leaguer to hit 500 home runs. Bonds’ two-run, eighth-inning drive off Terry Adams leads the San Francisco Giants over the Los Angeles Dodgers 3-2.

2006 - Sidney Crosby, scores three assists in Pittsburgh’s 6-1 win over the New York Islanders to become the youngest player in NHL history to score 100 points in a season. The 18-year-old becomes the seventh NHL rookie to reach the 100-point mark.

2010 - Ubaldo Jimenez pitches the first no-hitter in the Colorado Rockies’ 18-year history, dominating the Atlanta Braves in a 4-0 victory.

2011 - Jimmie Johnson wins the Aaron’s 499, edging Clint Bowyer by about a foot. The official margin of 0.002 seconds, ties for the closest finish in NASCAR Sprint Cup history.

2018 - Brayden McNabb scores against his former team in the second period, lifting Vegas to a 1-0 victory over the Los Angeles Kings that makes the Golden Knights the first expansion team in NHL history to sweep its first playoff series. Marc-Andre Fleury turns in another stellar performance, stopping 31 shots as the Knights finish off their fourth one-goal victory of the series.

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