AP Sportlight

July 4

1910 - Jack Johnson knocks out Jim Jeffries in the 15th round at Reno, Nev., to retain the world heavyweight title and spoil Jeffries’ comeback.

1914 - The Harvard eight wins the Grand Challenge Cup to become the first American crew to capture the top event at the Henley Royal Regatta.

1919 - Jack Dempsey wins the world heavyweight title at Toledo, Ohio, when Jess Willard fails to answer the bell for the fourth round.

1923 - Jack Dempsey beats Tommy Gibbon in 15 for the heavyweight title. The fight almost bankrupts the town of Shelby, Montana, which borrowed heavily to stage it.

1930 - Helen Wills Moody wins her fourth straight singles title at Wimbledon with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Elizabeth Ryan. Moody would go on to win four more Wimbledon singles titles.

1964 - Maria Bueno of Brazil upsets Margaret Smith of Australia 6-4, 7-9, 6-3 for the women’s title at Wimbledon.

1975 - Billie Jean King beats Evonne Goolagong, 6-0, 6-1 for her sixth and final singles title at Wimbledon.

1982 - Jimmy Connors beats John McEnroe 3-6, 6-3, 6-7, 7-6, 6-4 for the men’s singles championship at Wimbledon. The match lasts 4 hours, 16 minutes.

1987 - Martina Navratilova wins her eighth Wimbledon singles title and sixth straight, beating Steffi Graf 7-5, 6-3.

1999 - Pete Sampras overwhelms Andre Agassi in three sets to capture his sixth Wimbledon title and tie Roy Emerson’s record with his 12th Grand Slam championship. Sampras is the first man in the Open era with six Wimbledon titles.

2004 - Meg Mallon wins the Women’s U.S. Open with a 6-under 65, the lowest final round by a champion in the 59-year history of the tournament. Mallon finishes at 10-under 274 for a two-shot victory over Annika Sorenstam.

2008 - Dara Torres completes her improbable Olympic comeback, making the U.S. team for the fifth time by winning the 100 freestyle at the U.S. Olympic trials in Omaha, Neb. The 41-year-old wins in 54.78. A nine-time medalist, she already was the first U.S. swimmer to make four Olympic teams.

2009 - Serena Williams beats her big sister Venus 7-6 (3), 6-2 for her third Wimbledon title and 11th Grand Slam championship.

2010 - Rafael Nadal beats Tomas Berdych in straight sets, 6-3, 7-5, 6-4, to win his second Wimbledon title and eighth Grand Slam championship.

2011 - Tyler Farrar becomes the first American to win a July 4 Tour de France stage, dominating a sprint finish in the third leg as teammate Thor Hushovd of Norway kept the yellow jersey.

2014 - Germany becomes the first country to reach the semifinals for a fourth straight World Cup by beating France 1-0 in a quarterfinal match settled by a first-half header from Mats Hummels.

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July 5

1947 - Larry Doby becomes the first black player in the American League. He strikes out as a pinch-hitter for the Cleveland Indians in a 6-5 loss to the Chicago White Sox.

1952 - Maureen Connolly wins her first of three straight women’s singles title at Wimbledon, defeating Louise Brough 6-4, 6-3.

1968 - The Philadelphia 76ers trade Wilt Chamberlain, basketball’s greatest offensive player, to the Los Angeles Lakers after they are unable to sign him.

1968 - Australia’s Rod Laver wins the first open Wimbledon tennis championship, defeating countryman Tony Roche 6-3, 6-4, 6-2. Laver becomes the first player since Fred Perry (1934-36) to win the men’s title three straight times.

1980 - Bjorn Borg of Sweden wins his fifth men’s title at Wimbledon, defeating John McEnroe 1-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-7, 8-6.

1992 - Andre Agassi beats Goran Ivanisevic 6-7 (8-10), 6-4, 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 in the Wimbledon final for his first Grand Slam title.

1993 - Rickey Henderson of the Oakland Athletics opens both games of a doubleheader with a homer, the first player to do so in 60 years.

1996 - Frankie Fredericks edges Michael Johnson to win the men’s 200 meters at the Bislett Games in Norway, ending the American world champion’s winning streak of 21 races.

1997 - Martina Hingis, 16, becomes the youngest Wimbledon champion since 1887. Hingis rallies for a 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory over Jana Novotna.

2003 - Serena Williams beats sister Venus 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 for her second straight Wimbledon title. It’s her fifth championship in the past six Grand Slams, each capped by a victory over Venus.

2008 - Venus Williams wins her fifth Wimbledon singles title, defeating younger sister Serena Williams 7-5, 6-4 in the final.

2009 - Roger Federer wins his record 15th Grand Slam title when he outlasts Andy Roddick for his sixth Wimbledon championship in a marathon match. Federer serves 50 aces and overcomes the resilient Roddick 5-7, 7-6 (6), 7-6 (5), 3-6, 16-14 to break the record of major titles he shared with Pete Sampras.

2012 - Harness racing driver Dave Palone breaks Herve Filion’s North American record for career victories when he pilots Herculotte Hanover to victory in the eighth race at The Meadows in Washington, Pa. The win is the 15,181st of Palone’s 30-year career.

2014 - Petra Kvitova overwhelms Eugenie Bouchard 6-3, 6-0 in less than an hour to win Wimbledon for the second time.

2015 - The United States wins its third Women’s World Cup title and first since 1999 with a 5-2 victory over Japan behind a first-half hat trick by Carli Lloyd.

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July 6

1887 - Lottie Dod of Britain, 15, becomes the youngest woman to win the women’s singles championship at Wimbledon, defeating Blanch Bingley 6-2, 6-0.

1933 - The first major league All-Star game is played at Comiskey Park, Chicago. The American League beats the National League 4-2 on Babe Ruth’s two-run homer.

1957 - Althea Gibson becomes the first black to win a title at the All England Lawn Tennis Club by beating Darlene Hard 6-3, 6-2 in the women’s singles title match.

1968 - Billie Jean King wins her third consecutive women’s singles title at Wimbledon by beating Australia’s Judy Tegart 9-7, 7-5.

1975 - Ruffian, an undefeated filly, and Kentucky Derby winner Foolish Pleasure compete in a match race. Ruffian, racing on the lead, sustains a severe leg injury and is pulled up by jockey Jacinto Vasquez. She is humanely destroyed the following day.

1994 - Leroy Burrell breaks the world record in the 100 meters in Lausanne, Switzerland. Burrell’s time of 9.85 seconds betters Carl Lewis’ 9.86 clocking set in the 1991 World Championships.

1996 - Steffi Graf beats Spain’s Arantxa Sanchez Vicario 6-3, 7-5 in the Wimbledon final for the German star’s 20th Grand Slam title and 100th tournament victory.

1997 - Pete Sampras wins the fourth Wimbledon title and 10th Grand Slam title of his career, easily defeating Frenchmen Cedric Pioline 6-4, 6-2, 6-4.

1998 - Twenty-year-old Se Ri Pak becomes the youngest U.S. Women’s Open champion after hitting an 18-foot birdie on the 20th extra hole to beat amateur Jenny Chuasiriporn in the longest Women’s Open in history.

2000 - Venus Williams beats her younger sister Serena 6-2, 7-6 (3) to reach the Wimbledon final. Their singles match is the first between sisters in a Grand Slam semifinal.

2008 - Rafael Nadal ends Roger Federer’s bid to become the first man since the 1880s to win a sixth consecutive championship at the All England Club. Two points from victory, the No. 1-ranked Federer succumbs to No. 2 Nadal 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-7 (8), 9-7 in a 4-hour, 48-minute test of wills that’s the longest men’s final in Wimbledon history - and quite possibly the greatest.

2011 - Caster Semenya is cleared to return to track by the sport’s governing body, ending an 11-month layoff while she underwent gender tests after becoming the 800-meter world champion. Semenya is allowed to keep running as a woman, although it is unclear if she has had any medical procedure or treatment during her time away.

2012 - Andy Murray reaches the Wimbledon final for the first time, beating Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 7-5. Murray becomes the first British man to play in the Wimbledon final since Bunny Austin in 1938.

2013 - Twin brothers Mike and Bob Bryan capture their fourth straight major with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo at Wimbledon. The Americans are the first men’s team in Open-era tennis to hold all four Grand Slam titles at the same time.

2014 - Novak Djokovic wins his second Wimbledon title and denies Roger Federer his record eighth by holding off the Swiss star in five sets. Djokovic wastes a 5-2 lead in the fourth set but holds on for a 6-7 (7), 6-4, 7-6 (4), 5-7, 6-4 victory.

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July 7

1911 - Dorothea Lambert Chambers sets the record for the shortest championship match at Wimbledon - 25 minutes - by disposing of Dora Boothby 6-0, 6-0 in the women’s finals.

1934 - Elizabeth Ryan teams with Simone Mathiau and wins her record 12th women’s doubles title at Wimbledon, defeating Dorothy Andrus and Sylvia Henrotin 6-3, 6-3.

1973 - In the first all-U.S. women’s Wimbledon final, Billie Jean King beats Chris Evert 6-0, 7-5.

1974 - In Munich, West Germany beats the Netherlands 2-1 to win soccer’s World Cup.

1980 - Larry Holmes retains his WBC heavyweight title with a seventh-round TKO of Scott LeDoux in Bloomington, Minn.

1982 - Steve Scott of the Sub 4 Club sets a U.S. mile record of 3:47.69 in a meet at Oslo, Norway.

1985 - West Germany’s Boris Becker, 17, becomes the youngest champion and first unseeded player in the history of the men’s singles at Wimbledon with a 6-3, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (3), 6-4 victory over Kevin Curren.

1990 - Martina Navratilova wins her ninth Wimbledon women’s singles championship, beating Zina Garrison 6-4, 6-1, to break the record she shared with Helen Wills Moody.

1991 - Steffi Graf beats Gabriela Sabatini 6-4, 3-6, 8-6 to capture her third Wimbledon women’s title.

1993 - Tom Burgess tosses three touchdown passes, and Wayne Walker scores twice as Ottawa spoils the debut of the CFL’s first American-based team by beating Sacramento 32-23.

2002 - Juli Inkster matches the lowest final-round score by an Open champion with a 4-under 66 for a two-stroke victory over Annika Sorenstam in the U.S. Women’s Open. It’s her seventh major, most among active players.

2006 - Roger Federer overwhelms Sweden’s Jonas Bjorkman 6-2, 6-0, 6-2 to close in on his fourth consecutive Wimbledon title. Rafael Nadal, two-time French Open champion, beats Marcos Baghdatis, 6-1, 7-5, 6-3 to reach his first Wimbledon championship. It’s the first time since 1952 that the same players have reached back-to-back finals at the French Open and Wimbledon.

2007 - Venus Williams claims her fourth Wimbledon title with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Marion Bartoli.

2007 - Wladimir Klitschko beats Raymond Brewster with a technical knockout after six rounds, to successfully defend his IBF and IBO heavyweight titles in Cologne, Germany.

2012 - Serena Williams dominates from start to finish, beating Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland 6-1, 5-7, 6-2 to win a fifth championship at the All England Club and 14th major title overall, ending a two-year drought. Five hours later Serena and sister Venus beat Czech duo Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka 7-5, 6-4 in the doubles final. It is their fifth Wimbledon doubles title together.

2013 - Andy Murray becomes the first British man in 77 years to win the Wimbledon title, beating Novak Djokovic 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 in the final. The last British man to win the Wimbledon title before was Fred Perry in 1936. Murray, who lost to Roger Federer in last year’s final, wins his second major title after last year’s U.S. Open.

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