April 20
1912 - Fenway Park opens in Boston with the Red Sox beating the New York Yankees 7-6 in 11 innings. Tiger Stadium in Detroit also opens its doors as the Tigers defeat the Cleveland Indians 6-5.
1958 - The Montreal Canadiens win the NHL Stanley Cup for the third straight year with a 5-3 victory over the Boston Bruins in the sixth game.
1986 - Chicago’s Michael Jordan sets an NBA single-game playoff scoring record with 63 points in a 135-131 double overtime loss to the Boston Celtics, in Game 2 of the first round in the Eastern Conference.
1991 - Mark Lenzi becomes the first person to score 100 points on a single dive. On his last dive, Lenzi scores 101.85 points on a reverse 3½ somersault from the tuck position to win the 3-meter springboard title at the U.S. Indoor Diving Championships.
1997 - Chicago’s Michael Jordan wins an unprecedented ninth scoring title with an average of 29.6 points, the first time in those nine seasons that he fails to average at least 30 points.
2007 - Roger Federer wins his 500th career match, defeating David Ferrer 6-4, 6-0 in the quarterfinals of the Monte Carlo Masters.
2008 - Danica Patrick becomes the first female winner in IndyCar history, capturing the Indy Japan 300 in her 50th career start. Patrick takes the lead from pole-sitter Helio Castroneves on the 198th lap in the 200-lap race and finishes 5.8594 seconds ahead of Castroneves.
2008 - Lorena Ochoa becomes the first LPGA Tour player in 45 years to win four tournaments in consecutive weeks. Ochoa shoots a 3-under 69 in the final round of the Ginn Open and beats rookie Yani Tseng by three strokes for her fifth victory in six starts. Mickey Wright did it in 1963.
2014 - Bernard Hopkins, 49, becomes the oldest to win a unification light heavyweight bout as he captures a split 12-round decision over 30-year-old Beibut Shumenov of Kazakhstan. Hopkins, who improves to 55-6-2, retains his IBF title and wins the WBA and IBA belts.
2015 - Lelisa Desisa of Ethiopia wins the 119th Boston Marathon, his second victory here. Desisa, who finishes in 2:09:17, also won the 2013 race just hours before a pair of bombs exploded at the finish line. Caroline Rotich of Kenya wins the women’s race.
2017 - LeBron James finishes with 41 points, 13 rebounds and 12 assists, and the Cleveland Cavaliers set an NBA postseason record by erasing a 25-point halftime deficit to beat the Indiana Pacers 119-114 and take a 3-0 lead. Cleveland trailed by 26 in the first half and was still down 74-49 at halftime. The largest halftime deficit overcome to win a playoff game had been 21 points by Baltimore against Philadelphia in 1948.
2017 - Roman Josi scores twice, Pekka Rinne has 30 saves and the Nashville Predators beat the Chicago Blackhawks 4-1 to complete a surprising sweep of the Western Conference’s top seed. It’s the first time a No. 1 seed is swept in the first round since the NHL adopted its current playoff format in 1994.
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April 21
1951 - Bob Davies’ two foul shots and Jack Coleman’s layup give the Rochester Royals a 79-75 triumph over the New York Knicks in the seventh game of the NBA championship series.
1951 - The Toronto Maple Leafs win the Stanley Cup for the fourth time in five years as they beat the Montreal Canadiens 3-2 in the fifth game.
1980 - Bill Rodgers wins his third straight Boston Marathon. Rosie Ruiz is disqualified eight days later as women’s champion when it’s discovered she did not run the entire distance.
1995 - Defending champion Utah continues its domination of the NCAA women’s gymnastics championships, capturing its ninth national title since the event began in 1982 with a score of 196.650.
1996 - The Chicago Bulls wrap up the most successful regular season in NBA history with their 72nd victory, getting 26 points from Michael Jordan in a 103-93 decision over Washington. Jordan sets an NBA record by winning his eighth NBA scoring title, breaking Wilt Chamberlain’s record of seven.
2001 - Hasim Rahman flattens Lennox Lewis with a stunning right hand near the end of the fifth round to capture the WBC and IBF heavyweight titles in one of the biggest upsets in boxing history in Brakpan, South Africa.
2008 - Robert Cheruiyot of Kenya wins the Boston Marathon in 2:07:46 to become the fourth man to win the race four times. Ethiopia’s Dire Tune outkicks Alevtina Biktimirova after a back-and-forth last mile to win by 2 seconds in the closest finish in the history of the women’s race.
2012 - Phil Humber throws the first perfect game in the majors in almost two years, leading the Chicago White Sox to a 4-0 victory over the Seattle Mariners.
2013 - Raphael Jacquelin of France wins a record-tying playoff at the Spanish Open, edging Germany’s Maximilian Kieffer on their ninth try at the 18th hole. The only other European Tour event decided by a nine-hole playoff was the 1989 Dutch Open.
2013 - Takuma Sato becomes the first Japanese driver to win an IndyCar race in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.
2013 - Rookie Marc Marquez wins his first MotoGP race, capturing the Grand Prix of the Americas in Austin, Texas. The 20-year-old Spaniard, last season’s Moto2 champion, becomes the youngest winner at motorcycle racing’s top level.
2013 - Joe Scarborough, a 50-year-old self-employed electrical contractor, rolls the first 900 series in Professional Bowlers Association history - three straight perfect games. He opened the first round of qualifying in the PBA50 Sun Bowl with three games of 300, throwing 36 consecutive strikes.
2014 - American Meb Keflezighi wins the Boston Marathon, a year after a bombing at the finish line left three dead and more than 260 people injured. No U.S. runner had won the race since Lisa Larsen-Weidenbach took the women’s title in 1985; the last American man to win was Greg Meyer in 1983. Rita Jeptoo of Kenya successfully defends the Boston Marathon title, becoming the seventh three-time Boston Marathon champion.
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April 22
1876 - The first official National League baseball game is played with Boston beating Philadelphia 6-5.
1945 - The Toronto Maple Leafs edge the Detroit Red Wings 2-1 to win the Stanley Cup in seven games.
1947 - The Philadelphia Warriors, behind Joe Fulks’ 34 points, beat the Chicago Staggs 83-80 in Game 5 to win the first Basketball Association of America title.
1962 - The Toronto Maple Leafs capture the Stanley Cup in six games with a 2-1 triumph over the Chicago Black Hawks.
1969 - Joe Frazier knocked out Dave Zyglewicz in 96 seconds to retain the heavyweight boxing title. Zyglewicz, 28-1 against journeymen, was fighting as the hometown hero at the Sam Houston Coliseum in Houston.
1987 - The NBA grants expansion franchises to Charlotte, Miami, Minnesota and Orlando. Charlotte and Miami join the league in the 1988-89 season, while Minnesota and Orlando join in 1989-90.
1988 - New Jersey’s Patrik Sundstrom sets an NHL playoff record scoring eight points - three goals and five assists - in a 10-4 rout of Washington in the Stanley Cup quarterfinals.
1993 - The Pittsburgh Penguins’ 4-3 victory over the New Jersey Devils extends their NHL playoff record to 14 straight wins.
1994 - Shannon Miller wins the women’s all-around title for the second straight year at the World Gymnastics Championships in Brisbane, Australia.
1994 - Michael Moorer outpoints Evander Holyfield to win the IBF and WBA titles and become the first left-handed heavyweight champion.
2003 - Minnesota and Vancouver become the first teams since 2000 to come back from 3-1 series deficits and win. The Wild take Game 7 in Colorado on Andrew Brunette’s overtime goal for a 3-2 win. The Canucks oust St. Louis with a 4-1 win.
2006 - New Jersey scores a playoff-record five power-play goals in its 6-1 win over New York.
2006 - In Berlin, Germany, Wladimir Klitschko stops Chris Byrd in the seventh round of a one-sided fight to gain the IBF heavyweight title.
2007 - The Boston Red Sox tie a major league record by hitting four straight home runs in a 7-6 win over the New York Yankees. Manny Ramirez, J.D. Drew, Mike Lowell and Jason Varitek connect in a span of 10 pitches during the third inning against Chase Wright.
2008 - John Smoltz of Atlanta becomes the 16th pitcher in major league history to reach the 3,000-strikeout plateau in the Braves’ 6-0 loss to Washington.
2014 - Albert Pujols becomes the first major leaguer to hit his 499th and 500th homers in the same game, driving in five runs to help the Los Angeles Angels beat the Washington Nationals 7-2.
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