Today’s highlights in sports history:
In 2011, Cadel Evans won the Tour de France, becoming the first Australian to win cycling’s premier race.
On this date:
1908 – John Hayes wins the Olympic marathon in a time of 2 hours, 55 minutes, 18.4 seconds. Dorando Pietri of Italy was the first runner to enter the stadium but was disqualified after falling multiple times and being helped across the finish line by the umpire.
1931 – Paavo Nurmi sets a world two-mile record in 8 minutes, 59.6 seconds at a meet in Helsinki, Finland.
1960 – Jay Hebert wins the PGA golf tournament, beating Jim Ferrier by one stroke.
1967 – Don Janally wins the PGA Championship, defeating Don Massengale by two strokes in a playoff.
1970 – The International Lawn Tennis Association introduces the nine-point tiebreaker rule.
1976 – John Naber of the United States becomes the first swimmer to break the two-minute barrier in the 200-meter backstroke at the Montreal Olympics.
1976 – American Mack Wilkins sets an Olympic record in the discus with a throw of 224 feet in Montreal.
1977 – Hollis Stacy defeats Nancy Lopez by two strokes to win the U.S. Women’s Open Golf Championship.
1979 – Carl Yastrzemski of the Boston Red Sox hits his 400th career home run.
1998 – Tour de France riders, outraged by a drugs scandal that has swept the event, delay the start of the race by two hours in protest. Armin Meyer, a member of the Festina team who had been expelled from the Tour the previous week, admits to French radio that he had used banned substances.
2005 – Lance Armstrong wins the Tour de France for seven consecutive years. In 2012 he is stripped of all titles due to doping.
2008 – 50-year-old Hall of Famer Nancy Lieberman plays one game for the Detroit Shock after signing a seven-day contract earlier in the day. Lieberman surpassed her own record as the oldest player in WNBA history to have two assists and two turnovers. Lieberman had held the record at age 39 in 1997 while playing for the Phoenix Mercury.
2009 – Ron Hornaday Jr. holds off a late challenge from Mike Skinner to win the AAA Insurance 200, becoming the first driver to win four consecutive races in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.
2010 — Jim Liu, 14, of Smithtown, N.Y., becomes the youngest U.S. Junior Amateur champion, beating Justin Thomas of Goshen, Ky., 4 and 2. Liu, who turns 15 next month, is more than six months younger than Tiger Woods was when he won the first of his three consecutive U.S. Junior Amateur titles in 1991.
2014 – Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice was suspended two games by the NFL after being arrested during the offseason for domestic violence. The six-year veteran was arrested on February 15 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, following an altercation with his then-fiancée, Janae Palmer.
2016 — Chris Froome celebrates his third Tour de France victory in four years. The British rider linked arms with his teammates on the almost ceremonial final stage that ends on the Champs-Élysées, finishing safely at the back of the main pack on the final stage. Froome, who also won the Tour in 2013 and 2015, becomes the first rider to defend his title since Miguel Indurain in 1995, the last of his five consecutive victories. Lance Armstrong was stripped of his seventh consecutive title due to doping.
2019 – 19-year-old Hungarian swimmer Kristof Milák breaks the 200m butterfly record set 10 years ago by Michael Phelps in a time of 1 minute 50.73 seconds, 0.78 seconds faster than Phelps.
2020 – The Toronto Blue Jays designated Sahlen Field in Buffalo, New York as their interim home field for this season.
