Today’s highlights in sports history:
In 1990, Cameroon’s “Indomitable Lions” caused the biggest upset in football history by beating defending champions Argentina 1-0 in the opening match of the World Cup.
On this date:
1935 – Omaha, ridden by Willis Sanders, wins the Belmont Stakes by one and a half lengths over Fiathlone, becoming the third horse to win the Triple Crown.
1950 – Boston defeated the St. Louis Browns 29-4 at Fenway Park, and the Red Sox set six major league records: most runs run by a team, most extra bases hits in a game with 17 (9 doubles, 1 triple, 7 home runs), most career bases with 60, most extra bases with 32, most runs in two games with 49 (20 the previous day), and most hits in two games with 51.
1958 – Mickey Wright wins the LPGA Championship, beating Faye Crocker by six strokes.
1980 – Sally Little wins the LPGA Championship, beating Jane Blalock by three strokes.
1982 — 36th NBA Championship: The L.A. Lakers defeat the Philadelphia 76ers, 4 games to 2.
1985 – Crème Fraiche, ridden by Eddie Maple, beat Stephen’s Odyssey by half a length to become the first gelding to win the Belmont Stakes.
1986 – Larry Bird scores 29 points to lead the Boston Celtics to a 114-97 victory over the Houston Rockets to win his 16th NBA title.
1991 – UNLV sophomore Warren Schutte, a South African native, shoots 5-under 67 to become the first foreign-born player to win an NCAA Division I golf championship.
2000 – Mike Modano deflects a shot from Brett Hull at 6 minutes and 21 seconds into the third overtime period, ending the longest scoreless overtime period in Stanley Cup Finals history and helping the Dallas Stars beat the New Jersey Devils 1-0 in Game 5.
2002 – British-Canadian Lennox Lewis knocks out American Mike Tyson in the eighth round to retain his WBC heavyweight boxing title.
2005 – Freshman Samantha Findlay hit a three-run home run in the 10th inning to lead Michigan to a 4-1 victory over UCLA and give the school its first NCAA softball title. Michigan is the first team from east of the Mississippi River to win a national championship.
2008 – Rafael Nadal wins his fourth consecutive French Open title, once again ending Roger Federer’s career Grand Slam dreams. Nadal overpowers the world number one with astonishing ease, winning in three sets, 6-1, 6-3, 6-0.
2008 – Yani Tseng of Taiwan beat Maria Jooss on the fourth hole in a playoff and then won the LPGA Championship with a 5-foot birdie on the 18th hole, becoming the first rookie to win a major in 10 years.
2012 – I’ll Have Another’s bid to become the first horse to win the Triple Crown in 34 years came to a shocking end not on the racetrack but in the stables when he was withdrawn from racing the day before the Belmont Stakes and retired from racing due to swollen tendons.
2013 – Serena Williams defeats Maria Sharapova 6-4, 6-4 to win her 16th Grand Slam title and her first French Open title since 2002.
2014 – Rafael Nadal defeats Novak Djokovic 3-6, 7-5, 6-2, 6-4 to win his ninth French Open title and fifth consecutive title. Nadal improves to 66-1 at Roland Garros.
2015 – The NCAA approved several rule changes for men’s basketball for the 2015-16 season, including a 30-second shot clock and a reduction in each team’s timeouts. The last time the shot clock was shortened was in 1993-94, when it was reduced from 45 seconds to 35 seconds.
2018 — Golden State beat Cleveland 108-85 to win four straight games and claim their second consecutive NBA championship. Stephen Curry scored 37 points for the Warriors, while Kevin Durant, who was named Finals MVP for the second year in a row, added 20 points. It was the Warriors’ first NBA Finals sweep since James lost to powerhouse San Antonio in 2007 in his first Finals.
2019 — Australia’s Ashleigh Barty defeats Marketa Vondrousska to win the French Open. It was Barty’s first Grand Slam singles title.
