Today’s highlights in sports history:
In 2018, Seattle Storms guard Sue Bird played in her 500th WNBA game.
On this date:
1921 – Jim Barnes wins the U.S. Men’s Open Golf Championship, beating Walter Hagen, Leo Diegel, Jock Hutchinson and Fred McLeod.
1962 – South African Gary Player becomes the first player living outside the United States to win the PGA Championship.
1963 – Sonny Liston knocks out Floyd Patterson in 2 minutes and 10 seconds of the first round to retain the world heavyweight title. Liston had previously knocked out Patterson in the first round to win the title on September 25, 1962 in Chicago.
1973 – Sue Berning wins her third U.S. Women’s Open Golf Championship, beating Gloria Arlette by five strokes.
1984 – Kathy Whitworth wins the Rochester Open, becoming the most successful professional golf tournament winner in history. With 85 career victories, Whitworth surpasses Sam Snead’s total of 84 PGA tournament wins.
1984 – Seve Ballesteros shoots 276 over four rounds to win the British Open, breaking the course record set by Ken Nagle in 1960 by two strokes. Tom Watson and Bernhard Langer finished two strokes behind.
1990 – Nick Faldo beat Payne Stewart and Mark McNulty by five strokes to win his second British Open title in four years.
1996 – Naim Suleymanoglu of Turkey becomes the first weightlifter in Olympic history to win three gold medals. Suleymanoglu won the 141-pound weight class with a lift of 413 1/4 pounds.
1994 – Former NFL running back, announcer and actor O.J. Simpson pleads “absolutely 100 percent innocent” of murder charges.
1998 — Jackie Joyner-Kersee caps her illustrious heptathlete career with a victory at the Goodwill Games, her fourth Goodwill title, after breaking the 4×400-meter relay world record of 2:54.29, set by the U.S. team at the 1993 World Championships. Michael Johnson, anchor of the 1993 team, anchored the U.S. 4×400 team, which finished in 2 minutes, 54.20 seconds.
2001 – David Duval shoots a 4-under 67 at Royal Lytham & St. Annes to win his first major, the British Open, finishing at 10-under 274 and beating Sweden’s Nicklas Fast by three strokes.
2005 – Yelena Isinbayeva clears 5 metres at the Crystal Palace Grand Prix in London, setting a new world record. The Olympic champion effortlessly cleared 16 feet 4¾ inches on her first attempt, barely touching the bar.
2007 – Padraig Harrington overcame a disastrous finish in regulation and a tense bogey putt on the final hole of a playoff to beat Sergio Garcia to win the British Open.
2008 – Candace Parker scored 21 points, DeLisha Milton-Jones added 19 and after both players were ejected following a brawl in the final seconds of the game, the Los Angeles Sparks beat the Detroit Shock 84-81 in Auburn Hills, Michigan. The WNBA game took an ugly turn when a collision between Parker and Detroit’s Prenette Pearson turned into a shoving match that sent players and coaches from both teams off their benches.
2012 – Bradley Wiggins becomes the first British cyclist to win the Tour de France, defending the yellow jersey on the final march to Paris. Fellow Briton and Sky teammate Christopher Froome comes second, 3 minutes 21 seconds behind.
2012 – Ernie Els won his fourth major championship in a stunning finish at the British Open, overcoming Australian Adam Scott, who bogeyed the final four holes. Els started the final round six strokes behind, then capped a perfect back nine with a 15-foot birdie putt to finish with a two-under 68. Scott was leading by four strokes with four holes to go.
