Aug. 2

1864 — The first Travers Stakes at Saratoga is won by Kentucky, a horse that scores 20 consecutive victories.

1912 — John McDermott wins the U.S. Open golf championship for the second straight year with a 294 total.

1952 — Five American boxers win gold medals at the Olympics, marking the first time the U.S. wins the unofficial team title. The five medalists are flyweight Nate Brooks; light welterweight Charley Adkins; middleweight Floyd Patterson; light heavyweight Norvell Lee and heavyweight Eddie Sanders.

1959 — Bob Rosburg comes back from six strokes down, shooting a four-under 66, to win the PGA Championship held at Minneapolis Gulf Club. Rosburg finishes with a three-under 277 to finish one stroke ahead of Jerry Barber and Doug Sanders.

1967 — The New Orleans Saints play their first preseason game and lose to the Los Angeles Rams, 77-16.

1979 — New York Yankees catcher Thurman Munson is killed in a plane crash practicing takeoffs and landings near his Ohio home.

1986 — Jackie Joyner sets the world record in the heptathlon at the U.S. Olympic Festival in Houston with 7,158 points.

1992 — Vitaly Scherbo of the Unified Team wins gold medals in the vault, rings, pommel horse and parallel bars to give him a total of six gold, the most won by a gymnast in a single Olympic Games.

1996 — Down to her final long jump attempt and fighting an injured hamstring, Jackie Joyner-Kersee leaps out of sixth place and ends her Olympic career with a bronze medal. Joyner Kersee jumps 22 feet, 11 3-4 inches for her sixth Olympic medal.

1998 — Brandie Burton closes with an even-par 72 for a tournament-record 18-under 270, and holds on to win the du Maurier Classic by one stroke over Annika Sorenstam. It’s the lowest score in relation to par at a women’s major, breaking Betsy King’s 17-under 267 in the 1992 LPGA Championship.

2005 — In the largest trade in NBA history, Antoine Walker is dealt from Boston to Miami in a transaction involving five teams and 13 players. The Heat acquires point guard Jason Williams and small forward James Posey from Memphis, while the Grizzlies receive guard Eddie Jones from the Heat. The New Orleans Hornets and Utah Jazz also are involved in the deal.

2009 — Catriona Matthew wins the Women’s British Open for her first major title, beating Karrie Webb by three strokes just 10 weeks after giving birth to her second child.

2012 — Carmelo Anthony and the U.S. men’s Olympic basketball team rewrite the record book in a 156-73 romp over Nigeria. The U.S. led by 26 in the first quarter, had an Olympic-record 78 points in the first half and Anthony scored 37 points, including 10 of 12 3-pointers, to break the U.S. single-game scoring record in less than three quarters. When Andre Iguodala hits a 3-pointer with 4:37 left, the Americans surpass the previous Olympic record of 138 points set by Brazil against Egypt in 1988.

2012 — Gabby Douglas becomes the third straight American to win gymnastics’ biggest prize when she wins the all-around Olympic title.

2012 — Michael Phelps adds to his Olympic medal collection with his first individual gold medal of the London Games in the 200-meter individual medley. The U.S. star becomes the first male swimmer to win the same individual event at three straight Olympics, capturing his 20th career medal — and 16th gold.

2015 — Inbee Park rallies to win the Women’s British Open to become the seventh women to win four different major championships.

___

Aug. 3

1852 — The first intercollegiate rowing race is held on Lake Winnipesaukee, N.H., where Harvard beats Yale by four lengths on the 2-mile course.

1949 — The National Basketball Association is formed by the merger of the National Basketball League (NBL) and the Basketball Association of America (BAA). Maurice Podoloff, head of the BAA since its inception, is elected head of the new league. Six NBL teams join the ten BAA teams, plus an expansion team in Indianapolis, to form the NBA.

1955 — Scott Frost, driven by Joe O’Brien, wins the Hambletonian at Good Time Park in Goshen, N.Y. He goes on to become the first trotting Triple Crown winner.

1985 — France’s Lutin D’Isigny becomes the first trotter to sweep the International Trot and Challenge Cup in consecutive years with a 3:03.1 time in the 1½-mile test.

1990 — The Professional Golfers Association Tour announces it will not hold tournaments at golf clubs that have all-white memberships or show any other signs of discrimination.

1996 — Andre Agassi, the Dream Team and the U.S. women’s 400-meter relay team win Olympic gold medals, while the American men’s 400 relay settles for silver. With Carl Lewis idled by a coach’s decision and Leroy Burrell injured, the men’s 400 team is shocked by Canada — the first time the U.S. lost the event at the Olympics.

1997 — Colleen Walker wins the du Maurier Classic by two strokes over Liselotte Neumann. Her 65 is one stroke off the best final round recorded in an LPGA major, a 9-under 64 by JoAnne Carner in the 1978 du Maurier.

2003 — Annika Sorenstam completes a career Grand Slam at the Women’s British Open, beating Se Ri Pak by a stroke in a thrilling head-to-head showdown.

2006 — Champ Car driver Cristiano da Matta needs surgery to remove a ruptured blood vessel in his head after his race car collides with a deer that wandered onto the track during a test session at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis.

2012 — Michael Phelps rallies to win the 100-meter butterfly for his third gold of the London Games and No. 17 of his career. The American, next-to-last at the turn, closes strong to finish in 51.21 seconds, just ahead of Chad le Clos of South Africa and Evgeny Korotyshkin of Russia. It’s Phelps’ third consecutive win in the event at the Olympics, and his 21st career medal. Missy Franklin sets a world record in the 200 backstroke for the 17-year-old’s third gold in London. Also, 15-year-old Katie Ledecky — the youngest member of the U.S. team — nearly breaks the world record while winning the 800 freestyle, denying Britain’s Rebecca Adlington a repeat before her home fans.

2013 — Sixteen-year-old Katie Ledecky wraps up a brilliant performance at the world swimming championships with her fourth gold medal and second world record. The youngster turns it on over the final four laps of the 800 freestyle to win in 8 minutes, 13.86 seconds and take down the mark of 8:14.10 set by Britain’s Rebecca Adlington at the 2008 Olympics.

___

Aug. 4

1884 — Pud Galvin pitches the most lopsided no-hitter in major league history as the Buffalo Bisons power past the Detroit Wolverines 18-0.

1945 — Byron Nelson wins his 11th consecutive PGA Tour event, beating Herman Barron by four strokes. Nelson finishes the year with a record for most tournament wins (18) in a season.

1984 — Carl Lewis wins the 100-meter dash in 9.99 seconds at the Los Angeles Summer Games. US teammate Sam Graddy wins the silver in 10.19 and Canada’s Ben Johnson gets the bronze with a time of 10.22.

1985 — Tom Seaver, 40, becomes the 17th 300-game winner in major league history with a six-hitter — all singles — as the Chicago White Sox beat the New York Yankees 4-1.

1985 — Rod Carew of the California Angels gets his 3,000th hit in a 6-5 win over the Minnesota Twins, his first major league team.

1996 — Laura Davies shoots a 6-under 66 for a two-stroke victory over Nancy Lopez and Karrie Webb in the du Maurier Classic.

1996 — The Atlanta Olympic Games end with U.S. boxer David Reid’s stunning gold-medal knockout, and the women Dream Team’s romp over Brazil. Reid captures America’s only boxing gold, knocking down Cuban Alfredo Duvergel, while the U.S. women roll to a 111-87 victory behind Lisa Leslie’s 29 points. A record 11,000 athletes from 197 countries make it the biggest Olympics.

2002 — Otylia Jedrzejczak of Poland breaks the world record in the women’s 200-meter butterfly, finishing in 2 minutes, 5.78 seconds at the European Swimming Championships in Berlin. She betters the mark of 2:05.81 set by Australian Susan O’Neill in May 2000.

2007 — Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees becomes the youngest player in major league history to hit 500 home runs with a first-inning homer in a 16-8 victory over Kansas City. Rodriguez’ homer came eight days after the slugger celebrated his 32nd birthday, eclipsing Jimmie Foxx (32 years, 338 days).

2011 — Cappie Pondexter scores 15 points to lead New York past Chicago 59-49, and the Liberty hold the Sky to a WNBA-record one point in the fourth quarter.

2012 — Michael Phelps wins another gold as the United States wins the medley relay at the London Olympics. Phelps leaves the sport with a record 18 golds and 22 medals overall. At these games he wins four golds and two silvers.

2012 — Serena Williams beats Maria Sharapova 6-0, 6-1 to join Steffi Graf as the only women to complete the Golden Slam — winning the Olympics and the four majors. In a men’s semifinal match, Roger Federer outlasts Juan Martin del Potro in a 19-17 final set and clinches his first Olympic singles medal. Canadian equestrian Ian Millar rides into Olympic history by competing in his 10th games — the most of any athlete.

2013 — Missy Franklin claims her record sixth gold medal on the final day of the world championships in Barcelona, becoming the most successful female swimmer ever at a world meet. Franklin eclipses the record shared by Tracy Caulkins — who won five times in 1978 — and Libby Trickett, who did it in 2007.

___

Aug. 5

1921 — Radio station KDKA and announcer Harold Arlin provide the first broadcast of a major league game as the Pirates beat the Phillies 8-5 at Pittsburgh.

1936 — At the Berlin Olympics, Jesse Owens wins his third of four gold medals, winning the 200-meter race in an Olympic-record 20.7 seconds.

1954 — The first election for the Boxing Hall of Fame is held. Twenty-four fighters are elected, with the most noteworthy from the modern era Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis and Henry Armstrong. Fifteen are selected from the pioneer era including John L. Sullivan, Gentleman Jim Corbett and Jack Johnson.

1967 — The Denver Broncos beat the Detroit Lions, 13-7, in a preseason game, for the first AFL victory over an NFL team.

1984 — American Joan Benoit wins the first Olympic marathon for women in 2:24:52, finishing 400 meters ahead of Norway’s Grete Waitz.

1991 — Sergei Bubka becomes the first to clear 20 feet outdoors in the pole vault, breaking his own world record by a half-inch at the Galan track meet in Malmo, Sweden.

1992 — The U.S. women’s basketball team is upset by the Unified Team 79-73 in the semifinals at the Summer Olympics.

1999 — Mark McGwire becomes the 16th member of the 500-home run club, hitting two homers — Nos. 500 and 501 — in the St. Louis Cardinals’ loss to San Diego.

2005 — Jason Gore shoots a 12-under 59 in the second round of the Nationwide Tour’s Cox Classic in Omaha, Neb. Gore is the third Nationwide player to shoot a 59.

2007 — Lorena Ochoa wins the Women’s British Open — the first women’s professional tournament played at venerable St. Andrews — for her first major title.

2012 — Jamaica’s Usain Bolt claims consecutive gold medals in the marquee track and field event at the Summer Games in London. Only about fifth-fastest of the eight runners to the halfway mark, Bolt erases that deficit and overtakes a star-studded field to win the 100-meter dash final in 9.63 seconds, an Olympic record that lets him join Carl Lewis as the only men to win the event twice.

2012 — Britain’s Andy Murray cruises past Roger Federer 6-2, 6-1, 6-4 in the men’s Olympic tennis singles final at Wimbledon.

2013 — Alex Rodriguez is suspended through 2014 (211 games) and All-Stars Nelson Cruz, Jhonny Peralta and Everth Cabrera are banned 50 games apiece when Major League Baseball disciplines 13 players in a drug case — the most sweeping punishment since the Black Sox scandal nearly a century ago.

2014 — The San Antonio Spurs hire WNBA star Becky Hammon as an assistant coach, making her the first woman to join an NBA coaching staff.

___

More