July 24th
1908 — John Hayes wins the Olympic marathon with a time of 2:55:18.4. Italian Dorando Pietri was the first to enter the field, but after collapsing several times he was disqualified after helping officials cross the line.
1931 — Paavo Nurmi sets a two-mile world record of 8:59.6 in Helsinki, Finland.
1960 — Jay Hebert defeats Jim Ferrier by one shot to win the PGA Golf Tournament.
1967 — Don January beats Don Massengale by two strokes in the playoffs to win the PGA Championship.
1970 — The International Lawn Tennis Association instituted the 9-point tie-break rule.
1976 — Jon Neighbor of the United States becomes the first swimmer to break the 2-minute barrier in the 200m backstroke at the Montreal Olympics.
1976 — Mack Wilkins of the United States sets an Olympic discus record by tossing 224 feet in Montreal.
1977 — Hollis Stacy wins the U.S. Women’s Open Golf Championship by two strokes over Nancy Lopez.
1979 — Karl Yastrzemski of the Boston Red Sox hits his 400th HR.
1998 — Tour de France players protest by delaying the start of the race by two hours, enraged by the drug scandal that has swept the tournament. Festina team member Armin Meyer, who was pulled from the tour last week, has admitted to French radio that he used a banned substance.
2005 — Lance Armstrong wins the Tour de France for the seventh year in a row. Stripped of all titles in 2012 due to doping.
2008 — Nancy Lieberman makes one game appearance for the Detroit Shock after the 50-year-old Hall of Famer signed a seven-day contract earlier in the day. Her Lieberman finished with two assists and two turnovers, surpassing her own record as the oldest player in WNBA history. She held this record at the age of 39 in 1997 when Lieberman was playing for the Phoenix Mercury.
2009 — Ron Hornaday Jr. defeats Mike Skinner’s late challenge to win the AAA Insurance 200, becoming the first driver to win four consecutive NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races.
2010 — 14-year-old Jim Liu of Smithtown, New York defeated Justin Thomas of Goshen, Kentucky, at ages 4 and 2, to become the youngest U.S. Junior Amateur Champion. Liu, who turns 15 next month, is more than half a year younger than Tiger Woods when he won the first of three U.S. Junior Amateur titles in 1991.
2011 — Cadel Evans wins the Tour de France, becoming Australia’s first champion in cycling’s biggest race.
2014 — Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice is suspended two games by the NFL after being arrested for domestic violence in the offseason. The six-year veteran was arrested on February 15 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, after he got into an altercation with then-fiancé Janey Palmer.
2016 — Chris Froome celebrates his third Tour de France title in four years. The British rider finished safely at the back of the main group on the final stage and crossed arms with his teammates for the almost ceremonial final stage that ended on the Champs-Élysées. Froome, who also won the Tour in 2013 and 2015, will become the first rider to defend the title since Miguel Indurain won in 1995, the last of his five consecutive victories. Lance Armstrong was stripped of his 7th straight title for doping.
2019 — 19-year-old Hungarian swimmer Christoph Milak breaks Michael Phelps’ decade-old 200m butterfly record in 1:50.73, 0.78 seconds faster than Phelps.
2020 — The Toronto Blue Jays name Saaren Field in Buffalo, NY as their interim home for the season.
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