July 2
1921 - The Jack Dempsey-Georges Carpentier heavyweight match at Rickard’s Orchard in Jersey City, N.J., becomes the first million-dollar gate in boxing history. The receipts total $1,789,238 with $50 ringside seats. In front of 80,183, Dempsey knocks out Carpentier at 1:16 of the fourth round.
1927 - Helen Wills becomes the first American to win at Wimbledon since May Sutton in 1907, beating Lili de Alvar 6-2, 6-4 for the title.
1937 - Don Budge beats Gottfried von Cramm, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 to win the men’s singles title at Wimbledon. Budge sweeps the championships winning the singles, the men’s doubles title with Gene Mako and the mixed doubles crown with Alice Marble.
1938 - Helen Wills Moody wins her eighth and final singles title at Wimbledon, defeating Helen Jacobs 6-4, 6-0.
1966 - Billie Jean King wins the first of her six singles titles at Wimbledon, beating Maria Bueno of Brazil 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.
1967 - Catherine Lacoste of France becomes the first foreigner and first amateur to win the U.S. Women’s Open golf championship. At age 22, she is also the youngest champion.
1976 - Chris Evert beats Evonne Goolagong, 6-3, 4-6, 8-6, to win the women’s singles title at Wimbledon.
1988 - Steffi Graf ends Martina Navratilova’s six-year reign as Wimbledon champion with a 5-7, 6-2, 6-1 victory. It is the first time in nine finals that Navratilova loses a Wimbledon singles match.
1989 - Jockey Steve Cauthen becomes the first rider in history to sweep the world’s four major derbies after winning the Irish Derby with Old Vic. He had previously won the Kentucky Derby with Affirmed (1978), the Epsom Derby with Slip Anchor (1985) and Reference Point (1987) and the French Derby with Old Vic (1989).
1994 - Colombian defender Andres Escobar, 27, is killed outside a bar in Colombia in retaliation for deflecting a ball into his own goal in a 2-1 loss to the United States in the World Cup.
1999 - Alexandra Stevenson becomes first qualifier in Wimbledon history to reach the women’s semis. She beats another qualifier, 16-year-old Jelena Dokic, 6-3, 1-6, 6-3.
2005 - Venus Williams overcomes an early deficit and a championship point to beat top-ranked Lindsay Davenport 4-6, 7-6 (4), 9-7 for her fifth major title and her first in nearly four years.
2005 - Danica Patrick, the 23-year-old rookie, wins her first IRL pole at Kansas Speedway, becoming the second woman to take the top spot. Sarah Fisher was the first female pole-sitter, starting first at a race in 2002 in Kentucky.
2010 - The United States beats Japan 7-2 to win its seventh consecutive world softball championship.
2011 - Petra Kvitova beats Maria Sharapova 6-3, 6-4 to become the first left-handed woman to win the Wimbledon title since Martina Navratilova in 1990.
2017 - Jeff Horn shocks Manny Pacquiao by a controversial unanimous decision at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, Australia, to win the WBO welterweight title. All three judges award the bout to Horn, with American Waleska Roldan’s 117-111 score attracting most of the criticism. U.S. judge Chris Flores and Ramon Cerdan of Argentina each score it much closer at 115-113.
___
Please read our comment policy before commenting.