ON THIS DATE

Feb. 17

1923 – Cy Denneny of the Ottawa Senators becomes the NHL’S career scoring leader. He scores his 143rd goal to surpass Joe Malone in a 2-0 win over the Montreal Canadiens.

1924 – Johnny Weissmuller sets a world record in the 100-yard freestyle swim with a time of 52.4 seconds.

1926 – Suzanne Lenglen beats Helen Wills 6-3, 8-6 in Cannes, France, in their only tennis match against each other.

1928 – Sweden’s Gillis Grafstrom successfully defends his 1920 and 1924 Olympic figure skating title, with Austrian Willy Bockl finishing in second place as he did four years earlier.

1941 – Joe Louis knocks out Gus Dorazio in the second round in Philadelphia to defend his world heavyweight title.

1955 – Mike Souchak establishes the PGA 72-hole scoring record with a 257 at the Texas Open. Souchak starts with a record-tying 60 at San Antonio’s Brackenridge Park course and ends with a 27-under-par, beating the previous low for a 72-hole event by two shots.

1968 – The Basketball Hall of Fame opens in Springfield, Mass.

1974 – Richard Petty wins his second straight Daytona 500. It’s the fifth Daytona 500 title for Petty, who also won in 1964, 1966, 1971 and 1973.

1992 – Raisa Smetanina wins a gold medal with the Unified Team in the 20-kilometer cross-country relay to set the career Winter Olympics medal record with 10. Smetanina, 39, also becomes the oldest champion and the first to win a medal in five straight Winter Games.

2013 – Danica Patrick wins the Daytona 500 pole, becoming the first woman to secure the top spot for any Sprint Cup race.