ON THIS DATE

1915: Jess Willard takes the heavyweight boxing title from Jack Johnson with a KO in the 26th round. (The fight was scheduled for 45 rounds.)

1919: Antwerp is named the host city for the 1920Olympics, the first postwar Games.

1942: Former San Francisco Giants owner Peter Magowan is born in New York City. (d. 2019)

1967: Wilt Chamberlain sets NBA playoff record with 41rebounds in a game against Bill Russell and the Boston Celtics.

1972: Opening Day for Major League Baseball is canceled because of a players’ strike for the first time in history.

1984: Kareem Abdul-jabbar breaks Wilt Chamberlain’s all-time career scoring record of 31,419 points (31,421)

1993: The Florida Marlins and the Colorado Rockies play their first games in history. 1998: The Arizona Diamondbacks, after losing the first five games in their existence, beat the Giants for their first victory.

2000: Lee Petty, a pioneer of NASCAR and the father of Richard Petty, dies at 86.

2005: The Washington Nationals take the field on Opening Day, the first team to represent the nation’s capital since the Senators in 1971.

2007: Darryl Stingley, paralyzed in a 1978 exhibition game against the Oakland Raiders, dies at 55of heart disease and pneumonia complicated by quadriplegia.

2012: The Toronto Blue Jays and Cleveland Indians set an Opening Day record by playing 16 innings.

2013: Baltimore’s Chris Davis joins Willie Mays (1971), Mark Mcgwire (1988) and Nelson Cruz (2011) as players to homer in the first four games of a season.