Aug. 24
1904 - Holcombe Ward wins the men’s singles title in the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association singles title.
1908 - Tommy Burns knocks out Bill Squires in the 13th round at Sydney, Australia to retain the world heavyweight title.
1925 - Helen Wills, 19, wins her third straight U.S. Lawn Tennis Association singles title with a 3-6, 6-0, 6-2 victory over Kathleen McKane. An hour later, Wills teams up with Mary K. Browne to win the doubles title.
1929 - Helen Wills wins her sixth U.S. Lawn Tennis Association singles title by defeating Phoebe Holcroft Watson, 6-4, 6-2.
1963 - The Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa. is covered by ABC’s Wide World of Sports for the first time.
1963 - Don Schollander becomes the first swimmer to break the two-minute barrier in the 200-meter freestyle with a time of 1:58.4 in a meet at Osaka, Japan.
1963 - John Pennel breaks the 17-foot barrier in the pole vault with a 17-0¾ vault in a meet at Miami.
1988 - Minnesota North Stars forward Dino Ciccarelli is sentenced to one day in jail and fined $1,000 for hitting another player with his stick. Ciccarelli, who was given a match penalty and 10-game suspension by the league for the Jan. 6, 1988 attack on Toronto’s Luke Richardson, is believed to be the first NHL player to receive a jail term for an on-ice attack of another player.
1996 - Hsieh Chin-hsiung sets a Little League World Series record with his seventh home run as Taiwan wins the title for the 17th time with a 13-3 victory over Cranston, R.I.
2001 - Colorado starting pitcher Jason Jennings goes 3-for-5 in his major league debut, including a homer, while pitching a 10-0 complete game shut out over the Mets. The right-hander becomes the first pitcher in modern history to throw a shutout and hit a homer in his first game.
2003 - Jockey Julie Krone becomes the first female rider to win a million-dollar race taking the Pacific Classic at Del Mar aboard Candy Ride.
2007 - The NFL indefinitely suspends Michael Vick without pay just hours after he acknowledged in court papers that he did, indeed, bankroll gambling on dogfighting and helped kill some dogs not worthy of the pit.
2008 - On the final day of the Beijing Games, Kobe Bryant hits two 3-pointers in a big fourth quarter to help the United States defeat Spain 118-107 and win the gold medal for the first time since 2000. China has one of the most dominating and diverse performances at an Olympics ever, winning a games-leading 51 golds and an even 100 overall. The United States finishes with 110 medals and trails well behind the Chinese in golds with 36, the first time since 1992 it doesn’t lead the category.
2008 - Danny Lee becomes the U.S. Amateur’s youngest champion, supplanting Tiger Woods by holding off Drew Kittleson 5 and 4. The 18-year, 1-month-old Lee is six months and 29 days younger than Woods when he won the first of his three Amateurs in 1994.
2014 - U.S. teenager Katie Ledecky slices almost six seconds off her own world mark in the women’s 1,500-meter freestyle, winning in 15 minutes, 28.36 seconds to post her second world record in as many nights at the Pan Pacific championships. It’s her fifth gold medal of the meet and the third time in 13 months she set the mark in the 1,500, and the second in three months since her 15:34.23 at Shenandoah on June 19.
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