The world's earliest known board game, senet, is played in Egypt

The ruling family of Ur plays a board game which appears to be the same as modern backgammon

Wrestlers are painted on the walls of an Egyptian tomb, performing most of the holds and falls still in use today

The traditional date for the first athletic contest at Olympia

Wrestling is included in the Olympic games, followed by a terrifying form of all-in wrestling from 652 BC

Boxing is included in the Olympic games, with each bout going on until one fighter gives up

Polo originates in the Persian empire, probably as part of the training of the imperial cavalry

The Isthmian games at Corinth are by now a regular event, as are the Pythian games and the Nemean games

Hockey, like polo, is a team game in the Persian empire

The Olympic games are extended to five days, the first and last of which are taken up with religious ceremonies

Gladiators have metal studs on their boxing gloves, and a public bout is expected to go on until the loser dies

Sukune, according to tradition, wins the first sumo wrestling contest and becomes patron saint of the sport

The Colosseum is inaugurated by the emperor Titus with games lasting 100 days, in which some 9000 large animals are killed

The ancient games at Olympia, with an unbroken tradition of more than 1000 years, are brought to an abrupt end by the emperor Theodosius

Chess is first played at about this time, in India, before spreading west to Persia

Japanese tradition gives this as the year in which the game of I-go, known in the west as go, is introduced from China

Playing cards are in use in T'ang dynasty China.

The Palio, in which horses race round the Campo in Siena, is held from this time

Southampton boasts the earliest known bowling green, mentioned in a document of this year

Packs of tarot playing cards are among the most popular products of Europe's first printing presses

The earliest surviving curling stone, discovered in Scotland, dates from this year

The first book describing the game of draughts, or checkers, is published in Spain

Royal (or real) tennis is so popular in France that there are now said to be 250 courts in Paris alone

A manuscript, the Guildford Book of Court, uses the word 'creckett' for a game played in a Guildford school

The Byerley Turk, Darley Arabian and Godolphin Arabian, ancestors of all thoroughbred racehorses, are imported into England