Jack Broughton, champion of England, opens an academy to teach 'the mystery of boxing, that wholly British art'

Edmond Hoyle publishes the definitive rules of whist

England's champion pugilist, the Jewish prize-fighter Daniel Mendoza, publishes The Art of Boxing

A Rugby schoolboy, William Webb Ellis, picks up the football and runs with it in rugby union's founding myth

Oxford and Cambridge compete against each other in the first university boat race, held at Henley

Brunel's Great Western, a wooden paddle-steamer, arives in New York the day after the Sirius, with the record for an Atlantic crossing already reduced to 15 days

The London Prize Ring rules disallow kicking, gouging, head-butting and biting in the sport of boxing

New Yorker Alexander Cartwright devises the set of rules that become the basis of the modern game of baseball

The Marylebone Cricket Club, arbiter of cricket, finally rules that overarm bowling is legitimate

The world's first croquet tournament takes place in Evesham and is won by Walter Jones-Whitmore

The Queensberry rules, named after the Marquess of Queensberry, introduce padded gloves in boxing, and rounds of three minutes

Cincinnati, Ohio, fielding the first baseball team in which every member is a hired professional, wins every match of the year

The all-round English cricketer W.G. Grace begins a 28-year career as captain of Gloucestershire

Civil War veterans in the USA establish the National Rifle Association to promote marksmanship

Major Walter Wingfield secures a patent for Sphairistike, a game he has developed at his home in Wales, from which lawn tennis evolves

English cricketer W.G. Grace scores a record 344 runs, playing for the Marylebone Cricket Club against Kent at Canterbury

The first Test match is played in Melbourne between English and Australian cricket teams, with victory going to Australia

The first lawn-tennis championships are organized by the All-England Croquet Club at Wimbledon

The ancient Irish game of hurling is formalized by the newly founded Irish Hurling Union

When Australia win the second Test match, in London, the Sporting Times declares that they will take home with them 'the ashes of English cricket'

The Gaelic Athletic Association is founded in Ireland to promote indigenous games such as hurling

Canadian athlete James Naismith, at a YMCA college in Springfield, Massachusetts, invents basketball as an indoor winter game

Pudge Heffelfinger becomes the first football pro when the Allegheny Athletic Association pay him $500 to play a game in their team

The Scottish game of shinty is provided with a standardized set of rules

The first competitive event for cars is held over a distance of 78 miles from Paris to Rouen