Britain's most prestigious steeplechase, the Cheltenham Gold Cup, is run for the first time

Swimmer Johnny Weissmuller wins three Olympic gold medals in the Paris games, together with a bronze in water polo

The British rugby team touring South Africa are for the first time called the Lions

British jockey Gordon Richards becomes champion jockey for the first of 26 times

The England cricketer Jack Hobbs makes the highest score of his career, 316 not out for Surrey against Middlesex

Ely Culbertson devotes his playing skill and his promotional abilities to the new contract version of bridge

US golfer Walter Hagen wins his fifth PGA Championship, and the fourth in succession

In only his third Test match, 20-year-old Australian cricketer Donald Bradman scores a century

Norwegian figure-skater Sonja Henie wins the first of three individual Olympic gold medals in successive games

Baseball star Ty Cobb retires with a career record of 2245 runs, that will remain unbeaten into the twenty-first century

US golfer Bobby Jones retires after winning his thirteenth major in eight years

The New Zealand racehorse Phar Lap wins huge popularity after an easy victory in the Melbourne Cup

16-year-old English footballer Stanley Matthews plays his first League game for Stoke City

US athlete Mildred 'Babe' Didrikson breaks four world records in one afternoon in Evanston, Illinois

English fast-bowler Harold Larwood causes outrage using the 'body-line' attack, devised by his captain, Douglas Jardine, in Test matches against Australia

British tennis player Fred Perry wins the first of three consecutive Wimbledon singles titles

US athlete Jesse Owens sets three world records and equals a fourth within the space of less than an hour in Ann Arbor, Michigan

At the Berlin Olympics, attended by Hitler, the African-American athlete Jesse Owens sets three new Olympic records and equals a fourth

Joe Louis, 'The Brown Bomber', defeats James J. Braddock to become world heavyweight champion

Gloucestershire batsman Wally Hammond becomes captain of the England Test team

Yorkshire batsman Len Hutton scores a record 364 in a Test match against Australia at the Oval

US tennis player Donald Budge becomes the first person to achieve the grand slam, winning all four majors in the same year

Maurice 'Rocket' Richard is the first to score 50 goals in a Canadian National Hockey League season

Baseball-player Jackie Robinson becomes the first African American in a major league team

Donald Bradman retires from Test cricket with a tantalizing career average of 99.94 runs