American football

American football

American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

• College football national championship
  NCAA Division I FBS National Football Championship
  A college football national championship in the highest level of collegiate play in the United States, currently the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Football Bowl Subdivision , is a designation awarded annually by various third-party organizations to their selection of the best...
  
   – Princeton Tigers
  Princeton Tigers football
  The Princeton Tigers football program represents Princeton University college football at the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision...
  
   and Yale Bulldogs
  Yale Bulldogs football
  The Yale Bulldogs football program represents Yale University in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision . Yale's football program is one of the oldest in the world, having begun competing in the sport in 1872...
  
   (shared)

• Foundation of Michigan Wolverines
  Michigan Wolverines football
  The Michigan Wolverines football program represents the University of Michigan in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision level. Michigan has the most all-time wins and the highest winning percentage in college football history...
  
  

Association football

• FA Cup final
  FA Cup Final
  The FA Cup Final, commonly referred to in England as just the Cup Final, is the last match in the Football Association Challenge Cup. With an official attendance of 89,826 at the 2007 FA Cup Final, it is the fourth best attended domestic club championship event in the world and the second most...
  
   – Old Etonians
  Old Etonians F.C.
  The Old Etonians Football Club is an English football club whose players are taken from previous attendees of Eton College, in Eton, Berkshire.-History:...
  
   1–0 Clapham Rovers at The Oval
  The Oval
  The Kia Oval, still commonly referred to by its original name of The Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, in the London Borough of Lambeth. In the past it was also sometimes called the Kennington Oval...
  
  
• Sunderland AFC is founded by a meeting of local schoolteachers and originally called Sunderland & District Teachers AFC. Non–teachers are allowed to play the following year when the club's name is changed to Sunderland AFC.

• Scottish Cup final – Vale of Leven
  Vale of Leven F.C.
  Vale of Leven Football Club are an association club based in the town of Alexandria, Scotland, in the Vale of Leven area of West Dunbartonshire. Nicknamed the Vale and formed in 1939, they play at Millburn Park...
  
   win by a walkover after Rangers F.C.
  Rangers F.C.
  Rangers Football Club are an association football club based in Glasgow, Scotland, who play in the Scottish Premier League. The club are nicknamed the Gers, Teddy Bears and the Light Blues, and the fans are known to each other as bluenoses...
  
   refuses to appear in the replay. Rangers is protesting about a disallowed goal in the original match, drawn 1–1.

• 5 April — James F. M. Prinsep
  James F. M. Prinsep
  James Frederick McLeod Prinsep was an English footballer who held two 'youngest player' records for almost 125 years, before they were both broken within the space of just over a year....
  
   of Clapham Rovers becomes England's
  England national football team
  The England national football team represents England in association football and is controlled by the Football Association, the governing body for football in England. England is the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside Scotland, whom they played in the world's first...
  
   youngest international player at the age of 17 years and 252 when he makes his debut (and only appearance) for England against Scotland
  Scotland national football team
  The Scotland national football team represents Scotland in international football and is controlled by the Scottish Football Association. Scotland are the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside England, whom they played in the world's first international football match in 1872...
  
  . The record stands for more than 123 years until broken by Wayne Rooney
  Wayne Rooney
  Wayne Mark Rooney is an English footballer who plays as a striker for Premier League club Manchester United and the England national team...
  
   in 2003.

Baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

• National League
  National League
  The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League , is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball, and the world's oldest extant professional team sports league. Founded on February 2, 1876, to replace the National Association of Professional...
  
   champions – Providence Grays
  Providence Grays
  The Providence Grays were a Major League Baseball team based in Providence, Rhode Island who played in the National League from until . The Grays played at Messer Field in the Olneyville neighborhood. The team won the National League title twice, in and...
  
  

• The National League
  National League
  The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League , is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball, and the world's oldest extant professional team sports league. Founded on February 2, 1876, to replace the National Association of Professional...
  
   agrees that no one else will hire any of five players listed by each club, the first reserve lists.

Boxing

Boxing

Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...

• John J. Dwyer defeats former champion Jimmy Elliott
  Jimmy Elliott
  For the English footballer of the same name see Jimmy Elliott Jimmy Elliot was an Irish-American boxer who was Heavyweight Champion of the World from 1865 to 1868. On December 12, 1870 Elliott was arrested and convicted of highway robbery and assault with intent to kill...
  
   in 12 rounds at Long Point, Canada, and then claims the Heavyweight Championship of America due to the continued inactivity of current champion Joe Goss
  Joe Goss
  Joe Goss was born on 5 November 1838 in Northampton, England. Although he rarely scaled more than 160 pounds, the clever and aggressive Goss routinely fought men both bigger and heavier than himself....
  
   and the main challenger Paddy Ryan
  Paddy Ryan
  Paddy Ryan was an Irish American boxer, and became his sport's world's heavyweight champion from May 30, 1880 when he won the title from Joe Goss until losing his title to John L. Sullivan on February 7, 1882....
  
  . His claim is not recognised. Subsequently, Dwyer becomes involved in a bar room brawl with Ryan in New York City.
• John L. Sullivan
  John L. Sullivan
  John Lawrence Sullivan , also known as the Boston Strong Boy, was recognized as the first heavyweight champion of gloved boxing from February 7, 1881 to 1892, and is generally recognized as the last heavyweight champion of bare-knuckle boxing under the London Prize Ring rules...
  
   turns professional and wins his first five known fights.

Cricket

Cricket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

• 2–4 January — Australia defeats England by 10 wicket
  Wicket
  In the sport of cricket the word wicket has several distinct meanings:-Definitions of wicket:Most of the time, the wicket is one of the two sets of three stumps and two bails at either end of the pitch...
  
  s at Sydney Cricket Ground
  Sydney Cricket Ground
  The Sydney Cricket Ground is a sports stadium in Sydney in Australia. It is used for Australian football, Test cricket, One Day International cricket, some rugby league and rugby union matches and is the home ground for the New South Wales Blues cricket team and the Sydney Swans of the Australian...
  
   in the only Test match of the season
• 2 January — Fred Spofforth
  Fred Spofforth
  Frederick Robert "Fred" Spofforth , also known as "The Demon Bowler", was arguably the Australian cricket team's finest pace bowler of the nineteenth century and was the first bowler to take 50 Test wickets, and the first to take a test hat-trick in 1879...
  
   of Australia claims the first hat-trick
  Hat-trick
  A hat-trick or hat trick in sport is the achievement of a positive feat three times during a game, or other achievements based on threes. The term was first used in 1858 in cricket to describe HH Stephenson's feat of taking three wickets in three balls. A collection was held for Stephenson, and he...
  
   in Test cricket
  Test cricket
  Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
  
  
• 25 March — formation of Leicestershire CCC

• Champion County – Lancashire and Nottinghamshire share the title
• Most runs – W G Grace 880 @ 35.20 (HS 123)
• Most wickets – Fred Morley
  Fred Morley
  Frederick Morley was a professional cricketer who was reckoned to be the fastest bowler in England during his prime...
  
   147 @ 10.70 (BB 8–52)

• Most runs – George Ulyett
  George Ulyett
  George Ulyett was an English all-round cricketer, noted particularly for his very-aggressive batsmanship. A well-liked man , Ulyett was popularly known as "Happy Jack", once musing memorably that Yorkshire played him only for his good behaviour and his whistling...
  
   306 @ 34.00 (HS 71)
• Most wickets – Tom Emmett 44 @ 11.63 (BB 8–47)

Golf

Golf

Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....

• British Open
  The Open Championship
  The Open Championship, or simply The Open , is the oldest of the four major championships in professional golf. It is the only "major" held outside the USA and is administered by The R&A, which is the governing body of golf outside the USA and Mexico...
  
   – Jamie Anderson
  Jamie Anderson (golfer)
  James "Jamie" Anderson was a nineteenth century professional golfer, who won The Open Championship three times.Anderson was born in St Andrews, Scotland. His Open Championships were at Musselburgh in 1877; Prestwick Golf Club in 1878; and St Andrews in 1879...
  
  

Horse racing

Horse racing

Horse racing is an equestrian sport that has a long history. Archaeological records indicate that horse racing occurred in ancient Babylon, Syria, and Egypt. Both chariot and mounted horse racing were events in the ancient Greek Olympics by 648 BC...

• Grand National
  Grand National
  The Grand National is a world-famous National Hunt horse race which is held annually at Aintree Racecourse, near Liverpool, England. It is a handicap chase run over a distance of four miles and 856 yards , with horses jumping thirty fences over two circuits of Aintree's National Course...
  
   – The Liberator
• 1,000 Guineas Stakes – Wheel of Fortune
• 2,000 Guineas Stakes – Charibert
• Epsom Derby
  Epsom Derby
  The Derby Stakes, popularly known as The Derby, internationally as the Epsom Derby, and under its present sponsor as the Investec Derby, is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain open to three-year-old thoroughbred colts and fillies...
  
   – Sir Bevys
  Sir Bevys
  Sir Bevys was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. In a career that lasted from 1878 to 1879 he ran six times and won two races. His most important success came in the 1879 Epsom Derby: his only other win was in a selling race...
  
  
• Epsom Oaks
  Epsom Oaks
  The Oaks Stakes is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain open to three-year-old thoroughbred fillies. It is run at Epsom Downs over a distance of 1 mile, 4 furlongs and 10 yards , and it is scheduled to take place each year in early June....
  
   – Wheel of Fortune
• St. Leger Stakes
  St. Leger Stakes
  The St. Leger Stakes is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain which is open to three-year-old thoroughbred colts and fillies. It is run at Doncaster over a distance of 1 mile, 6 furlongs and 132 yards , and it is scheduled to take place each year in September.Established in 1776, the St. Leger...
  
   – Rayon d'Or

• Melbourne Cup
  Melbourne Cup
  The Melbourne Cup is Australia's major Thoroughbred horse race. Marketed as "the race that stops a nation", it is a 3,200 metre race for three-year-olds and over. It is the richest "two-mile" handicap in the world, and one of the richest turf races...
  
   – Darriwell

• Queen's Plate
  Queen's Plate
  The Queen's Plate is Canada's oldest thoroughbred horse race. It is run at a distance of 1¼ miles for 3-year-old thoroughbred horses foaled in Canada. The race takes place each summer in June or July at Woodbine Racetrack, Etobicoke , Ontario...
  
   – Moss Rose

• Irish Grand National
  Irish Grand National
  The Irish Grand National is a National Hunt chase in Ireland which is open to horses aged five years or older. It is run at Fairyhouse over a distance of about 3 miles and 5 furlongs , and during its running there are twenty-four fences to be jumped...
  
   – Jupiter Tonans
• Irish Derby Stakes
  Irish Derby Stakes
  The Irish Derby is a Group 1 flat horse race in Ireland open to three-year-old thoroughbred colts and fillies. It is run at the Curragh over a distance of 1 mile and 4 furlongs , and it is scheduled to take place each year in late June or early July.It is Ireland's equivalent of the Epsom Derby,...
  
   – Soulouque

• Kentucky Derby
  Kentucky Derby
  The Kentucky Derby is a Grade I stakes race for three-year-old Thoroughbred horses, held annually in Louisville, Kentucky, United States on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The race is one and a quarter mile at Churchill Downs. Colts and geldings carry...
  
   – Lord Murphy
  Lord Murphy
  Lord Murphy was an American thoroughbred racehorse that was bred in Tennessee and is best known for winning the 1879 Kentucky Derby. He was originally named Patmus and was a grandson of Lexington. He descended from the Byerly Turk....
  
  
• Preakness Stakes
  Preakness Stakes
  The Preakness Stakes is an American flat Thoroughbred horse race for three-year-olds held on the third Saturday in May each year at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland. It is a Grade I race run over a distance of 9.5 furlongs on dirt. Colts and geldings carry 126 pounds ; fillies 121 lb...
  
   – Harold
  Harold (horse)
  Harold was an American Thoroughbred racehorse. He was bred by Aristides Welch who owned both his sire and his dam. Sired by Leamington, a four-time Leading sire in North America, he was out of the great mare, Maggie B. B...
  
  
• Belmont Stakes
  Belmont Stakes
  The Belmont Stakes is an American Grade I stakes Thoroughbred horse race held every June at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. It is a 1.5-mile horse race, open to three year old Thoroughbreds. Colts and geldings carry a weight of 126 pounds ; fillies carry 121 pounds...
  
   – Spendthrift
  Spendthrift (horse)
  Spendthrift was a successful American Thoroughbred racehorse and an outstanding sire.-Breeding:...
  
  

Lacrosse

Lacrosse

Lacrosse is a team sport of Native American origin played using a small rubber ball and a long-handled stick called a crosse or lacrosse stick, mainly played in the United States and Canada. It is a contact sport which requires padding. The head of the lacrosse stick is strung with loose mesh...

• The U.S. Amateur Lacrosse Association is formed and adopts the Canadian rules.

Rowing

Rowing (sport)

Rowing is a sport in which athletes race against each other on rivers, on lakes or on the ocean, depending upon the type of race and the discipline. The boats are propelled by the reaction forces on the oar blades as they are pushed against the water...

• 5 April — Cambridge
  Cambridge University Boat Club
  The Cambridge University Boat Club is the rowing club of the University of Cambridge, England, located on the River Cam at Cambridge, although training primarily takes place on the River Great Ouse at Ely. The club was founded in 1828...
  
   wins the 36th Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race
  The Boat Race
  The event generally known as "The Boat Race" is a rowing race in England between the Oxford University Boat Club and the Cambridge University Boat Club, rowed between competing eights each spring on the River Thames in London. It takes place generally on the last Saturday of March or the first...
  
  

Rugby football

Rugby football

Rugby football is a style of football named after Rugby School in the United Kingdom. It is seen most prominently in two current sports, rugby league and rugby union.-History:...

• Foundation of Bramley RLFC
  Bramley Buffaloes
  Bramley Buffaloes is a rugby league club from the Bramley area of West Leeds in West Yorkshire, England. Previously known simply as Bramley RLFC, the club is a famous name in rugby league, having existed prior to the formation of the Northern Union in 1895...
  
  , Rosslyn Park F.C.
  Rosslyn Park F.C.
  Rosslyn Park Football Club is a rugby union team. Founded in 1879, the club became the first club based in England to play rugby internationally when it faced Stade Francais in Paris on 18 April 1892. In 1912, the club played in Prague, Budapest and Vienna in the first rugby matches ever played in...
  
   and Warrington RLFC
  Warrington Wolves
  Warrington Wolves are a professional rugby league football club based in Warrington, England that competes in Super League. They play at the Halliwell Jones Stadium, having moved there from Wilderspool in 2003....
  
  

Tennis

Tennis

Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...

• Wimbledon Men's Singles Championship
  The Championships, Wimbledon
  The Championships, Wimbledon, or simply Wimbledon , is the oldest tennis tournament in the world, considered by many to be the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Club in Wimbledon, London since 1877. It is one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, the other three Majors...
  
   – John Hartley
  John Hartley (tennis player)
  John Thorneycroft Hartley was a tennis player from England, and the only clergyman to win Wimbledon.Born in Tong, Shropshire, as the winner of the All Comer's Final, Hartley won the 1879 Gentlemans Singles title by default, after the 1878 Champion, Frank Hadow failed to defend his title...
  
   (GB) defeated Vere St. Leger Goold
  Vere St. Leger Goold
  Vere St. Leger Goold was an Irish tennis player. He quickly faded from the game and ended his life in prison convicted of murder and premature death, by suicide.In his early life he apparently had boxing skills as well as tennis skills...
  
  (GB) 6–2, 6–4, 6–2