The year 1977 was quite the momentous one for the Indianapolis 500 – in part because driver Janet Guthrie became the first woman to qualify for the great race. Find out more about her here.
record-breaking
In 1927, dozens of people tried to break the coffee-drinking record. In just over a month, the cup count went from 71 to a San Francisco man who more than doubled that number.
Inspired by the success of the first modern marathon at the 1896 Olympic games, the Boston Athletic Association decided to stage their own race in April of 1897. Here’s how it went, and the winning time.
Depending on how you count, between three and seven people died due to the very first Indianapolis motor car race back in 1909. Find out more here.
While today’s players make multi-million dollar salaries and play in front of upwards of 15,000 fans a night, Wilt Chamberlain’s record-setting performance took place in front of 4,124 fans at the arena in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
In 1977, alhough Tom Sneva’s four-lap average was just under 199mph, his first two laps were over the ‘magic’ 200mph mark – and the first official laps of over 200mph recorded at the speedway.
The year 1977 was quite the momentous one for the Indianapolis 500, as AJ Foyt would go on to become the first four-time winner in race history.
Called “the most extraordinary thing that ever happened in American sports,” the streak began on May 15, 1941 when Joe DiMaggio went 1-4 against Chicago White Sox hurler Eddie Smith.
In 1883, the volcano of Krakatoa erupted in cataclysmic fashion. Considered the single largest natural explosion in recorded history, the eruption killed upwards of 36,000 people.
The great loss of the Titanic: It is now practically certain that 1,492 human beings went to their death in the sinking of the giant ship on the ice banks of Newfoundland.
Baseball pitcher Walter Johnson, affectionately known as The Big Train, had a fastball that topped out over 90mph, almost entirely unheard of speed in his era. Find out more about him here.
As incredible as it is, the first-person account below, written by polar explorer Ernest Shackleton, is really just the beginning of his story. In 1914,
How Charles Lindbergh rose from working on a farm to become a worldwide hero for his flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
