Sports History 1896 - The first modern Olympic Games began in Athens, Greece. 1970 - Bobby Orr (Boston Bruins) became the first defenseman to win the National Hockey League's (NHL) scoring title. 1973 - U.S. President Nixon threw out the first pitch of the season at a California Angels game. It was the first time that a U.S. President had performed the ceremonial activity in a city other than Washington, DC. 1987 - Sugar Ray Leonard took the middleweight title from Marvin Hagler. 1997 - Mario Lemieux (Pittsburgh Penguins) announced that he would retire from the National Hockey League (NHL) following the playoffs of the current season. |