This day is sports history

1921 - Cy Denneny (Ottawa Senators) scored six goals against the Hamilton Tigers.

1939 - The Boston Bruins won the Prince Wales Trophy when they clinched the NHL regular season championship. This marked the first time the Prince of Wales Trophy was awarded for this reason.

1951 - Ezzard Charles won a 15-round decision over Jersey Joe Walcott. It was Charles' eighth heavyweight title defense.

1954 - The NBA raised the baskets from 10 feet to 12 feet for an exhibition game between the Minneapolis Lakers and Milwaukee Hawks.

1954 - The Soviet Union defeated Canada in the first international ice hockey competition.

1955 - Baseball commissioner Ford Frick said that he was in favor of legalizing the spitball.

1970 - Austin Carr (Notre Dame) scored 61 points against Ohio University. The feat was an NCAA tournament record.

1974 - New Orleans became the 18th NBA franchise. The team was bought by nine people for $6.15 million.

1982 - The NCAA college basketball tournament selections were televised for the first time.

1983 - Phil Marhe won the Alpine World Cup championship for the third straight year.

1983 - ESPN televised the first live professional football game on cable. The game was between the USFL's Birmingham Stallions and the Michigan Panthers.

1987 - Mike Tyson became the youngest heavyweight titlist when he beat James Smith in a decision during a 12-round fight in Las Vegas, NV.

1989 - Tom Jordan rolled an 899 in a three-game series. It was the best three-game series to be recognized by the ABC in league play.

1995 - Dominique Wilkins (Boston Celtics) became the ninth NBA player to achieve 25,000 career points.

1996 - Magic Johnson (Los Angeles Lakers) became the second player to reach 10,000 assists.

1997 - Wilson Kipketer of Kenya set the world indoor 800-meter record at 1 minute, 43.96 seconds at the World Indoor Championships in Paris.

1998 - Wayne Gretzky (New York Rangers) scored his 1,000th NHL goal. He had scored 878 regular season goals and 122 goals in the playoffs.