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 Association of Base Ball Players
  National Association of Base Ball Players
  The National Association of Base Ball Players was the first organization governing American baseball. The first, 1857 convention of sixteen New York City clubs...
  
   champion – Brooklyn Eckfords

• The champion Eckford club of Brooklyn, New York wins all ten matches against National Association members, a run that began in August 1862

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...

• 5 May — Joe Coburn
  Joe Coburn
  Joe Coburn was an Irish-American boxer. In 1862 he claimed the Heavyweight Championship from John Carmel Heenan based on Heenan refusing to fight him. Mike McCoole claimed Coburn's title in 1866 after Coburn retired. Coburn came out of retirement in 1871 against Jem Mace...
  
   defeats Mike McCoole
  Mike McCoole
  Mike McCoole was a boxing champion.He claimed the Heavyweight Championship in 1866 after Joe Coburn retired. He lost the title to Tom Allen in 1873.-External links:*...
  
   after 67 rounds and is now widely recognised as American Champion.
• 10 December — Tom King defeats John C. Heenan
  John C. Heenan
  John Camel Heenan, aka the Benicia Boy was an American bare-knuckle prize fighter. Though highly regarded, he had only three formal fights in his entire career, losing two and drawing one....
  
   in the 24th round to retain the English Championship title. This is Heenan's final fight.

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...

• 8 January — formation of Yorkshire CCC out of the Sheffield Match Fund Committee that has been established in 1861. Yorkshire CCC plays its initial first-class match v. Surrey CCC 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...
  
   on 4, 5 & 6 June. It is a rain-affected draw, evenly balanced.
• 12 August — formation of Hampshire CCC. A number of previous county organisations including the famous Hambledon Club
  Hambledon Club
  The Hambledon Club was a social club that is famous for its organisation of 18th century cricket matches. By the late 1770s it was the foremost cricket club in England.-Foundation:...
  
   have existed in Hampshire during the previous hundred years or more, but none have survived indefinitely.
• 15 December — formation of Middlesex CCC at a meeting in the London Tavern.
• An organisation in Cheltenham is believed to have been the forerunner of Gloucestershire CCC, which has definitely been founded by 1871. Exact details of the club’s foundation have been lost.

• Champion County – not determined
• Most runs – William Mortlock 736 @ 26.28 (HS 106)
• Most wickets – George Wootton
  George Wootton
  George Wootton was an English cricketer. He was born in Nottingham and played first class cricket for the county of his birth from 1861 to 1871. He also represented MCC from 1862 to 1873 and played several first class games in other matches. A prolific left-arm fast bowler, he took 983 wickets...
  
   87 @ 9.74 (BB 8–9)

Football

Football

Football may refer to one of a number of team sports which all involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball with the foot to score a goal. The most popular of these sports worldwide is association football, more commonly known as just "football" or "soccer"...

• 26 October — foundation by local clubs of the Football Association (FA) in London. The first set of Laws is drafted, based mainly on the Cambridge University Rules. The purpose is to regulate English football under a single code of rules, but the 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:...
  
   clubs do not join because of the ball handling issue. Their attempt at compromise between the "dribbling" and "handling" codes is rejected by the dribblers and so rugby football becomes in time an entirely separate sport. The FA rules establish association football (aka football or "soccer") as a distinct sport.
• Apart from their main purpose of introducing standard rules of play and procedure, the Laws seek to differentiate between association football and rugby football. The essential difference in the two codes is encapsulated in Laws 9 and 11 which state that no (outfield) player shall run with the ball (in his hands) and that no (outfield) player shall throw the ball or pass it to another with his hands. The Laws will be amended later to clarify the situation at throw ins and during possession by goalkeepers but the FA is emphatic from the start that "hand ball" is illegal during normal play.
• These Laws are originally known as the "London Rules" because they are only adopted by some London clubs and hardly anywhere else. Several clubs existed in Sheffield at the time and they played to the so–called Sheffield Rules
  Sheffield Rules
  The Sheffield Rules were a code of football devised and played in the English city of Sheffield between 1857 and 1877. They were devised by Nathaniel Creswick and William Prest for use by the newly founded Sheffield Football Club. The rules were subsequently adopted as the official rules of...
  
  . Gradually the FA, led by Charles Alcock
  Charles Alcock
  Charles Alcock may refer to:*Charles R. Alcock , New Zealand astronomer*C. W. Alcock, Charles William Alcock , English footballer, creator of the FA Cup and organiser of the first Test in England...
  
  , manages to persuade the clubs that a uniform set of rules is desirable and, after many adaptations and compromises, the FA rules eventually become standard.
• The rejection of handling causes the "Rugby rules" clubs and colleges to withdraw from the FA and they will eventually found the Rugby Football Union
  Rugby Football Union
  The Rugby Football Union was founded in 1871 as the governing body for the sport of rugby union, and performed as the international governing body prior to the formation of the International Rugby Board in 1886...
  
   in 1871.

• Probable foundation of Stoke City as Stoke Ramblers, although it is not known to have played any matches until 1868. If founded in 1863, it is the second oldest senior professional club playing association football after Notts County.
• Foundation of the original Bradford Football Club, playing rugby rules, which in 1907 will become Bradford Park Avenue A.F.C.
  Bradford Park Avenue A.F.C.
  Bradford Association Football Club, previously also known as Bradford and since its reformation in the 1970s now referred to as Bradford Park Avenue, is a football club based in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England...
  
  

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...
  
   – Willie Park senior
  Willie Park, Snr.
  William "Willie" Park, Sr. was one of the pioneers of professional golf.Park was born in Musselburgh, Scotland. Like some of the other early professional golfers, Park started out as a caddie. He later ran a golf equipment manufacturing business...
  
  

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...
  
   – Emblem
• 1,000 Guineas Stakes – Lady Augusta
• 2,000 Guineas Stakes – Macaroni
• 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...
  
   – Macaroni
• 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....
  
   – Queen Bertha
• 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...
  
   – Lord Clifden

• 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...
  
   – Banker

• 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...
  
   – Touchstone

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...

• 28 March — Oxford
  Oxford University Boat Club
  The Oxford University Boat Club is the rowing club of the University of Oxford, England, located on the River Thames at Oxford. The club was founded in the early 19th century....
  
   wins the 20th 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...