1913 — Jim Thorpe, star of the 1912 Olympics, signs to play baseball with the New York Giants.
1914 — The Chicago White Sox and New York Giants play an exhibition game to promote baseball in Egypt. The game ends in a 3-3 tie.
1956 — Hayes Alan Jenkins leads the United States in a sweep of Olympic men’s figure skating in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. The silver goes to Ronald Robertson, and Jenkins’ younger brother, David, wins the bronze.
1964 — Bobby Rousseau of the Montreal Canadiens scores five goals in a 9-3 victory over the Detroit Red Wings.
1995 — Utah guard John Stockton becomes the NBA’s career assist leader, setting up Karl Malone with 6:30 left in the first half of the Jazz’s 129-88 victory over Denver. Stockton’s 9,922nd assist moves him ahead of Magic Johnson.
1996 — The Chicago Bulls win their 17th straight with a 105-85 victory over the Sacramento Kings. The Bulls improve to 40-3, an NBA record for most wins with just three losses, passing the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers, who were 39-3.
1998 — David Graham wins the longest playoff in Senior PGA Tour history, beating Dave Stockton with a birdie on the 10th extra hole in the Royal Caribbean Classic.
2003 — Regina Jacobs becomes the first woman to break four minutes in the indoor 1,500 meters at the Boston Indoor Games. Jacobs finishes in 3:59.98 to break the world record of 4:00.27 set by Romanian Doina Melinte in 1990.
2004 — The New England Patriots win their second Super Bowl in three seasons after Adam Vinatieri kicks a field goal with 4 seconds left to lift his team to a 32-29 victory over the Carolina Panthers. Patriots quarterback Tom Brady sets a Super Bowl record with 32 completions and earns his second MVP award.
2006 — New York’s Epiphanny Prince scores 113 points for Murry Bergtraum High School in a 137-32 win over Brandeis High School, breaking a girls’ national prep record previously held by Hall of Famer Cheryl Miller.
2008 — Jockey Russell Baze is the first to win 10,000th races in North America when he leads Two Step Cat to victory in the third race at Golden Gate Fields.
2009 — Rafael Nadal holds off Roger Federer in another momentum-swinging five-set final to win the Australian Open. Nadal needs 4 hours, 23 minutes to win 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-2. The 22-year-old Nadal wins his sixth Grand Slam and becomes the first Spaniard to win the Australian title.
2009 — Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh offense end a Super Bowl of incredible swings with a final-minute touchdown for a historic victory, 27-23 over the Arizona Cardinals. Santonio Holmes makes a brilliant 6-yard catch deep in the right corner of the end zone with 35 seconds remaining, lifting the Steelers to a record-setting sixth Super Bowl win.
2010 — UConn is No. 1 in The Associated Press women’s basketball poll for a record 37th straight week, surpassing Louisiana Tech (1980-82) for the longest run atop the Top 25.
2014 — Jerami Grant scores eight points in overtime to finish with a career-high 24 and Jim Boeheim’s No. 2 Syracuse stays unbeaten (21-0), topping Mike Krzyzewski’s No. 17 Duke 91-89 in a matchup of the two winningest coaches in Division I history.
2014 — Ray Guy becomes the first punter elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
2014 — Peyton Manning wins his fifth Associated Press NFL Most Valuable Player award in a landslide. Manning won his other MVPs with Indianapolis in 2003-04 and 2008-09. No one else had won more than three NFL MVP awards.
2014 — Oregon Institute of Technology men’s basketball coach Danny Miles becomes the second men’s coach at a four-year program to reach 1,000 career wins with a 71-51 victory over Corban. The 68-year old Miles has spent his entire career at Oregon Tech, where he has won three NAIA Division II national championships (2004, 2008 and 2012) and recorded 10 seasons with 30 wins or more.
2015 — Novak Djokovic wins his fifth Australian Open title and extends Andy Murray’s misery at Melbourne Park by beating the Scotsman 7-6 (5), 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-0.
2015 — Tom Brady throws for four touchdowns and Malcolm Butler intercepts Russell Wilson’s pass in the end zone with 20 seconds left, helping New England hold on to beat Seattle 28-24 for their fourth Super Bowl title.
