Today in sports history: Babe Ruth hits his 600th home run in 1931
Here's a look back at sports happenings on this date in history, Aug. 21:
1931: Babe Ruth hits his 600th home run
1931 — Babe Ruth of New York hits his 600th home run as the Yankees beat the St. Louis Browns 11-7.
Babe Ruth of the New York Yankees is shown, 1932. (AP Photo)
1985: Mary Decker sets world record in mile run
1985 — Mary Decker sets the world record in the mile run with a time of 4:16.71 in Zurich.
Mary Decker distance runner in 1985. (AP Photo)
2003: Paul Hamm becomes first American man to win all-around gold at world championships
2003 — Paul Hamm puts together a near-perfect routine on the high bar to become the first American man to win the all-around gold medal at World Gymnastics Championships. Needing a 9.712 or better to beat China’s Yang Wei, Hamm strings together four straight release moves during his 60-second routine — one of the toughest feats in gymnastics — for a 9.975 and the gold.
Paul Hamm of Waukesha, Wis., performs on the rings during the U.S. Gymnastics Championship, Sunday, June 22, 2003, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
2008: LaShawn Merritt leads US sweep of 400 meters in Beijing
2008 — At the Summer Olympics in Beijing, Yukiko Ueno pitches 28 innings in two days, including seven to shut down the U.S. softball team, 3-1, and give Japan the gold medal. It was the first loss for the Americans since Sept. 21, 2000 — 22 straight games. LaShawn Merritt upsets defending champion Jeremy Wariner to lead a U.S. sweep of the 400 meters track event. David Neville gets the bronze. The U.S. men and women both drop the baton in the Olympic 400-meter relays and fail to advance out of the first round. Jamaica’s Veronica Campbell-Brown easily wins the 200 meters to cap the first sweep of all four men’s and women’s Olympic sprints in 20 years.
United States' LaShawn Merritt celebrates winning the gold in the men's 400-meter race during the athletics competitions in the National Stadium at the Beijing 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Thursday, Aug. 21, 2008. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
2010: Kyle Busch sweeps three NASCAR races at Bristol
2010 — Kyle Busch makes NASCAR history with an unprecedented sweep of three national races in one week, completing the trifecta with a victory in the Sprint Cup race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Busch, winner of the Nationwide race a day earlier and the Trucks race on Aug. 18, becomes the first driver to complete the sweep since NASCAR expanded to three national series in 1995.
Kyle Busch celebrates with the checkered flag after winning the NASCAR auto racing Irwin Tools Night Race on Saturday, Aug. 21, 2010 in Bristol, Tenn. Busch won all three races held at Bristol this week. (AP Photo/Ernie Masche, Pool)
2016: Kevin Durant leads US basketball to third straight Olympic gold
2016 — Kevin Durant scores 30 points and helps the Americans rout Serbia 96-66 for their third straight gold medal. That caps an Olympics in which the U.S. dominated the medal tables, both the gold (46) and overall totals (121). The 51-total-medal margin over second-place China the largest in a non-boycotted Olympics in nearly a century.
United States' Kevin Durant celebrates winning the men's basketball gold medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, Aug. 21, 2016. (AP Photo/Matt York)
