Jan. 26

1913 — Jim Thorpe gives up his track medals from the 1912 Olympic games as a result of his having been a professional. He had been paid $25 for playing in a semipro baseball game.

1951 — Jimmie Foxx and Mel Ott are elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

1955 — Joe DiMaggio is elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

1960 — Pete Rozelle is chosen the new commissioner of the National Football League.

1985 — Edmonton's Wayne Gretzky scores his 50th goal in the 49th game of the season, a 6-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins.

1986 — The Chicago Bears win their first NFL championship since 1963 by setting a Super Bowl-record for points scored in defeating the New England Patriots 46-10.

1991 — Houston guard Vernon Maxwell joins Wilt Chamberlain, David Thompson and George Gervin as the only players in NBA history to score 30 points or more in a quarter. Maxwell scores 30 of his career-high 51 points in the fourth quarter to help Houston beat Cleveland 103-97.

1992 — The Washington Redskins win their third Super Bowl in 10 years, beating the Buffalo Bills 37-24, putting the game away with 24 straight points after a scoreless first quarter.

1996 — Three years after she won her last Grand Slam title on the same Center Court, Monica Seles wins her fourth Australian Open crown. Seles beats Germany's Anke Huber 6-4, 6-1 to claim her ninth major championship.

1997 — The Green Bay Packers, behind big plays, beat the New England Patriots 35-21 in the Super Bowl. Brett Favre finds Andre Rison for a 54-yard touchdown on the Packers' second offensive play, then throws an 81-yard TD pass to Antonio Freeman in the second quarter. Desmond Howard, the first special teams MVP, scores on a 99-yard kickoff return to put away the Patriots.

2002 — Jennifer Capriati produces the greatest comeback in a Grand Slam final to overcome Martina Hingis and defend her Australian Open title. Capriati saves four match points before clinching a 4-6, 7-6 (7), 6-2 victory over Hingis.

2005 — South Africa's Ryk Neethling breaks his own short-course world record in the 100-meter medley, finishing in 52.01 seconds at a World Cup meet in Moscow. Neethling shaves 0.1 seconds off his previous record of 52.11 set on Jan. 22.

2006 — Detroit's Brendan Shanahan scores his 100th career game-winning goal for a 2-1 victory over Vancouver. He's fourth all-time behind Gordie Howe, Phil Esposito and Brett Hull.

2007 — Mark Recchi scores two goals, including the 500th of his career, in Pittsburgh's 4-3 shootout win over Dallas.

2007 — Martin Brodeur makes 28 saves, extending his NHL record for consecutive 30-win seasons to 11, as the New Jersey Devils beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-0.

2007 — Jamal Crawford scores a career-high 52 points to lead New York to a 116-96 victory over Miami.

2008 — Maria Sharapova wins the Australian Open, beating Ana Ivanovic 7-5, 6-3 for her third Grand Slam singles title. Sharapova wins the title without dropping a set, including wins over three of the top four ranked players.

2008 — Mirai Nagasu becomes the second-youngest woman to win the title at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. The 4-foot-11 14-year-old falls on her opening jump, a double axel, but lands six triple jumps, three in combination, in her program.

2009 — Alex Ovechkin seals the Eastern Conference's 12-11 victory in the NHL All-Star game with a goal in the third round of the shootout. Alex Kovalev, of host Montreal, earns MVP honors with a pair of breakaway goals and then another in the shootout.