Events in Sport
- Apr 6 1st modern Summer Olympic Games open in Athens, Greece; American athlete James Connolly Olympic becomes first modern Olympic champion when he wins the triple jump (then 2 hops and a jump); later 3rd in the long jump, 2nd in the high jump
- Apr 7 American athlete Robert Garrett wins the throwing double at the Athens Olympics by taking out the shot putt (11.22m); wins the discus the previous day
Olympic Gold
Apr 7 Australian Teddy Flack, wins Gold in the first Olympic 1500 meters final at Olympics in Athens. Goes on to win 800 meters two days later.
Teddy Flack
- Apr 9 Australian athlete edwin flack claims the middle distance double at the Athens Olympics winning the 800m final in 2:11.0; his 2nd victory of the Games after success in the 1,500m
- Apr 9 Greek shooter Pantelis Karasevdas scores a perfect 40 hits to win the military rifle event at the Athens Olympics; Greek 1-2-3 with Pavlos Pavlidis and Nicolaos Trikupis taking out the minor placings
Event of Interest
Apr 10 Spyridon Louis of Greece wins inaugural Olympic marathon (2:58:50) in Athens; runs last lap accompanied by Constantine I
Constantine I
- Apr 10 High jumper Ellery Clark leads an American sweep of the placings with a leap of 1.81m at the Athens Olympics; his 2nd victory of the Games after taking out the long jump
- Apr 10 American athlete Thomas Burke claims the sprint double at the Athens Olympics winning the 100m final in 12.0s; his 2nd victory of the Games after success in the 400m
- Apr 11 Hungarian swimmer Alfréd Hajós beats Otto Herschmann of Austria by 0.6s to win the inaugural Olympic 100m freestyle final in 1:22.2 at the Athens Games; also takes out the 1,200m on the same day
- Apr 11 Irish tennis player John Boland, representing Great Britain wins both the men's singles and doubles finals at the Athens Olympics; Dionysios Kasdaglis of Greece loses both matches
- Apr 12 Stamasia Portrisi is 1st woman to win a marathon (5:30 in Athens)
- Apr 15 1st modern Summer Olympic Games close in Athens, Greece; USA wins gold medal count, 11; Greece wins total medal count, 46; IOC has retroactively assigned gold, silver & bronze medals to 3 best placed athletes in each event
Birthdays in Sport
- Apr 2 Johnny Golden, American golfer (PGA C'ship 1922, 26, 27 3rd; Ryder Cup 1927, 29 [3-0-0 record]; 9 x PGA Tour titles), born in Tuxedo, New York (d. 1936)
- Apr 7 Benny Leonard, lightweight boxing champ (1917-25)
- Apr 27 Rogers Hornsby, American Baseball Hall of Fame 2nd baseman, manager (7-time NL batting champion), born in Winters, Texas (d. 1963)