1st baseball game played

While this was the first official National League game, the teams were not the first in professional baseball—the first pro team was the Cincinnati Red Stockings. Nor was the NL the first major professional baseball league—the first league was the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players, formed in However, the National Association was loosely configured and had no central leadership or authority to govern its teams.

Therefore, corruption, gambling, drunkenness and other malpractices became commonplace by and the league folded. That allowed William Hubert, an Illinois businessman and owner of the Chicago White Stockings, to emerge as the founder of the much more stable National League. Hubert put new rules in place that gave the new league a better chance for success than its predecessor. It was an invite-only league and teams had to pay substantial league dues and were subject to league discipline for misbehavior.

In , the pitching mound was 45 feet from home plate instead of today's 60 feet, six inches. Pitches were supposed to be delivered underhanded, but pitchers "violated that rule with impunity," says John Thorn, Major League Baseball's official historian.

Nine errant balls walked a batter instead of four in the modern game. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! In the eighth inning of a loss to the Brooklyn On December 16, , 14 Tupac Amaru terrorists, On April 22, , German forces shock Allied soldiers along the western front by firing more than tons of lethal chlorine gas against two French colonial divisions at Ypres, Belgium.

This was the first major gas attack by the Germans, and it devastated the Allied line. Millions of Americans, including students from thousands of colleges and universities, participated in rallies, marches On April 22, , Adolf Hitler, learning from one of his generals that no German defense was offered to the Russian assault at Eberswalde, admits to all in his underground bunker that the war is lost and that suicide is his only recourse.

Pat Tillman, who gave up his pro football career to enlist in the U. Army after the terrorist attacks of September 11, is killed by friendly fire while serving in Afghanistan on April 22, The news that Tillman, age 27, was mistakenly gunned down by his fellow Rangers, Sign up now to learn about This Day in History straight from your inbox.

At precisely high noon, thousands of would-be settlers make a mad dash into the newly opened Oklahoma Territory to claim cheap land. The nearly two million acres of land opened up to white settlement was located in Indian Territory, a large area that once encompassed much of Dozens of sewer explosions in Guadalajara, Mexico, kill more than people and damage 1, buildings on April 22, No one really knows who invented baseball in its current form.

Often times the credit for the creation of the sport is given to Abner Doubleday, a Civil War hero. However, even he claimed that he knew nothing about the creation of the sport.

The first official game to be played under modern rules happened on June 19, Even a decade later, however, the media in New York was devoting more column inches to cricket than baseball. It would take another decade after that for the popularity of baseball to increase to levels where it was covered consistently by the press.

In , the first governmental body was formed to organize the group of clubs that were being created. It was also created to monitor and sponsor a league-wide championship. Historians credit the Civil war for boosting the popularity of baseball.

In , the NABBP allowed for the creation of professional clubs, something that had been against the rules of the league since its creation.