:: wikimiki.org ::
| Jerry Sloan |
Jerry SloanGerald Eugene Sloan (born March 28, 1942), better known as Jerry Sloan, is an NBA coach. One of basketball's most successful coaches in history, he has, ironically, never won an NBA championship.
A native of McLeansboro, Illinois, he played college basketball at the University of Evansville, and then went on to play for his local NBA team, the Chicago Bulls, during the Bulls' formative years. Sloan enjoyed a respectable NBA career, helping lead the Bulls to the playoffs on various occasions and helping them win one central conference title.
He coached the Bulls for a brief time, winning 94 games and losing 121.
After Frank Layden's retirement from the Utah Jazz in 1987 as head coach, the Jazz chose Sloan to be his successor. Sloan enjoyed a highly successful run of sixteen consecutive seasons of taking his team to the playoffs, and he has coached such players as Karl Malone, John Stockton, Jeff Hornacek, Tom Chambers, Mark Eaton, and Jeff Malone during the process. He joined Pat Riley and Phil Jackson as the only three coaches with ten or more seasons winning fifty or more games.
After Tom Kelly stepped down as coach of the Minnesota Twins in 2001, Sloan became the longest tenured coach in major league sports with a single franchise. He has led the team to the NBA Finals twice, losing in the 1997 and 1998 championship, both times to his old team, the Michael Jordan-led Bulls.
In February of 2003, he reached his 900th victory as an NBA coach, becoming the sixth coach in NBA history to reach that number of wins.
As of that month, he and his team were involved in a battle for the eighth spot in the NBA's western conference for that season, which would have given Sloan his seventeenth straight trip to the playoffs. Nowadays, he coaches other budding stars, such as Carlos Boozer and Andrei Kirilenko.
The Jazz were tied with the Denver Nuggets for the eighth and last spot of the playoffs with three games to go in the regular season. The Jazz lost their final two games of the season, however, making Sloan miss the playoffs for the first time in eighteen seasons as Jazz coach. His wife Bobbye passed away shortly after the end of the season, leading some to speculate as to the state of his career.
After leading what many expected to be a completely dismantled team to a 42-40 record in the '03-'04 NBA season, missing the playoffs by one game, he finished barely behind Hubie Brown of the Memphis Grizzlies in voting for the NBA Coach of the Year Award.
Sloan, Jerry
Sloan, Jerry
Sloan, Jerry
Sloan, Jerry
Sloan, Jerry
Sloan, Jerry
March 28
March 28 is the 87th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (88th in Leap years). There are 278 days remaining.
Events
- 193 - Roman Emperor Pertinax is assassinated by Praetorian Guards, who then sells the throne in an auction to Didius Julianus.
- 364 - Roman Emperor Valentinian I appoints his brother Flavius Valens co-emperor.
- 845 - Paris is sacked by Viking raiders, probably under Ragnar Lodbrok, who collects a huge ransom in exchange for leaving.
- 1776 - Juan Bautista de Anza finds the site for the Presidio of San Francisco.
- 1794 - Allies under the prince of Coburg defeated French forces at Le Cateau.
- 1795 - Partitions of Poland: The Duchy of Courland, a northern fief of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, ceases to exist and becomes part of Imperial Russia.
- 1802 - Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus Olbers discovers 2 Pallas, the second asteroid known to man.
- 1809 - Battle of Medelin
- 1834 - The United States Senate censures President Andrew Jackson for his actions in defunding the Second Bank of the United States.
- 1854 - Crimean War: United Kingdom and France declare war on Russia.
- 1860 - First Taranaki War: The Battle of Waireka begins.
- 1862 - American Civil War: Battle of Glorieta Pass - In New Mexico, Union forces succeed in stopping the Confederate invasion of New Mexico territory. The battle began on March 26.
- 1910 - Henri Fabre becomes the first person to fly a seaplane after taking off from a water runway near Martigues, France.
- 1913 - Guatemala becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
- 1920 - Actors Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford marry.
- 1930 - Constantinople and Angora change their names to Istanbul and Ankara.
- 1939 - Spanish Civil War: Generalissimo Francisco Franco conquers Madrid
- 1941 - World War II: Battle of Cape Matapan - In the Mediterranean Sea, British Admiral Andrew Browne Cunningham leads the Royal Navy in the destruction of three major Italian battleships and two destroyers.
- 1942 - World War II: In occupied France, British naval forces raid the German-occupied port of St. Nazaire.
- 1946 - Cold War: The United States State Department releases the Acheson-Lilienthal Report, outlining a plan for the international control of nuclear power.
- 1947 - The last episode of the Buck Rogers in the 25th Century airs on radio.
- 1964 - The first pirate radio station, Radio Caroline, is established.
- 1978 - US Supreme Court hands down 5-3 decision in Stump v. Sparkman, 435 U.S. 349, a controversial case involving involuntary sterilization and judicial immunity.
- 1979 - In Pennsylvania, a pump in the reactor cooling system fails at Three Mile Island, resulting in the evaporation of some contaminated water causing a nuclear meltdown.
- 1990 - President George H. W. Bush posthumously awards Jesse Owens the Congressional Gold Medal.
- 1994 - In South Africa, Zulus and African National Congress supporters battle in central Johannesburg, resulting in 18 deaths.
- 2002 - The exhibit "The Italians: Three Centuries of Italian Art" opens at the National Gallery of Australia.
- 2005 - The 2005 Sumatran earthquake rocks Indonesia, and at magnitude 8.7 is the second strongest earthquake since 1960.
Births
- 1472 - Fra Bartolommeo, Italian artist (d. 1517)
- 1496 - Mary Tudor, queen of Louis XII of France (d. 1533)
- 1515 - Saint Teresa of Avila, Spanish Carmelite nun and poet (d. 1582)
- 1522 - Albert the Warlike, Prince of Bayreuth (d. 1557)
- 1569 - Ranuccio I Farnese, Duke of Parma (d. 1622)
- 1592 - Comenius, Czech writer (d. 1670)
- 1599 - Witte Corneliszoon de With, Dutch naval officer (d. 1658)
- 1609 - King Frederick III of Denmark (d. 1670)
- 1652 - Samuel Sewall, English-born judge (d. 1730)
- 1725 - Andrew Kippis, English non-conformist clergyman and biographer (d. 1795)
- 1760 - Thomas Clarkson, American abolitionist
- 1819 - Sir Joseph Bazalgette, English civil engineer (d. 1891)
- 1851 - Bernardino Machado, Portuguese President (d. 1944)
- 1862 - Aristide Briand, French politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1932)
- 1868 - Maxim Gorky, Russian author (d. 1936)
- 1871 - Willem Mengelberg, Dutch conductor (d. 1951)
- 1890 - Paul Whiteman, American bandleader (d. 1967)
- 1892 - Corneille Heymans, Belgian physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1968)
- 1895 - Spencer W. Kimball, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1985)
- 1897 - Sepp Herberger, German football coach (d. 1977)
- 1899 - Harold B. Lee, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1973)
- 1902 - Dame Flora Robson, English actress (d. 1984)
- 1902 - Jaromír Vejvoda, Czech composer (d. 1988)
- 1903 - Rudolf Serkin, Austrian pianist (d. 1991)
- 1903 - Charles Starrett, American actor (d. 1986)
- 1905 - Marlin Perkins, American naturalist and television host (d. 1986)
- 1909 - Nelson Algren, American writer (d. 1981)
- 1910 - Frederick Baldwin Adams, Jr. Bibliophile and director of the Pierpont Morgan Library (d. 2001)
- 1910 - Jimmie Dodd, American television actor (d. 1964)
- 1910 - Queen Ingrid of Denmark (d. 2000)
- 1914 - Edmund Muskie, American politician (d. 1996)
- 1915 - Jay Livingston, American composer and songwriter (d. 2001)
- 1921 - Dirk Bogarde, English actor (d. 1999)
- 1924 - Freddie Bartholomew, Irish actor (d. 1992)
- 1928 - Zbigniew Brzezinski, U.S. National Security Advisor
- 1930 - Jerome Isaac Friedman, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1935 - Michael Parkinson, British broadcaster and talk show host
- 1936 - Mario Vargas Llosa, Peruvian author and politician
- 1941 - Jim Turner, American football player
- 1942 - Neil Kinnock, British statesman
- 1942 - Mike Newell, British film director
- 1942 - Jerry Sloan, American basketball coach
- 1944 - Rick Barry, American basketball player
- 1944 - Ken Howard, American actor
- 1946 - Alejandro Toledo, President of Peru
- 1948 - Dianne Weist, American actress
- 1951 - Karen Kain, Canadian ballerina
- 1953 - Melchior Ndadaye, first President of Burundi (d. 1993)
- 1955 - Reba McEntire, American singer and actress
- 1958 - Curt Hennig, American professional wrestler (d. 2003)
- 1960 - Chris Barrie, British actor
- 1961 - Byron Scott, American basketball player
- 1962 - Jure Franko, Slovenian skier
- 1968 - Iris Chang, American author (d. 2004)
- 1968 - Nasser Hussain, English cricketer
- 1970 - Vince Vaughn, American actor
- 1971 - Mr. Cheeks, American rapper
- 1974 - Mark King, English snooker player
- 1975 - Richard Kelly, American film director
- 1977 - Devon, American actress
- 1981 - Julia Stiles, American actress
Deaths
- 193 - Pertinax, Roman Emperor (assassinated) (b. 126)
- 1239 - Emperor Go-Toba of Japan (b. 1180)
- 1285 - Pope Martin IV
- 1563 - Heinrich Glarean, Swiss music theorist (b. 1488)
- 1566 - Sigismund von Herberstein, Austrian diplomat and historian (b. 1486)
- 1677 - Václav Hollar, Czech-born actor (b. 1607)
- 1687 - Constantijn Huygens, Dutch poet and composer (b. 1596)
- 1794 - Marquis de Condorcet, French mathematician, philosopher, and political scientist (b. 1743)
- 1868 - James Thomas Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan, British military leader (b. 1797)
- 1870 - George Henry Thomas, American general (b. 1816)
- 1881 - Modest Mussorgsky, Russian composer (b. 1839)
- 1910 - David Josiah Brewer, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (b. 1837)
- 1910 - Edouard Judas Colonne, French violinist (b. 1838)
- 1941 - Virginia Woolf, English writer (b. 1882)
- 1943 - Sergei Rachmaninoff, Russian composer and pianist (b. 1873)
- 1949 - Grigoraş Dinicu, Romanian composer and violinist (b. 1889)
- 1953 - Jim Thorpe, American athlete (b. 1887)
- 1958 - W.C. Handy, American composer (b. 1873)
- 1969 - Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States (b. 1890)
- 1978 - Dino Ciani, Italian pianist (d. 1941)
- 1979 - Emmett Kelly, American clown (b. 1898)
- 1980 - Dick Haymes, Argentine-born singer (b. 1918)
- 1982 - William Giauque, Canadian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1895)
- 1985 - Marc Chagall, Russian-born painter (b. 1887)
- 1987 - Maria von Trapp, Austrian-born singer (b. 1905)
- 1987 - Patrick Troughton, British actor (b. 1920)
- 1995 - Hugh O'Connor, American actor (b. 1962)
- 2000 - Anthony Powell, British novelist (b. 1905)
- 2001 - Moe Koffman, Canadian musician (b. 1928)
- 2004 - Art James, American game show host (b. 1929)
- 2004 - Peter Ustinov, British actor (b. 1921)
External links
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/28 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.tnl.net/when/3/28 Today in History: March 28]
----
March 27 - March 29 - February 28 - April 28 -- listing of all days
ko:3월 28일
ms:28 Mac
ja:3月28日
simple:March 28
th:28 มีนาคม
1942This article is about the year. For the 1984 Capcom arcade game, see 1942 (video game).
1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar).
Events
January
- January 1 - World War II: The term "United Nations" is first officially used to describe the Allied pact.
- January 2 - World War II: Manila is captured by Japanese forces. The Japanese Admiral stays in Solvec (owned by Charles Henry de Silva), Philippines.
- January 5 - Amy Johnson disappears in flight over River Thames estuary - assumed drowned
- January 6 - Pan American Airlines becomes the first commercial airline to have a flight go around the world.
- January 7 - World War II: Siege of the Bataan Peninsula begins
- January 11 - World War II: Japan declares war on the Netherlands and invades the Netherlands East Indies.
- January 11 - World War II: The Japanese capture Kuala Lumpur.
- January 12 - President Franklin Roosevelt creates the National War Labor Board.
- January 13 - Henry Ford patents a plastic automobile, which is 30% lighter than a regular car
- January 16 - Airplane crashes near Las Vegas. Dead include Carole Lombard and her mother
- January 19 - World War II: Japanese forces invade Burma.
- January 20 - World War II: Nazis at the Wannsee conference in Berlin decide that the "final solution to the Jewish problem" is relocation, and later extermination.
- January 25 - World War II: Thailand declares war on the United States and United Kingdom
- January 26 - World War II: The first American forces arrive in Europe landing in Northern Ireland.
February
- February 9
- World War II: Top United States military leaders hold their first formal meeting to discuss American military strategy in the war.
- Daylight-saving time goes into effect in the United States.
- February 11 - Operation Cerberus - Flotilla of Kriegsmarine ships dash from Brest through the English Channel to northern ports; British fail to sink any one of them
- February 15 - World War II: Singapore surrenders to Japanese forces.
- February 19
- World War II: 242 Japanese warplanes attack Darwin, Australia.
- World War II: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs executive order 9066 allowing the United States military to define areas as exclusionary zones. These zones affect the Japanese on the West Coast, and Germans and Italians primarily on the East Coast.
- February 20 - Lieutenant Edward O'Hare becomes America's first World War II flying ace
- February 22 - World War II: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt orders General Douglas MacArthur out of the Philippines as American defense of the nation collapses.
- February 23 - Japanese submarine I-17 fires sixteen high-explosive shells toward an oil refinery near Santa Barbara, California, causing little damage.
- February 24 - Propaganda: The Voice of America begins broadcasting.
- February 25 - Princess Elizabeth registers for war service
- February 26 - Coal dust explosion in Honkeika mine in China - 1549 dead
- February 27 - World War II: the USS Langley, the first United States aircraft carrier, is sunk by Japanese warplanes off Java.
March
- March 9 - The Secretary of War reorganized the United States Army into three major commands - Army Ground Forces, Army Air Forces, and Services of Supply, later redesignated Army Service Forces
April-June
Army Service Forces.]]
- April 3 - World War II: Japanese forces begin an all-out assault on the United States and Filipino troops on the Bataan Peninsula. Bataan fell on April 9 and the Bataan Death March began.
- April 5 - Second World War: Japanese Navy attacks Colombo in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Royal Navy Cruisers HMS Cornwall and HMS Dorsetshire are sunk southwest of the island.
- April 9 - Second World War: Japanese Navy launches air raid on Trincomalee in Ceylon (Sri Lanka); Royal Navy Aircraft Carrier HMS Hermes and Royal Australian Navy Destroyer HMAS Vampire are sunk off the country's East Coast.
- April 27 - World War II: A national plebiscite is held in Canada on the issue of conscription.
- May - first test of an undersea oil pipeline in Operation Pluto
- May 6 - World War II: On Corregidor, the last American forces in the Philippines surrender to the Japanese.
- May 8 - World War II: The Battle of the Coral Sea comes to an end. This is the first time in the naval history where two enemy fleets fought without seeing each other's fleets.
- May 8/May 9 - Second World War: On the night of 8/9 May 1942, gunners of the Ceylon Garrison Artillery on Horsburgh Island in the Cocos Islands rebelled. Their mutiny was crushed and three of them were executed, the only British Commonwealth soldiers to be executed for mutiny during the Second World War.
- 1942 - World War II: Second Battle of Kharkov - In the eastern Ukraine, the Soviet Army initiates a major offensive. During the battle the Soviets will capture the city of Kharkov from the German Army, only to be encircled and destroyed.
- May 15 - World War II: In the United States, a bill creating the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) is signed into law.
- May 20 - First colored seamen taken into US Navy
- May 27 - World War II: Operation Anthropoid - assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in Prague
- June 4 - World War II: Reinhard Heydrich dies in Prague due to the assassination by Czechoslovak paratroopers (Operation Anthropoid)
- June 4-June 7 - World War II: The Battle of Midway.
- June 7 - World War II- Japanese forces invade the Aleutian Islands. This is the first invasion of American soil in 128 years.
- June 9 - World War II: Nazis burn the Czech village of Lidice as reprisal for the killing of Reinhard Heydrich.
- June 10 - World War II: the Gestapo massacred 173 male residents of Lidice, Czechoslovakia in retaliztion for the killing of a Nazi official.
- June 12 - Holocaust: Future essayist Anne Frank receives a diary for her thirteenth birthday.
- June 13 - The United States opens its Office of War Information, a center for production of propaganda.
July
- July 1 - July 27 - World War II: the First Battle of El Alamein
- July 9 - Holocaust: Anne Frank's family goes into hiding in an attic above her father's office in an Amsterdam warehouse.
- July 13 - World War II: German U-Boats sink three more merchant ships in Gulf of St. Lawrence.
- July 16 - Holocaust: On order from the Vichy France government headed by Pierre Laval, French police officers round-up 13,000-20,000 Jews and imprison them in the Winter Velodrome.
- July 16 - Georges Bégué and others escape from Mauzac prison camp
- July 18 - World War II: The Germans test fly the Messerschmitt Me-262 using only its jets for the first time.
- July 19 - World War II: Battle of the Atlantic - German Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz orders the last U-boats to withdraw from their United States Atlantic coast positions in response to an effective American convoy system.
- July 22 - Holocaust: The systematic deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto begins.
- July 31 - The Oxford Committee of Famine Relief (OXFAM) founded
August-September
- August 7 - World War II: Battle of Guadalcanal begins - US Marines initiate the first American offensive of the war with a landing on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands.
- August 8 - World War II: In Washington, DC, six German would-be saboteurs are executed (two others were cooperative and received life imprisonment instead).
- August 8 - Quit India resolution was passed by the Bombay session of the All India Congress Committee (AICC), which led to the start of a historical civil disobidience movement across India
- August 9 - Indian leader, Mohandas Gandhi is arrested in Bombay by British forces.
- August 13-14 night - In London instruments detect a massive burst of cosmic rays
- August 16 - Polish-Jewish teacher Janusz Korczak follows a group of Jewish children into Treblinka death camp
- August 19 - World War II: The Dieppe Raid - Allied forces raid Dieppe, France.
- August 22 - World War II: Brazil declared war on Germany and Italy.
- September 3 -
- Francisco Franco fires foreign minister Serrano Súñer
- An attempt by the Germans to liquidate the Jewish ghetto in Lakhva leads to an uprising.
- September 24 - Andrée Borrel and Lise de Baissac became the first female SOE agents to be parachuted into occupied France.
October
- October 2 - British cruiser Curacao collides with the liner Queen Mary off the coast of Donegal and sinks - 338 drowned
- October 3 - First successful launch of A4-rocket from Test Stand VII at Peenemünde, Germany. The rocket flew 147 kilometres wide and reached a height of 84.5 kilometres and was therefore the first man-made object reaching space.
- October 9 - Statute of Westminster Adoption Act formalizes Australian autonomy.
- October 11 - World War II: Battle of Cape Esperance - On the northwest coast of Guadalcanal, United States Navy ships intercept and defeat a Japanese fleet on their way to reinforce troops on the island.
- October 14 - A German U-boat sinks the ferry SS Caribou, killing 137.
- October 16 - Hurricane and flooding in Bombay - 40,000 dead
- October 23 - November 4 - World War II: the Second Battle of El Alamein
- October 28 - The Alaska Highway is completed.
- October 29 - Holocaust: In the United Kingdom, leading clergymen and political figures hold a public meeting to register outrage over Nazi Germany's persecution of Jews.
November
Jew
- November 3 - World War II: Second Battle of El Alamein ends - German forces under Erwin Rommel are forced to retreat during the night.
- November 8 - World War II: Operation Torch - United States and United Kingdom forces land in French North Africa.
- November 8 - World War II: French resistance Coup in Algiers, by which 400 French civil resistants neutralized the vichyist XIXth Army Corps and the vichyist generals (Juin, Darlan, etc.), so allowing the immediate success of Operation Torch in Algiers, and from there in the whole French North Africa.
- November 9 - World War II: U.S serviceman Edward Leonswki hanged at Melbourne's Pentridge Prison for the "Brown-Out" Murders of three women in May
- November 10 - World War II: In violation of a 1940 armistice, Germany invades Vichy France following French Admiral François Darlan agreement to an armistice with the Allies in North Africa.
- November 12 - World War II: Battle of Guadalcanal begins - A naval battle near Guadalcanal starts between Japanese and American forces.
- November 13 - World War II: Battle of Guadalcanal - Aviators from the USS Enterprise sink the Japanese heavy cruiser BB- Hiei.
- November 15 - World War II: Battle of Guadalcanal ends - Although the United States Navy suffered heavy losses, it was able to retain control of Guadalcanal.
- November 19 - World War II: Battle of Stalingrad - Soviet Union forces under General Georgy Zhukov launch the Operation Uranus counterattacks at Stalingrad, turning the tide of the battle in the USSR's favor.
- November 21 - The completion of the Alaska Highway (also known as the Alcan Highway) is celebrated (the "highway" was not usable by general vehicles until 1943, however).
- November 22 - World War II: Battle of Stalingrad - The situation for the German attackers of Stalingrad seems desperate during the Soviet counter-attack Operation Uranus and General Friedrich Paulus sends Adolf Hitler a telegram saying that the German 6th army is surrounded.
- November 23 - German U-boat sinks SS Ben Lomond off the coast of Brazil. One crewman, Chinese second steward Poon Lim, is separated from the others and spends 130 days adrift until he is rescued April 3 1943
- November 27 - World War II: At Toulon, the French navy scuttles its ships and submarines to keep them out of Nazi hands.
- November 28 - In Boston, Massachusetts, a fire in the Cocoanut Grove night club kills 491 people.
- November 28 - The large-scale German "pacification" of Zamojszczyzna begins.
December
- December 2 - Manhattan Project: Below the bleachers of Stagg Field at the University of Chicago, a team led by Enrico Fermi initiate the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction (a coded message, "The Italian navigator has landed in the new world" was then sent to US President Franklin D. Roosevelt).
- December 4 - Holocaust: In Warsaw, two Christian women, Zofia Kossak and Wanda Filipowicz risk their lives by setting up the Council for the Assistance of the Jews.
Undated
- Catavi massacre - Bolivian soldiers shoot miners
- Serial killer Singing Strangler in Melbourne
- Grand Coulee Dam finished in Columbia River
- DDT first used as a pesticide
Ongoing events
- World War II (1939-1945)
- Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945)
- 1942 in art
- 1942 in film
- Mrs. Miniver
- Bambi
- Casablanca starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman
- Quattro passi fra le nuvole by Alessandro Blasetti.
- 1942 in literature
- Mythology
- 1942 in music
- "White Christmas" - Bing Crosby
- 1942 in rail transport
- 1942 in sports
- 1942 in television
- April 13 - The FCC minimum programming time required of TV stations is cut from 15 hours to four hours a week during the war.
Births
Unknown date
- Roger Angleton, American murderer (d. 1998)
- Priscilla Davis, American socialite (d. 2001)
January
- January 1 - Martin Frost, American politician
- January 1 - Gennadi Sarafanov, cosmonaut
- January 2 - Hugh Shelton, American Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
- January 3 - John Thaw, English actor (d. 2002)
- January 5 - Maurizio Pollini, Italian pianist
- January 5 - Charlie Rose, American talk show host
- January 7 - Vasily Alexeev, Soviet weightlifter
- January 8 - Stephen Hawking, British physicist
- January 8 - Junichiro Koizumi, Prime Minister of Japan
- January 8 - Yvette Mimieux, American actress
- January 8 - George Passmore, English artist (Gilbert and George)
- January 15 - Charo, American singer and actress
- January 17 - Muhammad Ali, American boxer
- January 17 - Cus D'Amato, boxing manager (d. 1985)
- January 17 - Ulf Hoelscher, German violinist
- January 17 - Nancy Parsons, American actress (d. 2001)
- January 19 - Michael Crawford, singer and actor
- January 25 - Carl Eller, American football player
- January 25 - Eusébio, Portuguese footballer
- January 31 - Derek Jarman, English director and writer (d. 1994)
February
- February 1 - Terry Jones, Welsh actor and writer
- February 2 - Graham Nash, English musician
- February 5 - Roger Staubach, American football player
- February 9 - Carole King, American singer and composer
- February 12 - Ehud Barak, Prime Minister of Israel
- February 13 - Peter Tork, American musician and actor
- February 19 - Paul Krause, American football player
- February 20 - Phil Esposito, Canadian hockey player
- February 21 - Margarethe von Trotta, German actress, film director, and writer
- February 24 - Joseph Lieberman, American politician
- February 27 - Robert H. Grubbs, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- February 28 - Brian Jones, English musician (The Rolling Stones) (d. 1969)
March
- March 2 - John Irving, American author
- March 2 - Lou Reed, American singer and guitarist
- March 4 - Charles C. Krulak, U.S. Marine Corps commander
- March 5 - Felipe González Márquez, Spanish politician
- March 7 - Tammy Faye Bakker, American evangelist
- March 7 - Michael Eisner, American film studio executive
- March 9 - John Cale, Welsh composer and musician
- March 13 - Dave Cutler, American software engineer
- March 16 - James Soong, Taiwan politician
- March 17 - John Wayne Gacy, American serial killer (d. 1994)
- March 23 - Walter Rodney, Guyanese historian and political figure
- March 25 - Aretha Franklin, American singer
- March 25 - Richard O'Brien, English-born actor and writer
- March 26 - Erica Jong, American author
- March 27 - John E. Sulston, British chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- March 27 - Michael York, English actor
April
- April 2 - Hiroyuki Sakai, Japanese chef
- April 3 - Marsha Mason, American actress
- April 3 - Wayne Newton, American singer
- April 5 - Peter Greenaway, Welsh filmmaker
- April 5 - Pascal Couchepin, Swiss Federal Councilor
- April 6 - Barry Levinson, American film producer and director
- April 14 - Valeriy Brumel, Russian athlete (d. 2003)
- April 14 - Valentin Lebedev, cosmonaut
- April 26 - Bobby Rydell, American singer
- April 26 - Michael Kergin, Canadian diplomat
May
- May 2 - Jacques Rogge, Belgian International Olympic Committee president
- May 5 - Tammy Wynette, American musician (d. 1998)
- May 9 - John Ashcroft, United States Attorney General
- May 12 - Ian Dury, British musician (d. 2000)
- May 17 - Taj Mahal, American singer and guitarist
- May 18 - Albert Hammond, English-born musician and composer
- May 18 - Nobby Stiles, English footballer
- May 19 - Gary Kildall, American computer scientist (d. 1994)
- May 22 - Theodore Kaczynski, American bomber
- May 22 - Calvin Simon, American musician (P Funk)
- May 26 - Levon Helm, American musician (The Band)
- May 28 - Stanley B. Prusiner, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
June
- June 3 - Curtis Mayfield, American musician (d. 1999)
- June 10 - Preston Manning, Canadian politician
- June 12 - Bert Sakmann, German physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate
- June 17 - Mohamed ElBaradei, Egyptian International Atomic Energy Agency director, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
- June 18 - Roger Ebert, American film critic
- June 18 - Paul McCartney, English musician and composer (The Beatles)
- June 18 - Hans Vonk, Dutch conductor
July
- July 4 - Floyd Little, American football player
- July 4 - Prince Michael of Kent
- July 7 - Carmen Duncan, Welsh-born actress
- July 10 - Pyotr Klimuk, cosmonaut
- July 10 - Ronnie James Dio, American singer
- July 13 - Harrison Ford, American actor and producer
- July 13 - Roger McGuinn, American musician
- July 15 - Mil Mascaras, Mexican professional wrestler
- July 17 - Tim Brooke-Taylor, English radio and television personality
- July 23 - Myra Hindley, English murderer
- July 24 - Chris Sarandon, American actor
- July 27 - Dennis Ralston, American tennis player
- July 29 - Tony Sirico, American actor
August
- August 1 - Jerry Garcia, American musician (d. 1995)
- August 2 - Isabel Allende, Chilean writer
- August 4 - David Lange, Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 2005)
- August 7 - Garrison Keillor, American writer and radio host
- August 19 - Fred Thompson, U.S. Senator and actor
- August 20 - Isaac Hayes, American singer and actor
- August 26 - Dennis Turner, British politician
- August 28 - Sterling Morrison, American musician (d. 1995)
September
- September 1 - John Lange, American scientist
- September 19 - Freda Payne, American singer and actress
- September 22 - David Stern, American commissioner of the National Basketball Association
- September 28 - Marshall Bell, American actor
- September 29 - Madeline Kahn, American actress (d. 1999)
- September 29 - Jean-Luc Ponty, French jazz violinist
- September 30 - Frankie Lymon, American singer (d. 1968)
October
- October 11 - Amitabh Bachchan, Indian actor
- October 12 - Melvin Franklin, American musician (d. 1995)
- October 13 - Jerry Jones, American football team owner
- October 19 - Andrew Vachss, American author and attorney
- October 20 - Earl Hindman, American actor (d. 2003)
- October 20 - Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, German biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- October 21 - Elvin Bishop, American musician
- October 22 - Annette Funicello, American actress
- October 23 - Michael Crichton, American author
- October 26 - Bob Hoskins, British actor
November
- November 1 - Ralph Klein, Premier of Alberta
- November 8 - Angel Cordero Jr., Puerto Rican jockey
- November 8 - Fernando Sorrentino, Argentine writer
- November 10 - Robert F. Engle, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
- November 10 - Hans-Rudolf Merz, Swiss Federal Councilor
- November 13 - John P. Hammond, American singer
- November 15 - Daniel Barenboim, Argentine-born pianist and conductor
- November 17 - Martin Scorsese, American film director
- November 20 - Joe Biden, U.S. Senator from Delaware
- November 27 - Henry Carr, American athlete
- November 27 - Jimi Hendrix, American musician (d. 1970)
- November 28 - Paul Warfield, American football player
- November 29 - Michael Craze, British actor (d. 1998)
- November 29 - Philippe Huttenlocher, Swiss baritone
December
- December 4 - Gemma Jones, British actress
- December 6 - Peter Handke, Austrian novelist
- December 7 - Peter Tomarken, American game show host
- December 9 - Dick Butkus, American football player
- December 11 - Donna Mills, American actress
- December 17 - Paul Butterfield, American musician (d. 1987)
- December 20 - Bob Hayes, American athlete
- December 21 - Carla Thomas, American singer
- December 29 - Rajesh Khanna, Indian actor
Unknown date
- Moammar Al Qadhafi, leader of Libya
Deaths
- January 6 - Henri de Baillet-Latour, Belgian International Olympic Committee president (b. 1876)
- January 14 - Porfirio Barba-Jacob, Colombian poet and writer (b. 1883)
- January 16 - Carole Lombard, American actress (b. 1908)
- January 26 - Felix Hausdorff, German mathematician (suicide) (b. 1868)
- February 19 - Frank Abbandando, American gangster (executed) (b. 1910)
- February 28 - Karel Doorman, Dutch admiral (sinking ship) (b. 1889)
- March 1 - Cornelius Vanderbilt III, American military officer, inventor, and engineer (b. 1873)
- March 8 - José Raúl Capablanca, Cuban chess player (b. 1888)
- March 10 - William Henry Bragg, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1862)
- March 21 - J.S Woodsworth, Canadian politician (b. 1874)
- April 15 - Robert Musil, Austrian-born novelist (b. 1880)
- April 17 -
National Basketball Association
]
The National Basketball Association, more popularly known as the NBA, is the world's premier men's professional basketball league and one of the major professional sports leagues of North America.
The league was founded in New York City on June 6, 1946 as the Basketball Association of America (BAA). The league adopted the name National Basketball Association in the fall of 1949 after merging with the rival National Basketball League. The league's several international and individual team offices are directed out its head offices located in the Olympic Tower at 645 Fifth Avenue in New York City. NBA Entertainment and NBA TV studios are directed out of offices located in Secaucus, New Jersey.
Regular season
Following the summer breaks, teams hold training camps in October. Training camps allow teams to evaluate players, especially rookies, to scout the team's strengths and weaknesses, to prepare the players for the rigorous regular season, and to determine the 12-man active roster and, if needed, a 3-man injured list with which they will begin the regular season. Teams have the ability to assign players with less than two years of experience to the NBA development league. After training camp, a series of preseason exhibition games are held. In the first week of November, the NBA regular season begins.
In the regular season, each team plays 82 games, which are divided evenly between home and away games. Schedules are not identical for all teams. A team faces opponents in its own division four times a year, teams from the other two divisions in its conference either three or four times, and teams in the other conference twice apiece. A team can therefore have a relatively easy or difficult schedule, depending on the division and conference it is located in. Following the recent changes to the National Hockey League's scheduling format, the NBA is now the only major league in which all the teams play each other during the regular season, and where a season ticket holder can see every team in the league come to town in any one season.
In February, the NBA regular season is interrupted to celebrate the annual NBA All-Star Game. Fans are balloted throughout the United States, Canada and through the Internet, and the top vote-getters at each position in each conference are given a starting spot on their conference's All-Star team. Coaches vote to choose the remaining 14 All-Stars. Then, East faces West in the All-Star game. The player with the best performance during the game is rewarded with a Game MVP award, which is usually given to a player on the winning team. Other attractions of the All-Star break include the got milk? Rookie Challenge game, which pits the best rookies and the best second-year players against each other; the Foot Locker Three-Point Shootout, a competition between players to see who is the best 3-point shooter; and the Sprite Rising Stars Slam Dunk contest, to see which player dunks the ball in the most entertaining way.
Shortly after the All-Star break is the league's trade deadline. After this date, teams are not allowed to exchange players with each other for the remainder of the season, although they may still sign and release players. Often, major trades are completed right before the trading deadline, making that day a hectic time for general managers.
In April, the regular season ends. It is during this time that voting begins for individual awards, as well as the selection of the honorary league-wide postseason teams. The NBA Sixth Man Award is awarded to the best contributor off the bench. The NBA Rookie of the Year Award is awarded to the best rookie player. The NBA Most Improved Player Award is awarded to the most improved player. The NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award is awarded to the league's best defender. The NBA Coach of the Year Award is awarded to either the best coach in the league or the coach that has made the most positive difference to a team. The NBA Most Valuable Player Award is given to player deemed the most valuable for that season. Additionally, The Sporting News awards an unofficial (but widely recognized) NBA Executive of the Year Award to the general manager who is adjudged to have done the best job for his franchise.
The postseason teams are the All-NBA Teams, the All-Defensive Teams, and the All-Rookie Teams. There are three All-NBA teams, consisting of the top players at each position, with first-team status being most desirable. There are two All-Defensive teams, consisting of the top defenders at each position. There are also two All-Rookie teams, consisting of the top first-year players regardless of position.
Playoffs
In late April, the NBA Playoffs begin. Eight teams in each conference qualify for the playoffs. The seed of each team is determined by several factors. The top three seeds for each conference are determined by taking the winners of the three divisions of the conference and ranking them by regular season record. The remaining five seeds are determined by taking the five teams with the next-best records from among the non-division winning teams in the conference. However, the seeding system has one feature that is unusual in North American sports. Division champions do not necessarily have home-court advantage in the playoffs. Although the playoff brackets are not reseeded, home-court advantage is based strictly on regular-season record, without regard to whether a team won its division.
Having a higher seed offers several advantages. Since the first seed plays the eighth seed, the second seed plays the seventh seed, the third seed plays the sixth seed, and the fourth seed plays the fifth seed in the playoffs, having a higher seed generally means you will be facing a weaker team. The team in each series with the better record has home court advantage, including the First Round. This means that, for example, if the team who receives the 6 (six) seed has a better record than the team with the 3 (three) seed (seeded thus by virtue of a divisional championship), the 6 seed would have home court advantage, even though the other team has a higher seed than them. Therefore, the team with the best regular season record in the league is guaranteed home court advantage in every series it plays.
The playoffs follow a tournament format. Each team plays a rival in a best-of-seven series, with the first team to win four games advancing into the second round, while the other team is eliminated from the playoffs. In the next round, the successful team plays against another advancing team of the same conference. Thus, all but one team in each conference are eliminated from the playoffs. Since the NBA does not re-seed teams, the playoff bracket in each conference uses a traditional design, with the winner of the series matching the 1st and 8th seeded teams playing the winner of the series matching the 4th and 5th seeded teams, and the winner of the series matching the 2nd and 7th seeded teams playing the winner of the series matching the 3rd and 6th seeded teams. In every round except the NBA Finals, the best of seven series follows a 2-2-1-1-1 pattern, meaning that one team will have home court in games 1, 2, 5, and 7, while the other plays at home in games 3, 4, and 6. For the final round (NBA Finals), the series follows a 2-3-2 pattern.
The final playoff round, a best-of-seven series between the victors of both conferences, is known as the NBA Finals, held annually in June. The victor in the NBA Finals wins the Larry O'Brien Trophy. Each player and major contributor, including coaches and the general manager, on the winning team receive a championship ring. In addition, the league awards an NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award, which, while not by rule, nearly always goes to a member of the winning team. There has been only one exception to date: Jerry West won the award in 1969 (the award's first season) even though his Los Angeles Lakers did not win the championship.
History
A detailed year-by-year look at the history of the NBA can be found here.
The Basketball Association of America was founded in 1946 by the owners of major sports arenas in the Northeast and Midwest, notably including Madison Square Garden in New York City. Although there had been earlier attempts at professional basketball leagues, including the American Basketball League and the National Basketball League, the BAA was the first league to attempt to play primarily in large arenas in major cities. During its early years, though, the quality of play in the BAA was not obviously better than those other leagues or among leading independent clubs such as the Harlem Globetrotters. For instance the 1947 ABL finalist Baltimore Bullets moved to the BAA and won its 1948 title, followed by the 1948 NBL champion Minneapolis Lakers who won the 1949 BAA title.
Following the 1949 season, the BAA agreed to merge with the NBL, expanding the rechristened National Basketball Association to seventeen franchises that were a mix of large and small cities, as well as large arenas and smaller gymnasiums and armories. In 1950, the NBA consolidated to eleven franchises, a process that continued until 1954, when the league reached its smallest size of eight franchises, all of which are still in the league (the Knicks, Celtics, Warriors, Lakers, Royals/Kings, Pistons, Hawks, and Nationals/76ers).
While contracting, the league also saw in its smaller city franchises shift to larger cities. The Hawks shifted from "Tri-Cities" to Milwaukee and then to St. Louis; the Royals from Rochester to Cincinnati, the Pistons from Fort Wayne to Detroit.
1950 also saw the NBA integrate, with the addition of African American players by several teams including Chuck Cooper with the Boston Celtics, Nat "Sweetwater" Clifton with the New York Knicks, and Earl Lloyd with the Washington Capitols.
During this period, the Minneapolis Lakers, led by center George Mikan, won five NBA Finals and established themselves as its first dynasty.
To liven up play, the league introduced the 24 second shot clock in 1954.
In 1956, rookie center Bill Russell joined the Boston Celtics, who already featured guard Bob Cousy and coach Red Auerbach, and led the club to eleven NBA titles in thirteen seasons. Center Wilt Chamberlain entered the league in 1959 and became the dominant individual star of the 1960's, setting new records in scoring and rebounding. Russell's rivaly with Chamberlain became one of the great individual rivalries in the history of team sports.
Through this period, the NBA continued to strengthen with the shift of the Lakers to Los Angeles, the Philadelphia Warriors to San Francisco, and the Syracuse Nationals to Philadelphia, as well as the addition of its first expansion franchises.
In 1967, the league faced a new external threat with the formation of the American Basketball Association. The leagues engaged in a bidding war for talent. The NBA landed the most important college star of the era, Kareem Abdul Jabbar (then known as Lew Alcindor), who in his second season led the Milwaukee Bucks to a title together with Oscar Robertson, and who later played on five Laker championship teams.
However, the NBA's leading scorer, Rick Barry jumped to the ABA, as did four veteran referees -- Norm Drucker, Earl Strom, John Vanak and Joe Gushue.
The ABA also succeeded in signing a number of major stars, including Julius Erving, in part because it allowed teams to sign college undergraduates. The NBA expanded rapidly during this period, one result of which was to tie up most viable cities. Following the 1976 season, the leagues reached a settlement that provided for the addition of four ABA franchises to the NBA, raising the number of franchises in the league at that time to 22.
The league added the ABA's innovative Three-point field goal beginning in 1979 to open up the game. Also in 1979, rookies Larry Bird and Magic Johnson joined the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers, respectively, initiating a period of significant growth in fan interest in the NBA throughout the country and throughout the world. Bird went on to lead the Celtics to three titles, and Johnson went on to lead the Lakers to five.
Michael Jordan, entered the league five years later with the Chicago Bulls, providing an even more popular star to support growing interest in the league. By 1989, further expansion had raised the number of teams in the league to 27. During the 1990's, Jordan went on to lead the Bulls to six titles.
The 1990's also saw greater globalization. The 1992 Olympic basketball Dream Team, the first to use current NBA stars, featured Jordan, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. A growing number of NBA star players also began coming from other countries. Initially, many of these players, such as 1994 NBA MVP Hakeem Olajuwon of Nigeria, first played NCAA basketball to enhance their skills. An increasing number, though, such as 2002 NBA Rookie of the Year Pau Gasol of Spain, 2002 first pick in the NBA Draft Yao Ming of China, and 2004 Olympic Tournament MVP Emanuel Ginobili of Argentina, have moved directly from playing elsewhere in the world to starring in the NBA. The NBA is now televised in 212 nations in 42 languages.
In 1996 the NBA created a women's league, the Women's National Basketball Association, and in 2002 created an affiliated minor league, the National Basketball Development League.
Today, the NBA has reached 30 franchises and continues to evolve as one of the premier sports leagues in the world.
Lockout
The Collective Bargining Agreement between the two agencies expired on June 30, 2005. On June 22, 2005, a bargaining agreement was reached, preventing a lockout. The last time the NBA went though a lockout, a large portion of the 1998-99 season was cancelled, resulting in a shortened 50-game regular season schedule. The All-Star game was not played that year, but the playoffs were not affected. Fortunately for fans an agreement was reached, with the most significant change being an assignment system within the NBDL, as well as a one time salary cap amnesty clause.
Teams
Current Teams
Defunct teams
- Anderson Packers (1949–1950)
- Baltimore Bullets (1947–1955: last NBA team to fold)
- Chicago Stags (1946–1950)
- Cleveland Rebels (1946–1947)
- Denver Nuggets (1949–1950)
- Detroit Falcons (1946–1947)
- Detroit Gems (1949–1950)
- Indianapolis Jets (1948–1949)
- Indianapolis Olympians (1949–1953)
- Pittsburgh Ironmen (1946–1947)
- Providence Steamrollers (1946–1949)
- St. Louis Bombers (1946–1950)
- Sheboygan Redskins (1949–1950)
- Toronto Huskies (1946–1947)
- Washington Capitols (1946–1951)
- Waterloo Hawks (1949–1950)
Important people
Presidents and commissioners
- Maurice Podoloff, President from 1946 to 1963
- Walter Kennedy, President from 1963 to 1967 and Commissioner from 1967 to 1975
- Larry O'Brien, Commissioner from 1975 to 1984
- David Stern, Commissione | | |
