Olympic Games Timeline of Events

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Olympic Games

The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...

Timeline of Events

1859

11.15.1859

The first modern revival of the Olympic Games takes place in Athens, Greece.

1906

4.22.1906

The 1906 Summer Olympics, not now recognized as part of the official Olympic Games, open in Athens.

1948

7.29.1948

Olympic Games: 1948 Summer Olympics|The Games of the XIV Olympiad

1960

9.5.1960

The boxer Muhammad Ali (then Cassius Clay) is awarded the gold medal for his first place in the light heavyweight boxing competition at the Olympic Games in Rome.

1964

8.12.1964

South Africa is banned from the Olympic Games due to the country's racist policies.

1972

9.4.1972

Mark Spitz becomes the first competitor to win seven medals at a single Olympic Games.

9.6.1972

Munich Massacre: 9 Israel athletes taken hostage at the Munich Olympic Games by the Palestinian "Black September" terrorist group died (as did a German policeman) at the hands of the kidnappers during a failed rescue attempt. 2 other Israeli athletes are slain in the initial attack the previous day.

1976

7.18.1976

Nadia Comăneci became the first person in Olympic Games history to score a perfect 10 in gymnastics at the 1976 Summer Olympics.

1991

7.9.1991

South Africa is readmitted into the Olympic movement after 30 years of exclusion.