Latest news with #BobbyRiggs
Boston Globe
13-05-2025
- Sport
- Boston Globe
Today in History: May 13, United States declares war on Mexico
Advertisement In 1940, in his first speech to the House of Commons as British prime minister, Winston Churchill said, 'I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat.' In 1973, in tennis' first so-called 'Battle of the Sexes,' Bobby Riggs defeated Margaret Court 6-2, 6-1 in Ramona, Calif. (Billie Jean King soundly defeated Riggs at the Houston Astrodome later that year.) In 1980, a tornado struck downtown Kalamazoo, Mich., killing five people and injuring 79. In 1981, Pope John Paul II was shot and seriously wounded in St. Peter's Square by Turkish assailant Mehmet Ali Ağca. (Ağca was sentenced to life in prison in Italy in July 1981, but was pardoned in 2000 at the Pope's request.) In 1985, a confrontation between Philadelphia authorities and the radical group MOVE ended as a police helicopter dropped two bombs onto the group's row house, igniting a fire that killed 11 people (including five children) and destroyed 61 homes. Advertisement In 2016, the Obama administration issued a directive requiring public schools to permit transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms consistent with their chosen gender identity.
NBC News
08-04-2025
- Entertainment
- NBC News
Iconic sportswoman and activist Billie Jean King honored with Hollywood star
Iconic tennis player and former world number one Billie Jean King received the 2,807th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Monday. King famously competed against male tennis player Bobby Riggs in the 1973 "Battle of the Sexes" in order to promote equal pay between male and female sports stars. She ended up defeating Riggs. Former basketball player Magic Johnson was a special guest at the ceremony. 'She's an amazing person, and what I love about Billie Jean is that she used her platform to bring about change. When we talk about that 'Battle of the Sexes', it was more than just you beating Bobby Riggs. You were fighting for equal pay for women and all these young ladies that are making all these millions and millions of dollars today should be thanking you for what you did for all of them," Johnson said. King was the first female athlete to receive both the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal. She is the founder of both the Women's Sports Foundation and the Women's Tennis Association. King came out as a lesbian in 1981, and has advocated for LGBTQ rights. King's wife, former tennis player Ilana Kloss, also attended the ceremony. Actor Jamie Lee Curtis said, 'There is not a woman in any professional sport or any LGBTQ+ human being whose life has not been shaped and helped and supported by this extraordinary woman's great talents and her even greater contributions to improving the lives of other people on a daily basis.'
