PreviousDays✦THE WIKI
← All historyTHE ARCHIVE · 16 STORIES

1946–1999

Giant leaps. Divided worlds. New beginnings.

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MOMENTS FROM THIS ERA

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16 illustrated stories · growing daily
Illustration of a black-and-white dog sniffing a newspaper parcel beside a parked car as his owner watches.Sport

Pickles discovers the stolen World Cup trophy in London

On 27 March 1966, a dog named Pickles discovered the missing Jules Rimet trophy during an outing with his owner, David Corbett. The recovery ended a week of anxiety before England hosted the World Cup.

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An Ethiopian runner in a green singlet and red shorts leads along a torchlit Roman road, with his feet outside the frame.Sport

Abebe Bikila’s barefoot victory in the 1960 Olympic marathon

Abebe Bikila won the Rome Olympic marathon on 10 September 1960 without shoes. His world-best performance made an unfamiliar Ethiopian runner an international sporting figure and a landmark champion in African athletics.

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Mounted riders parade through a crowded red-brick Stockholm stadium in summer sunlight.Sport

Stockholm opens the equestrian events of the 1956 Melbourne Olympics

The Olympic equestrian opening ceremony took place in Stockholm on 10 June 1956. Australia’s quarantine requirements had forced the horse events away from Melbourne, creating an Olympics divided between continents and seasons.

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A young Black basketball player steps from the sideline onto a polished court in a crowded midcentury arena.Sport

Earl Lloyd’s NBA debut and the sequence of integration

Earl Lloyd became the first Black player to appear in an NBA game on 31 October 1950. His Washington Capitols opened their season before the teams of fellow pioneers Chuck Cooper and Nat Clifton, giving a shared breakthrough a particular chronological order.

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