The first book describing the game of draughts, or checkers, is published in Spain

Royal (or real) tennis is so popular in France that there are now said to be 250 courts in Paris alone

A manuscript, the Guildford Book of Court, uses the word 'creckett' for a game played in a Guildford school

The Byerley Turk, Darley Arabian and Godolphin Arabian, ancestors of all thoroughbred racehorses, are imported into England

Jack Broughton, champion of England, opens an academy to teach 'the mystery of boxing, that wholly British art'

Edmond Hoyle publishes the definitive rules of whist

England's champion pugilist, the Jewish prize-fighter Daniel Mendoza, publishes The Art of Boxing

A Rugby schoolboy, William Webb Ellis, picks up the football and runs with it in rugby union's founding myth

Oxford and Cambridge compete against each other in the first university boat race, held at Henley

Brunel's Great Western, a wooden paddle-steamer, arives in New York the day after the Sirius, with the record for an Atlantic crossing already reduced to 15 days

The London Prize Ring rules disallow kicking, gouging, head-butting and biting in the sport of boxing

New Yorker Alexander Cartwright devises the set of rules that become the basis of the modern game of baseball

The Marylebone Cricket Club, arbiter of cricket, finally rules that overarm bowling is legitimate

The world's first croquet tournament takes place in Evesham and is won by Walter Jones-Whitmore

The Queensberry rules, named after the Marquess of Queensberry, introduce padded gloves in boxing, and rounds of three minutes

Cincinnati, Ohio, fielding the first baseball team in which every member is a hired professional, wins every match of the year

The all-round English cricketer W.G. Grace begins a 28-year career as captain of Gloucestershire

Civil War veterans in the USA establish the National Rifle Association to promote marksmanship

Major Walter Wingfield secures a patent for Sphairistike, a game he has developed at his home in Wales, from which lawn tennis evolves

English cricketer W.G. Grace scores a record 344 runs, playing for the Marylebone Cricket Club against Kent at Canterbury

The first Test match is played in Melbourne between English and Australian cricket teams, with victory going to Australia

The first lawn-tennis championships are organized by the All-England Croquet Club at Wimbledon

The ancient Irish game of hurling is formalized by the newly founded Irish Hurling Union

When Australia win the second Test match, in London, the Sporting Times declares that they will take home with them 'the ashes of English cricket'

The Gaelic Athletic Association is founded in Ireland to promote indigenous games such as hurling