Sixty-three years before Jackie Robinson made his debut on the Brooklyn Dodgers, Moses Fleetwood “Fleet” Walker became the first African-American to play in a major league baseball game, when he played for an American Association team, the Toledo Bluestockings, on May 1, 1884. The game was played in Louisville, Kentucky. Walker, a catcher, played in 42 games for the Bluestockings. Source: Fleet Walker by Jon R. Husman...

Few of the fans filling the Montreal Forum on the night of January 18, 1958, knew they were witnessing history. There was enough for the crowd to be excited about. This was Hockey Night in Canada, a nationally broadcast weekly confrontation; that night’s competition pitted the Montreal Canadiens, the most dominant team in the history of the sport, against their archrivals the Boston Bruins. Few noticed a dark-complexioned left winter playing...