Jesse Owens: The Hero of the Games

James Cleveland Owens was born in Oakville, Alabama, on September 12, 1913, the son of a sharecropper, a farmer who rents land. He was a sickly child, often too frail to help his father and brothers in the fields. The family moved to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1921, for better work opportunities. There was little improvement in their life, but the move did enable young Owens to enter public school, where a teacher accidentally wrote down his name as "Jesse" instead of J. C. He carried the name with him for the rest of his life.

Jesse Owens in the peak of his career

When Owens was in the fifth grade, the athletic supervisor asked him to join the track team. From a skinny boy he developed into a strong runner, and in junior high school he set a record for the 100-yard dash. In high school in 1933 he won the 100-yard dash, the 200-yard dash, and the broad jump in the National Interscholastic Championships. Owens was such a complete athlete, a coach said he seemed to float over the ground when he ran.

On this day - 25th May

585 BC   The first known prediction of a solar eclipse was made in Greece

1844   The gasoline engine was patented by Stuart Perry

1895   Oscar Wilde, a playwright, poet and novelist, was convicted of a morals charge and sentenced to prison in London

1925   John Scopes was indicted for teaching the Darwinian theory in school

1935   Jesse Owens tied the world record for the 100-yard dash. He ran it in 9.4 seconds. He also broke three other world track records

1996   In Nimes, France, Christina Sanchez became the first woman to achieve the rank of matadore in Europe

1997   Poland adopted a constitution that removed all traces of communism