The inaugural WNBA game

Documenting the first year of the WNBA

The WNBA was launched in 1997, providing a historic opportunity for women’s basketball. Two weeks after the WNBA kicked off its inaugural season, NBC aired this hourlong documentary, giving viewers a behind-the-scenes look at the league’s first games. The documentary also looks at the first pro league, the All-American Red Heads, and provides stories of the premier players in the WNBA.

The history of the WNBA in 60 seconds

Women’s basketball began in 1892, less than a year after the sport’s invention, but restrictive clothing and societal norms posed early challenges. Senda Berenson modified rules to make the game more “suitable,” limiting dribbling and court movement. By 1971, women began playing with rules similar to men’s, and Title IX in 1972 provided federal funding, opening doors for future athletes.

How the WBL set the stage for the WNBA

Nearly two decades before the WNBA began, there was the Women's Professional Basketball League, the first women's professional basketball league in the United States. Though it was only around for three years, it was groundbreaking, building the template for women's leagues and, eventually, for the WNBA.

Top 25 milestones in WNBA history

During the 2021 season, the WNBA celebrated its 25th anniversary, marking North America's longest-running women’s pro league. This ESPN interactive highlights 25 significant "firsts" and milestones that defined the WNBA's 25-year history.

David Stern had a hand in starting the WNBA

For years, NBA Commissioner David Stern had been planning for an NBA-supported women’s basketball league. When the US Women’s Basketball Team captured gold at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, he began putting them into motion.

Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese have led to a WNBA resurgence

The 2024 WNBA season was a watershed moment for the league. The arrival of rookies Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese brought new excitement and record viewership. Remarkably, all 12 WNBA teams sold out their season ticket memberships for the first time in league history.

In 2020, the league quarantined players in a 'wubble'

When the pandemic hit in 2020, the WNBA delayed the start of their season, choosing to play in a quarantine bubble for a 22-game season. Players choosing to opt in knew the decision wasn't just for them, but for their families. This TNT video explores what it was like for WNBA players to play, practice, and live together for nearly 100 days.

Breaking down the WNBA's expansion plans

The 2026 season features two new teams, the Portland Fire and the Toronto Tempo, with plans for franchises in San Francisco, Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia by 2030. This ESPN explainer unpacks what that means for fans.

The undefeated 1996 Olympic squad is one of the greatest teams ever

With stars like Lisa Leslie, Sheryl Swoopes, and Rebecca Lobo, the 1996 US Women’s Basketball Team is considered one of the greatest women’s basketball teams ever assembled. They went 52-0 in pre-Olympic competition and 8-0 during their gold medal run.

Billie Jean King organized players into the WTA

In 1973, the Virginia Slims Circuit was successful, but when the USLTA demanded a higher tournament fee for Circuit players, promoter Gladys Heldman refused. In response, Billie Jean King met with over 50 players before the 1973 Wimbledon Championships to form the Women's Tennis Association, a move that led to equal pay at the US Open the following year.

20 years of NCAA buzzers

The last few beats of the March Madness title game are among the most thrilling in sports. This video compilation collects the final five seconds of every women's championship from the first year of the tournament through 2022. The result is a fascinating document of celebrations, disappointments, and last-ditch efforts. It's also objective proof that basketball's style has evolved considerably over the decades.

The Harlem Globetrotters played their first game in 1927

Black players were not permitted on the existing professional basketball teams, but Abe Saperstein—the team's original coach, owner, manager, and sometimes player—leaned into the team's all-Black roster, nodding to New York's historically Black neighborhood even though the team didn't play there until the late 1960s.

When Magic Johnson and Larry Bird faced off in the 1979 NCAA final

Michigan State's Magic Johnson topped Indiana State's Larry Bird 75-64 in the 1979 NCAA final with a record 35.1 million watching. Aired on NBC, the duel of future NBA icons ignited college basketball's TV boom. This article revisits the rivalry's roots, the Sycamores' Cinderella run, and a prime-time leap that turned March Madness into a national frenzy.

Ann Meyers Drysdale was the first female athlete to receive a full sports scholarship

In 1974, Ann Meyers Drysdale earned a full ride to play basketball at UCLA. It was historic, but only the beginning of her pioneering life, which included a Silver Medal at the 1976 Summer Games and a contract with an NBA team in 1979.

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

The first Winter X Games launched in 1997 at Big Bear Lake

The inaugural Winter X Games in 1997 introduced snowboarding, skiing, and snowmobile events—helping boost winter action sports’ popularity and paving the way for snowboarding’s inclusion in the 1998 Winter Olympics.

Rivalry between the AFL and NFL led to a merger—and the creation of the Super Bowl

Competition between the American Football League and the National Football League led to a 1966 merger agreement, with the Super Bowl created as a championship game to determine league supremacy before the two leagues were fully integrated.

A 1930s card game birthed modern fantasy sports

"National Pastime" used the statistics of real Major League Baseball players to determine a winner, creating the template for the modern fantasy sports model.

Disneyland opened in 1955

Walt Disney teased the amusement park a year in advance through his ABC show, "Walt Disney's Disneyland." This episode was from the park's opening day, an event that necessitated a news-like live broadcast and walked viewers through the park's attractions and amenities. One in three Americans watched the broadcast, despite its numerous technical difficulties.

1985's inaugural Wrestlemania turned pro wrestling into a pop culture phenomenon

WrestleMania I was a major event in the history of pro wrestling, marking WWE’s push to become a global entertainment entity and setting the standard for large-scale pay-per-view events for years to come. It was also a wacky, celebrity-laden affair featuring Cyndi Lauper, Mr. T and Liberace.

Brandi Chastain, the star of the 1999 US victory over China in the 1999 Women's World Cup, was a last-second choice to take the penalty kick that sealed the victory.

The Seneca Falls Declaration was modeled on the Declaration of Independence

At the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention—the first women’s rights convention in US history—Elizabeth Cady Stanton drafted the Declaration of Sentiments, consciously modeled on the Declaration of Independence, to argue that women were denied fundamental rights and justified in demanding legal and political equality.

Janet Jackson's 2004 halftime show sparked a broadcast backlash

During Super Bowl XXXVIII, Justin Timberlake tore part of Janet Jackson's costume during the halftime finale, exposing her breast. The moment triggered widespread controversy, negative career repercussions for Jackson, FCC fines, and stricter standards for live television broadcasts.

Hear the first classic girl group record: the Chantels’ ‘Maybe’

While there were all-female vocal groups before the Chantels, most critics consider the group’s 1957 single “Maybe” to be the first record of the classic girl group sound because it established the model’s foundational elements: a mid-tempo backbeat, soaring harmonies, and yearning lyrics.

Loyola's 98-year-old team chaplain became a beloved figure during the 2018 tournament

Sister Jean became an international celebrity in 2018 when she cheered Loyola Chicago's Ramblers to the Final Four at age 98, inspiring bobbleheads and merchandise before passing away in October 2025 at 106.

Read about when Nasdaq partnered with the London Stock Exchange in 1992, and other key moments in Nasdaq history

The partnership became the first intercontinental linkage between capital markets, setting the stage for worldwide trading amid increasing globalization. Nasdaq separated from its parent company in 2006, becoming a fully independent licensed national securities exchange. A year later, it added the Scandinavian-based Exchange, OMX.

Long-lost sisters meet for the first time and accidentally show up in the same dress

Two women aged 51 and 63 discovered they were sisters after taking a 23andMe test. Both born in Russia, the siblings immigrated to the US around the same time. When the time came to finally meet, they coincidentally arrived wearing the same outfit.

The US first hosted the World Cup in 1994, a tournament that lives in soccer infamy for its poor planning and the murder of Colombian player Andres Escobar, who'd accidentally scored on his own net.

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.

While the first exchange-traded fund (a 'basket' of different assets that can be bought and sold on a stock exchange) in the US only launched in 1993, the global ETF market has grown to more than $10T in the short time since.

Walt Disney's early film 'Alice's Wonderland' was a groundbreaking innovation in the silent film era

See the most iconic photos from four decades of LIFE magazine

When a Paris department store hesitated to sell Estée Lauder's perfume, she 'accidentally' broke a bottle, causing the smell to spread throughout the store and shoppers to start asking to buy the scent.

For centuries, Niagara Falls has been a magnet for daredevils seeking to conquer one of nature's most powerful wonders, with its 200-foot drop and water rushing at 32 feet per second with 280 tons of force.

American dance legend Martha Graham, sometimes called 'the Picasso of dance,' refused to perform at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and conceived the piece 'Chronicle' in response to the experience.

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

See how Ebola tore through Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia in 2014-2016.

Meet the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence—most of whom didn't put pen to paper until August 2, 1776—and see their original signatures.

The first line of 'immortal' human cells, which can divide indefinitely and are used in scientific research, was nonconsensually taken from a Black woman.

NBA superstar Victor Wembanyama spent the 2025 summer training with monks in central China to enhance his body and mind.

'Shogun,' a 1980s TV series, helped popularize sushi in the US by stimulating an American interest in Japanese culture.

Learn how your body is, scientifically, like a firework with its own slow, controlled burn.

Comedy legend Catherine O'Hara, star of 'Schitt's Creek' and 'Home Alone,' quit 'Saturday Night Live' after just one week to return to her old job.

The word 'jazz' evolved from 'jasm,' 19th-century American slang for 'energy'

Before humans, the Soviet Union and the United States sent animals—including apes, dogs, and cats—to space during the Space Race.

Explore the archaeological treasures of Pompeii, the city buried under volcanic ash when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE.

Brian Wilson wrote the Beach Boys' 'Don't Worry Baby' for the Ronettes, but the legendary girl group rejected it.

The Great Salt Lake's distinct dual coloration results from high-salinity organisms that only live in the northern portion and produce a purple protein.

Before the current East Wing ballroom project, only two White House renovations in the past 100 years cost more than $10M.

Power lines are dotted with large, brightly colored balls to improve the visibility of these thin wires to helicopters and small planes and help prevent potential crashes.