16 May 1914 - A Champion Grows In Brooklyn

On 16 May 1914, Brooklyn FC won the inaugural US Open Cup, beating Brooklyn Celtic 2-1.

Originally called the National Challenge Cup, the tournament was established by the United States Football Association to compete with a similar competition started four years earlier by the American Amateur Football Association. But while that tournament was limited to amateurs, the National Challenge Cup was open to all teams across the country, making the first truly national competition in the United States.

While almost 300 teams received invitations, only 40 chose to participate. Most of those came from the northeast region, though Chicago was also represented. But, in the end, the final came down to a pair of teams from Brooklyn.

They met at Coates Field in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, where a large local crowd turned out for the event. It took only three minutes for Brooklyn FC to take the lead with a goal from their captain, Percy Adamson, but Celtic equalized with a 27th-minute penalty from Thomas Campion.

The match remained level deep into the second half, then, with three minutes remaining, FC pushed ahead again when James Ford found the back of the net to win the cup, known as the Dewar Trophy (pictured). It was part of a double for FC, who also won that season's NAFBL title.

15 May 1929 - The New World Order Begins Now

On 15 May 1929, England suffered their first defeat to a team from outside the British Isles, losing to Spain 4-3 in Madrid.

Since their first official international in 1872, England spent the next 36 years playing only Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. That changed in June 1908, when they played a pair of matches against Austria, winning 6-1 and 11-1. They followed that with another 20 matches against Continental competition and won all but one, a 2-2 draw with Belgium in November 1923.

Spain, meanwhile, played their first match in 1920 and struggled for the first few years. But in the months leading up to their meeting with England, they had notched a pair of impressive victories, beating Portugal 5-0 and France 8-1.

The two teams met in Madrid for the friendly, where England looked likely to continue their dominance, taking a 2-0 lead with both goals coming from West Brom's Joe Carter (19', 22'). Spain, however, powered back to level with strikes from Gaspar Rubio and Jaime Lazcano (reports conflict as to the timing of those goals).

England reclaimed the lead through Joe Bradford, but Lazcano (pictured) again equalized just a few minutes from the final whistle, prompting a mini pitch invasion by the home supporters. Then one minute later, amateur Severino Goiburu put Spain ahead for the first time and they held the lead for the 4-3 victory.

14 May 1948 - Dinamo Powers Up

On 14 May 1948, Dinamo Bucureşti formed from the merger of two pre-existing clubs and has since gone on to become one of Romania's most successful teams.

The two clubs that came together were Unirea Tricolor, winners of the 1941 national title, and Ciocanul, formerly known as Maccabi Bucureşti. In 1947, the new Communist government assigned control of both clubs to the Ministry of the Interior, who merged them into Dinamo Bucureşti. Both teams remained intact for the 1947-48 season, in which Ciocanul played as "Dinamo A" and finished eighth, while Unirea played as "Dinamo B" and were relegated.

The new Dinamo maintained the eighth-place finish in their first season, 1948-49, but quickly rose to the top of the table, finishing as runners-up in 1951, 1952, and 1953 before winning their first title in 1955. They have since increased their collection of league titles to eighteen, second only to rivals Steaua Bucureşti's 24, though their most recent one came in 2005. In addition, they have also won the Romanian Cup thirteen times, most recently in 2011.

13 May 2012 - Invincibles In Italy

On 13 May 2012, Juventus completed the Serie A season as undefeated champions with a 3-1 win over Atalanta.

They had finished the previous season in disappointing fashion, taking seventh place in the final table. That prompted the sacking of manager Luigi Delneri, who had held on to the post for a little over a year. The club replaced him with former Juventus midfielder Antonio Conte, who had played there from 1991 to 2003 and who had ended the 2010-11 season by guiding Serie B side Siena back to the top flight.

Juve made one other significant change over the summer, signing former Milan midfielder Andrea Pirlo as a free agent.

Led by the combination of Conte on the touchline and Pirlo on the pitch, Juventus battled with Milan in a tight race for the Scudetto and finally claimed the title with an away win over Cagliari on 6 May. By that point, they had won 22 and drawn 15 of their 37 matches over the course of the season. One week later, with the championship firmly in hand, they completed their unbeaten season with the home win over Atalanta. It was the first time any team went undefeated over the course of a 38-game season and only the third undefeated Serie A season overall (Perugia did it over the course of 30 games in 1978-79 and Milan did it over the course of 34 games in 1991-92).

Counting a draw on the last day of the 2010-11 season, the win stretched Juve's overall unbeaten league streak to 39. They extended it to 49 through the first 10 games of the 2012-13 season before finally losing to Inter on 3 November. Though impressive, it still fell short of the overall Italian league record of 58, set by Milan over the course of the 1990-91 to 1992-93 seasons.

12 May 1985 - Verona Victorious

On 12 May 1985, Hellas Verona won their first and only Serie A title with a 1-1 draw against Atalanta.

Founded in 1903, Verona joined the newly-formed Serie B in 1929 and took almost thirty years to reach the top flight for the first time, joining Serie A in 1957. Even then, it was for only one season, and they returned back to the second division in 1958. From 1968 on, they spent the majority of their time in the top flight, but rarely challenged for honors.

But they began to show signs improvement in the early 1980s, finishing as Coppa Italia runners-up in 1983 and 1984 (added to their previous final appearance in 1976) and a fourth-place league finish in 1984, which was at the time the club's best position in the final table.

That changed in the 1984-85 season. Led by their forward pairing of Preben Elkjær Larsen and Giuseppe Galderisi, Verona rose to the top of the table. By 12 May, they were ahead of Torino by four points with two games left for both teams. Because wins were worth only two points at the time, Verona needed only a draw at mid-table Atalanta to secure the Scudetto.

Atalanta, however, refused to roll over and took the lead after only 16 minutes when defender Eugenio Perico scored a header from a cross. Unshaken, Verona drove forward in search of an equalizer and finally got it in the 51st minute when Elkjær (pictured) scored with a dramatic volley. That proved to be enough, as the game ended 1-1, making Verona the Serie A champions.

11 May 2011 - As If The Title Challenge Wasn't Exciting Enough

On 11 May 2011, with Celtic leading Hearts 0-2 at Tynecastle, manager Neil Lennon was attacked by a home supporter.

Since taking charge of Celtic in 2010, Lennon had attracted more than his fair share of unwanted attention, receiving bullets in the mail in January 2011, followed by an attempted letter bombing in March. While religious sectarianism seemed an obvious motive given its history in Scottish football, authorities believed the incidents were more likely fueled by sports rivalries.

When Celtic visited Tynecastle to play Hearts for their penultimate game of the season, they were trailing Rangers by four points, but had a game in hand. Hearts, meanwhile, were in a distant third, having already lost twice to Celtic, 3-0 and 4-0.

The third match in the series followed the pattern of the first two, with Celtic going up 0-2 in the 49th minute thanks to Gary Hooper's second goal of the day. It was at that point that Hearts supporter John Wilson jumped the barrier and tried to attack Lennon, but was quickly wrestled to the ground by a combination of police and stewards, then apprehended.

Celtic went on to win the match 0-3, but ended up finishing in second by a single point. Wilson was later convicted of breaching the peace and received an eight-month jail sentence.

10 May 1930 - The Beginning Of A Beautiful Rivalry

On 10 May 1930, England and Germany met for the first time in a full international, playing to a 3-3 draw in Berlin.

Unofficial representative teams for the two countries played twice in 1899 with England dominating both matches, 13-2 and 10-2. Shortly afterward, England played two matches against combined German and Austrian teams and won both, 6-0 and 7-0.

But their trip to Berlin in 1930 was their first meeting since the establishment of an official German team in 1908. The game looked likely to follow the pattern of those earlier meetings when England went up 0-1 with an 8th-minute goal from Joe Bradford, but Germany's Richard Hofmann (pictured) brought the hosts level in the 21st minute.

The two traded goals again as Bradford put England back in front in the the 31st minute and Hofmann scored another equalizer eighteen minutes later. He then completed his hat-trick in the 60th minute to give Germany the lead. They held it for twenty minutes until David Jack found the net to finish the game 3-3.

Since then, the two teams have formed a fierce rivalry, including England's famously controversial win over Germany in the final of the 1966 World Cup.