This Day in History

April 6, 1896 Olympic Games

The Olympic Games, a long lost tradition of ancient Greece, are reborn in Athens, some 1,400 years after being banned by Roman emperor Theodosius. France's Baron Pierre de Coubertin is the master architect of the 7 day pageant, involving 13 nations, 285 men and as yet, no women. Anyone for a standing highjump? Ten sports were represented through 42 events, Americans Edwin Flack and Thomas Burt each garnered 2 medals. But it is a Greek, Spyridon Louis, who fitting wins the marathon, an event dating back to 776 B.C. and now renewed in the first modern day Olympiad, April 6, 1896.