Sunday · November 15, 2026

Edited daily

American history, reported as it happened

Made for the 250th

The events of September 20 · Read the full edition → · More from September 20 →

19731776 Club

King dispatches Riggs in three sets before 30,000 at the Astrodome

The 29-year-old outplays the 55-year-old hustler he built his comeback on beating women.

Bobby Riggs had spent the summer of 1973 promising that a 55-year-old man could still beat any woman in tennis, and after flattening Margaret Court in May, plenty of people believed him. On September 20, 1973, Billie Jean King, 29, walked into the Houston Astrodome to settle it in front of more than 30,000 spectators and a live international broadcast. King won 6-4, 6-3, 6-3, taking the winner-take-all $100,000 purse without dropping a set. Riggs' claim of male superiority lost with him…

1776 Club

This story is held for members.

Members read every story of the day — and tomorrow's, and the next.

Join the 1776 Club

$17.76 your first year · then $39.99/yr · cancel anytime

More from September 20

Bush tells Congress: this is a war on terror, and it starts with al Qaeda

Nine days after the towers fell, the president draws a line meant to reach far past Afghanistan.

A van bomb tears into the US embassy annex at Aukar, killing 23

Guards' gunfire kept the van from reaching the building; it still detonated close enough to rip off the front wall.

Arthur takes the oath before dawn, in his own parlor

A New York judge administers the presidency at 2:15 in the morning, hours after Garfield dies of his wounds.

Seventy-eight members sign on, and William Charles Redfield takes the chair as the new society's first president.

Read this as a member →

Read the full September 20 edition →Everything that happened on September 20 →

More from Cold War America

Eisenhower signs the Space Act; a civilian agency will run America's push into orbit

NACA's 8,000 employees and three research labs become the seed of a new agency with a mandate for peace, not war.

Eisenhower signs the words already stamped on coins into the law itself

The phrase had ridden American currency since 1954; Congress just gave it a statute to stand on.

Scott lands Falcon by hand at Hadley Rille; astronauts get a car on the Moon

The computer drifted off course, so David Scott flew the last stretch himself, straight toward a mountain valley chosen for its scenery.

Bush and Gorbachev sign a treaty to cut the world's largest nuclear arsenals

Nine years of talks end with limits of 6,000 warheads and 1,600 missiles and bombers on each side.

The Daily Record · free by email

Tomorrow's edition in your inbox — one featured story, one quote, and today's flag status. Free, every morning.

The full experience

Read every story, narrated, in the app.

Take this story with you.

The complete daily edition, the deep-cut narration, and a library that's yours — the 1776 Club lives in the app.

Your membership comes with you — every event, narrated, with flag alerts, CarPlay, and your saved library.