February 9, 1991: Leonard ends career after losing to Norris

Leonard ends career after losing to Norris

1991 - Terry Norris, with a big assist from Father Time, outpunched Sugar Ray Leonard to earn a unanimous points decision and retain his World Boxing Council super-welterweight title. Immediately after the decision was announced, Leonard took the microphone in the ring and told the crowd of about 7,000 people in Madison Square Garden: “This is my last fight. Thank you for coming.” Norris, 23, was simply too youthful throughout the 12-round fight for the 34-year-old Leonard. Norris out-jabbed and countered magnificently as Leonard failed to get close enough to do any damage. Norris knocked Leonard down twice. The first time in the second round with a left hook. Norris knocked Leonard down again in the seventh round with a right to the head.

February 9

1801 - Peace of Luneville between Austria and France marks virtual destruction of Holy Roman Empire.

1825 - US House of Representatives elects John Quincy Adams as President after no candidate received a majority of electoral votes.

1849 - Rome is proclaimed republic under Giuseppe Mazzini.

1870 - The US Weather Bureau is established.

1891 - Menelek, Emperor of Ethiopia, denounces Italian claims to a protectorate.

1923 - Soviet Aeroflot airlines forms.

1961 - Joseph Ileo is appointed as Prime Minister of Congo.

1962 - Jamaica signs an agreement with the British Commonwealth to become an independent nation.

1943 - The Second World War’s Battle of Guadalcanal in the southwest Pacific ends with an American victory over Japanese forces.

1971 - Earthquake near Los Angeles kills at least 64 people.

1982 - Umm Lulu, a new oil field, is discovered in the northwest offshore in Abu Dhabi.

1984 - Soviet leader Yuri V. Andropov dies less than 15 months after succeeding Leonid Brezhnev.

1985 - Arabsat, the Arab world’s first communication satellite, is launched.

1998 - American University of Sharjah is officially opened.

2000 - Torrential rains in Africa lead to the worst flooding in Mozambique in 50 years and kill 800 people.

2001 - US Navy submarine collides with a Japanese fishing vessel about 16 kilometers south of Honolulu, Hawaii, sinking the ship and leaving nine of its passengers missing at sea.

2004 - A groundbreaking Dh20 billion plan to develop Dubailand is unveiled in Dubai.