Today in history: Muhammad Ali is born
At 18, he won a gold medal in the light heavyweight division at the 1960 Summer Olympics, and turned professional later that year.
American professional boxer, activist, and philanthropist Muhammad Ali was born on 17 January 1942 in Louisville, Kentucky, United States.
Ali is widely regarded as one of the most significant and celebrated sports figures of the 20th century and as one of the greatest boxers of all time.
At 18, he won a gold medal in the light heavyweight division at the 1960 Summer Olympics, and turned professional later that year.
He converted to Islam and became a Muslim after 1961, and eventually took the name Muhammad Ali.
In 1966, Ali refused to be drafted into the military, citing his religious beliefs and opposition to the Vietnam War.
Ali is the only boxer to be named The Ring magazine Fighter of the Year six times.
He has been ranked the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time, the greatest athlete of the 20th century by Sports Illustrated, the Sports Personality of the Century by the BBC, and the third greatest athlete of the 20th century by ESPN Sports Century.
Ali retired from boxing in 1981 and focused on religion and charity and in 1984 he made public his diagnosis of Parkinson’s syndrome, which some reports attribute to boxing-related injuries, though he and his specialist physicians disputed this.
He remained an active public figure globally, but in his later years made increasingly limited public appearances as his condition worsened, and he was cared for by his family up until he died on 3 June 2016.
Information sourced from: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
