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Two rival leagues sign off on a merger: the NBA is born

Seventeen teams, from Madison Square Garden to small-town armories, now play under one name.

Three years after hockey-arena owners started the Basketball Association of America, professional basketball was still split between two struggling leagues. The BAA played in big-city arenas; the smaller-market National Basketball League ran on business-owned teams and shorter, 40-minute games, compared to the BAA's 48-minute contests. On August 3, 1949, at a meeting in the Empire State Building, the two leagues finalized their merger into the National Basketball Association, combining ten BAA clubs with seven NBL survivors. The new NBA counted 17 teams, in cities ranging from New York to Sheboygan…

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More from August 3

Owens takes 100-meter gold in Hitler's stadium, 10.3 seconds

The first of four gold medals, run in the stadium Hitler built to prove Aryan supremacy.

A father administers the presidential oath by lamplight in a Vermont farmhouse

Word of Harding's death reaches Plymouth Notch after midnight, and there is no federal judge for miles.

Chambers names Hiss a communist under oath before Congress

A Time magazine editor tells the House Un-American Activities Committee that a former State Department official once ran with a Soviet spy ring.

Ninety-six hours under the ice and 1,590 nautical miles later, the submarine surfaces northeast of Greenland.

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More from Cold War America

Eagle touches down with about 50 seconds of fuel left; Armstrong radios "the Eagle has landed"

Alarms blared during descent as Mission Control watched the fuel gauge fall, and a spacecraft named for a bird settled into lunar dust.

Jackie Robinson becomes first Black player elected to the Hall of Fame

Five years after his last game, the writers vote him in on the first ballot.

Apollo 11 splashes down in the Pacific; Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins are home

Eight days after leaving Kennedy Space Center, the crew that walked on the Moon returns to Earth's ocean.

Supreme Court rules 8-0: Nixon must hand over the tapes

Executive privilege has limits, Chief Justice Burger writes, and the special prosecutor gets his subpoena.

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