By: History.com Editors

1901

American League is founded

History.com Editors

Published: November 30, 2021

Last Updated: February 17, 2025

On January 28, 1901, professional baseball’s American League is founded in Milwaukee, reconstituting itself from a minor-league entity to a major-league one. The league plans for a 140-game schedule, 14-man rosters and a players’ union. Franchises are in Baltimore (Orioles), Boston (Americans), Chicago (White Stockings), Cleveland (Blues), Detroit (Tigers), Milwaukee (Brewers), Philadelphia (Athletics) and Washington (Senators).

The American League's formation came shortly after professional baseball’s other major league, the National League, contracted from 12 to eight teams. Formed in 1876, the NL had been professional baseball’s most stable league for decades.

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Other leagues, such as the American Association (established in 1881), the Union Association (1884) and the Players League (1890), struggled to compete with the NL.

The American League’s attempt to disrupt the National League’s monopoly on baseball was led by its commissioner, Bancroft Johnson. He renamed the Western League, a minor league, the American League in 1899. Johnson also withdrew from the National Agreement—a pact governing relations between the baseball leagues at the time—and, in 1901, declared the American League to be a major league.

The move was resisted by the National League, which wanted to maintain its monopoly on Major League Baseball.

“The National League is forcing this war on us,” Johnson told the Chicago Tribune. “All we ask is a chance for good, healthy rivalry and competition, but if the National League insists on fighting we shall be able to take care of ourselves.”

Eventually, the National League realized it needed to co-exist with the American League. In 1903, the leagues agreed each was a major league and that their champion would meet annually in the World Series.

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Pitcher Don Larson of the New York Yankees delivers the first pitch to Jim Gilliam of the Brooklyn Dodgers as catcher Yogi Berra and umpire Babe Pinelli look on during Game 5 of the 1956 World Series on October 8, 1956 at Yankee Stadium. Larson would go on to pitch a perfect game against the Dodgers. (Photo by Stanley Weston/Getty Images)

By: Chris Mueller

Timeline

Also on This Day in History

Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on January 28th

1777

British plan to isolate New England

John Burgoyne, poet, playwright and British general, submits an ill-fated plan to the British government to isolate New England from the other colonies on January 28, 1777. Burgoyne’s plan revolved around an invasion of 8,000 British troops from Canada, who would move southward through New York by way of Lake Champlain and the Mohawk River, […]

1915

Germans sink American merchant ship

In the country’s first such action against American shipping interests on the high seas, the captain of a German cruiser orders the destruction of the William P. Frye, an American merchant ship. The William P. Frye, a four-masted steel barque built in Bath, Maine, in 1901 and named for the well-known Maine senator William Pierce […]

1917

The 1917 Bath Riots

On the morning of January 28, 1917, a Mexican maid named Carmelita Torres refuses to put up with the indignity she has been made to suffer every morning since she started working across the border in the United States. Torres’ objection to the noxious chemical delousing visited upon Mexicans upon crossing the Northern border sparked […]

1958

Teenage killers murder three people

On January 28, 1958, Charles Starkweather, a 19-year-old high-school dropout from Lincoln, Nebraska, and his 14-year-old girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate, kill a Lincoln businessman, his wife and their maid, as part of a murderous crime spree that began a week earlier and would ultimately leave 11 people dead.  The killer couple’s deadly road trip, which […]

1964

Soviets shoot down U.S. jet

The U.S. State Department angrily accuses the Soviet Union of shooting down an American jet that strayed into East German airspace. Three U.S. officers aboard the plane were killed in the incident. The Soviets responded with charges that the flight was a “gross provocation,” and the incident was an ugly reminder of the heightened East-West […]

1973

Cease-fire goes into effect

A cease-fire in the Vietnam War goes into effect at 8 a.m., Saigon time (midnight on January 27, Greenwich Mean Time). When the cease-fire went into effect, Saigon controlled about 75 percent of South Vietnam’s territory and 85 percent of the population. The South Vietnamese Army was well equipped via last-minute deliveries of U.S. weapons […]

1985

Music stars gather to record “We Are the World”

The special instruction Quincy Jones sent out to the several dozen pop stars invited to participate in the recording of “We Are the World” was this: “Check your egos at the door.” Jones was the producer of a record that would eventually go on to sell more than 7 million copies and raise more than […]

1986

The space shuttle Challenger explodes after liftoff

The space shuttle Challenger explodes shortly after takeoff, killing all the astronauts on board. The tragedy unfolded on live TV with millions watching.

The space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after lift off. (Credit: Bruce Weaver/AP Photo)

1997

Afrikaner police admit to killing Stephen Biko

In South Africa, four apartheid-era police officers, appearing before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, admit to the 1977 killing of Stephen Biko, a leader of the South African “Black consciousness” movement. In 1969, Biko, a medical student, founded an organization for South Africa’s Black students to combat the minority government’s racist apartheid policies and to […]

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Citation Information

Article title
American League is founded
Website Name
History
Date Accessed
March 25, 2025
Publisher
A&E Television Networks
Last Updated
February 17, 2025
Original Published Date
November 30, 2021

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