Paul Pender wins the world middleweight boxing championship at Boston Garden.

Pender, a Brookline firefighter, beats Sugar Ray Robinson in a 15-round split decision that prompts charges of a “hometown decision.” Pender defeats Robinson in 15 rounds in a rematch at Boston Garden on June 10, 1960. After subsequently losing the title to Englishman Terry Downes, he wins a share of it in 1962.*