Zale, Tony(orig. Anthony Florian Zaleski)

1913 – Was born on the 29^th of May in Gary, Indiana.

1934 – He got on with life in the mills but decided to leave it when he turned to boxing and entered the pro ranks.

1939 – Became a top-10 middleweight for splitting a four-fight series with contender Nate Bolden. He was considered to be the man impervious to pain when he managed to bear the endless punishment.

1940 - He won the NBA (National Boxing Association) middleweight title by stopping wiry Al Hostak in 13 rounds in Hostak's home in the city of Seattle.

1942 – Tony dropped a 12-round decision to former light heavy king Billy Conn. Afterwards; he served in the US Navy as his boxing career went into abeyance for the duration of the war.

1946 – At the age of 33, he won a frighteningly brutal battle in front of 40,000 fans in Yankee Stadium. Zale came out and knocked Graziano out in the sixth. Zale earned the title ‘Fighter of the Year’ from Ring Magazine and Boxing Writers Association of America.

1947 – They fought again and an 18 thousand fans saw Graziano win in six rounds.

1948 – at the age of 35, Tony Zale outclassed Graziano in three rounds at the Ruppert Stadium in Newark, New Jersey.

1956 - Zale worked three nights a week as an amateur boxing coach in Chicago, and also "helped" Paul Newman on the movie of Graziano's life, Somebody Up There Likes Me

1981 – He inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame

1991 – He Inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame

1997 – Tony suffered from Parkinson's Disease and Alzheimer's and spent his last years in a nursing home. He died on the 20^th of March in Portage, Indiana at the age of 83.