NOTABLE DATES IN LITTLE LEAGUE

1939: Little League Baseball is founded in Williamsport, Pa., by Carl Stotz and George and Bert Bebble. Thirty-five dollars buys uniforms for the first three teams.

1947: The Maynard Little League team of Williamsport wins the league's first World Series, defeating Lock Haven, Pa., 16-7.

1951: The first team outside the United States is formed in British Columbia. Little League has grown to 776 programs, a figure that almost doubles the following year.

1955: All 48 states have Little League teams.

1956: Fred Shapiro of Delaware Township, N.J., pitches the first perfect game in Little League World Series history. His team loses to Roswell, N.M., in the final, 3-1.

1957: Monterrey, Mexico, is the first foreign team to win a world championship; the team becomes the first ever to repeat as champions the following year.

1959: The modern batting helmet is developed and used.

1963: ABC television broadcasts the Little League World Series for the first time. Chris Schenkel does the play-by-play.

1967: West Tokyo becomes the first Far East team to win the Series, defeating North Roseland of Chicago, 4-1.

1971: The aluminum bat, developed in cooperation with Little League, is first used.

1980: Vice President George Bush throws out the first ball at the World Series. Long Kuong, Taiwan, defeats Belmont Heights of Tampa, Fla., 4-3.

1982: A record crowd of 40,000 watches Kirkland, Wash., shut out Pu-tzu Town, Taiwan, 6-0.

1985: ABC broadcasts the championship game live. The coverage features a microminiature camera mounted on the mask of the home-plate umpire. Seoul, South Korea, beats Mexicali, Mexico, 7-1.

1989: Little League is 50 years old; Carl Yastrzemski is the first Little League graduate inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.

1990: The first full season of Challenger Division Little League for mentally and physically handicapped youths is played.

1992: The first Little League World Series night game.