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8/17/2007
| 1880s | Adaption of lawn tennis to the dining table with improvised equipment | | 1890s | Several patents registered in England and the USA | | | Manufactured sets produced under trade names such as Gossima, and Indoor Tennis, with Lawn Tennis style rules | | 1900 | Introduction of celluloid balls to replace rubber and cork ones. The celluloid ball had the perfect bounce, and the game became a huge success | | 1901 | Table Tennis Association and rival Ping Pong Association formed in England; amalgamated in 1903 | | | First books on the game published in England | | | The game is introduced in China via western settlements | | 1904 | Ping Pong craze fades, some pockets of popularity in eastern Europe continue | | 1922 | Revival of the game in Europe, though laws varied | | | Establishment of standard laws of the Game in England | | 1926 | International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) initiated in Berlin | | | First World Championships held in London, England. ITTF Constitution adopted, along with first set of standardized Laws |
1920s – 50s Classic Hard Bat Era (European Dominance) | 1926 – 31 | Maria Mednyanszky (HUN) wins the world championships five times consecutively. Mednyansky wins 18 gold medals over-all | | 1930 – 35 | Victor Barna (HUN) becomes five times world champion and is runner-up 1931 losing the final against his compatriot Miklos Szabados. Barna wins a record 22 gold medals at world championships during his career, 40 medals overall | | 1936 | Tenth World Championships held in Prague, Czechoslovakia. The longest rally took place, the first point taking over two hours | | 1939 | First continental association formed: South America | | | First World Championship held outside Europe: Cairo, Egypt | | 1950 – 55 | Angelica Rozeanu-Adelstein (ROU) wins the World Championships six times in a row and is the last non Asian to win the female singles title until today |
1950s – 80s Age of Sponge Bat and Technology (Beginning of Asian Dominance) | 1952 | Nineteenth World Championships held in Bombay, India | | | The first to be staged in Asia and Japan’s entry to the international scene | | | Hiroji Satoh (JPN) became the first player to win a world championship when using a racket covered with thick sponge and is the first non-European winner | | | Inauguration of the Asian Federation | | | First Asian Federation Championships | | 1953 | China entered the Championships for the first time | | 1954 | Ichiro Ogimura (JPN) is the epitome of Japanese dominance with technological development and physical training | | 1956 | Tomie Okada-Okawa (JPN) is the first female player from Asia to win the World Championships and stops the European reign on world’s female table tennis. | | 1957 | World Championship changes to a two-year cycle | | 1958 | First European Championships, Budapest, Hungary. The USSR made their entry to the international scene | | 1959 | Rong Guotuan (CHN) is the first Chinese world champion in any sport | | | Racket standardization laws enacted | | 1962 | First All-Africa Championships, Alexandria, Egypt | | 1967 | Ivor Montagu retired as President of the ITTF after forty years in office | | 1971 | First Commonwealth Championships held in Singapore | | | Ping Pong Diplomacy: table tennis played an important role in international diplomacy when several teams were invited to China for a series of friendship matches after the 1971 World Championships. Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai: “Your visit to China has opened the door for people-to-people exchanges between China and the USA.” | | 1971 | Stellan Bengtsson (SWE) wins the men’s singles title and heralds the start of three decades of Swedish influence, with top players such as Kjell Johansson, Mikael Appelgren, Erik Lindh, Jan-Ove Waldner, Jörgen Persson, and Peter Karlsson | | 1973 | First World University Championships held in Hanover, Germany | | 1977 | ITTF received formal declaration of its recognition by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) | | 1979 | First European Championships for Paraplegics (wheelchair players) held in Stoke Mandeville, England | | 1980 | First World Cup held in Hong Kong | | 1981 | World Championships held in Nova Sad, Yugoslavia. Total triumph for China, whose athletes win all of the seven gold medals | | | Table tennis admitted to the Olympic programme (84th session IOC) | | 1982 | First World Veterans’ Championships held in Gothenburg, Sweden | | | First World Championships for the disabled held in Stoke Mandeville, England | | 1985 | European Youth Championships held in The Hague, Holland |
Modern Olympics Era (Chinese Reign with few exceptions) | 1988 | For the very first time, table tennis was featured in the Olympic Games that were held in Seoul, South Korea | | 1992 | Former World champion, Jan-Ove Waldner (SWE) became Olympic singles champion and reputedly, the first table tennis millionaire | | 1995 | World Championships held in Tianjin, China. Total triumph for China for the second time, winning seven gold medals | | 1996 | Beginning of the ITTF Pro Tour, with events taking place all around the world | | 2000 | After the Olympics in Sydney, the ball size is increased to 40mm for improved television viewing | | 2001 | Game score changed from 21 to 11 points | | | World Championships held in Osaka, Japan. Total triumph for China for the third time, winning all of the seven gold medals | | 2002 | Implementation of the ITTF World Junior Circuit (U18) and World Cadet Challenge (U15 continental team competition) | | 2003 | First ITTF World Junior Championships in Santiago, Chile | | | Team Championships separated from individual events, held in alternate years | | 2004 | During the Olympic Games in Athens, Table Tennis ranked 5th among all sports for television viewing audience | | 2005 | World Championships held in Shanghai, China. Total triumph again for China, winning all of the five gold medals | | 2006 | World Championships held in Bremen, Germany. The Chinese athletes complete the collection with two gold medals in the team events | | 2007 | World Championships held in Zagreb, Croatia. Total triumph number five for China, winning all of the five gold medals | | | First appearance of table tennis as a compulsory sport at the Universiade in Bangkok, Thailand | | 2010 | Table tennis is part of the first Youth Olympic Games |
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