30 July 1966 - And 45 Years Later, We're Still Debating Goalline Technology

On 30 July 1966, England won the World Cup, beating West Germany 4-2 in extra time thanks in part to a controversial goal.

Played before a crowd of 98,000 at London's Wembley Stadium, the match featured an early exchange of goals from a pair of strikers, West Germany's Helmut Haller (12') and England's Geoff Hurst (18'). After that, though, the goals dried up. Although both sides playing aggressive attacking styles, goalkeepers Gordon Banks and Hans Tilkowski repeatedly denied chance after chance.

English midfielder Martin Peters finally beat Tilkowski to break the stalemate in the 78th minute and the hosts looked certain to win at the end of regulation. But in the 89th minute, a loose ball in the England box fell to center back Wolfgang Weber, who drove it home with a sliding shot to send the match into extra time.

There, England continued to press and were rewarded in the 101st minute when Hurst took the ball on the edge of the area and fired it over Tilkowski. The ball struck the crossbar and bounced straight down before a West German player headed it out of play. The referee blew the whistle and conferred with his linesman before awarding the goal. Replays remain inconclusive, but suggest that the entire ball had not crossed the line. In any event, Hurst completed his hat-trick in the 120th minute to seal the win.

Despite the eventual margin of victory, controversy continues to surround Hurst's second goal. In 1996, two engineers at Oxford University published a paper claiming that the entire ball had not crossed the line, missing by just 6 centimeters.

5 July 1900 - A Club Reforged

On 5 July 1900, a new club rose from the ashes of Thames Ironworks FC. Calling themselves West Ham United, the new club went on to win three FA Cups and two international trophies while launching the careers of some of football's biggest stars.

Built from the remains of Old Castle Swifts FC, Thames Ironworks served as the works team for the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Co. The team was successful, winning the London League in 1898 and the Southern League's second division in 1899, but disbanded in June 1900 over disputes about the club's administration and financing. On 5 June 1900, the club was relaunched as West Ham United.

West Ham were elected to the Football League in 1919 and rose to the top tier in 1923. That year, they reached the FA Cup Final, but lost to Bolton Wanderers 2-0. They eventually won their first FA Cup in 1964, led by Bobby Moore and Geoff Hurst. That team went on to win the Cup Winners' Cup in 1965, while Moore and Hurst helped England to World Cup glory in 1966.

Two more FA Cups followed in 1975 and 1980, and they were one of the three winning finalists in the 1999 Intertoto Cup. Meanwhile, they launched the careers of such luminaries as Trevor Brooking, Paul Ince, Rio Ferdinand, Joe Cole, and Frank Lampard.

Since their election to the Football League in 1919, West Ham have moved regularly between the top two tiers of English football. They were recently relegated from the Premier League and will play in the Championship for the 2011-12 season.

23 July 1966 - The Beginning Of A Beautiful Rivalry

On 23 July 1966, Argentina met hosts England in the quarterfinals of that year's World Cup, sparking a heated rivalry that has provided some of the Cup's most dramatic matches and endures to the present day.

The two countries had met five times previously, resulting in two wins each with one match abandoned because of poor weather. But the matches did not become a full-blown rivalry until the 1966 meeting. Playing before a crowd of 90,000 at London's Wembley Stadium, the match was unremarkable until the 35th minute, when German referee Rudolf Kreitlein ejected Argentina's captain, midfielder Antonio Rattín as the Argentine attempted to speak with him.

The basis for the ejection was unclear. British newspapers claimed that the captain had been sent off for "violence of the tongue," while commentators in Argentina said that Rattín was tossed for giving Kreitlein a dirty look. Regardless of the reason, the ejection raised the emotions of the Argentinian players and the match took an ugly turn, with England winning thanks to a 78th-minute strike from Geoff Hurst. Afterward, England manager Alf Ramsey referred to the visiting players as "animals" and refused to allow the English team to swap shirts with them.

England went on to win the Final, but the rivalry continued in future World Cups, including the 1986 meeting in which Diego Mardona scored the "Hand of God" goal, the 1998 match which England lost after David Beckham's ejection, and the 2002 match in which Beckham redeemed himself. The current record stands at fifteen matches, with six England wins, four Argentina wins (including one by penalty shootout), four draws and one with no result.