Little League Baseball announced on June 12, 1974, that girls would be allowed to play, ending decades of exclusion from one of America’s most popular youth sports programs.
Founded in Pennsylvania in 1939, Little League had grown to thousands of teams worldwide by the 1970s. The change followed a lawsuit involving 12-year-old Maria Pepe, who had been removed from a New Jersey team because she was a girl. Later that year, Congress passed legislation prohibiting gender discrimination in federally funded youth sports programs.
Since then, girls have competed at every level of Little League, including the Little League World Series.
– Staff report with AI assist*, The Today 100
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