First FIFA World Cup Held in Uruguay

Date

13–30 July 1930

Category

Culture, arts & philosophy

Region

Uruguay (Montevideo), South America

Era

Modern

Significance

The inaugural FIFA World Cup, the first global international association football tournament organised by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), was held in Uruguay from 13 to 30 July 1930.

Uruguay was chosen as host because it was celebrating the centenary of its first constitution and its national team had won the football gold medal at the 1924 and 1928 Summer Olympics; all matches were played in the capital, Montevideo, chiefly at the purpose-built Estadio Centenario. Thirteen nations competed—seven from South America, four from Europe, and two from North America—after FIFA president Jules Rimet personally lobbied reluctant European associations to send teams across the Atlantic. France's Lucien Laurent scored the tournament's first goal, and in the final on 30 July the hosts defeated neighbouring Argentina 4–2 to become the first world champions. The competition established the World Cup as a recurring quadrennial event and laid the foundation for what would become the most widely viewed sporting tournament in the world.

Empires active in 13–30 July 1930

• Empire of Japan
  1868 CE – 1947 CE
• Soviet Union
  1922 CE – 1991 CE
• French Colonial Empire (Second)
  1830 CE – 1962 CE
• British Empire
  1583 CE – 1997 CE
• Spanish Empire
  1492 CE – 1976 CE
• Portuguese Empire
  1415 CE – 1999 CE

Related culture, arts & philosophy events

• The Jazz Singer Inaugurates the Sound Film Era
  6 October 1927
• Walter Gropius Founds the Bauhaus in Weimar
  April 1919
• Rabindranath Tagore wins the Nobel Prize in Literature
  1913
• Freud publishes 'The Interpretation of Dreams'
  1900 (completed 1899)
• Nietzsche's 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra'
  1883–1885
• First Impressionist Exhibition opens in Paris
  15 April 1874

Further reading

The Story of Art

The wider story

The Story of Art

E. H. Gombrich

The best-selling art history ever written, from cave paintings to the modern age.

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