And he did it against one of the teams regarded as the best ever, the 1986 Boston Celtics.
They had a side featuring five of their top six Hall of Famers and it was after this game Larry Bird offered the famous “God disguised as Michael Jordan” quote. Jordan carried a Chicago Bulls team to double overtime before finally losing out 135-131.
There have been many great individual games in NBA history but Jordan’s 63-point record haul, which still stands to this day, ranks as one of the very best.
Here’s what else happened on this day:
1985: Carlos Lopes ran a world record marathon (2:07:12).
1988: The Baltimore Orioles set the record for the worst start in an MLB season at 0-14 (would go 0-21).
1991: Mark Lenzi became the first diver to score 100 points on a dive (101.85).
2008: Danica Patrick won the Indy Japan 300 to become the first female driver to win an Indy car race.