Joe Louis was born on May 13, 1914. He was one the greatest boxers in American history.

He was born Joseph Louis Barrow on a sharecroppers farm near Lafayette, Alabama. At the age of ten his family migrated to Detroit. Louis won his first professional fight by a knockout in 1934. He won the professional heavyweight championship of the world three years later, defeating American boxer James Jack Braddock by a knockout. During his professional boxing career, Louis compiled 68 victories and three defeats.

His 68 victories included 54 by knockout. Louis's first loss came at Yankee stadium in 1936, to the former world champion, German boxer Max Schmeling. The Nazis equated Schmeling's victory over Louis to a validation of Nazi superiority over democracy. The two boxers fought again in a 1938 rematch. Louis won the bout in one round, and Americans celebrated the victory of democracy. Louis retired in 1949, having successfully defended his title 25 times.

In 1950 Louis returned to the ring, but his attempted comeback was unsuccessful. American heavyweight contender Rocky Marciano, after which Louis permanently retired, knocked him out in 1951. He was elected to the Boxing Hall of Fame in 1954. Joe Louis died in 1981.

Reference:
Boxing Album: An Illustrated History
by Peter Brooke Bell
Smithmark Publisher, 1995
ISBN 0831748109