Milestones

ANNOUNCED

By Alex Rodriguez, designated hitter for the New York Yankees, his retirement from playing professional baseball. A-Rod will play his last game for the team on Aug. 12 but will serve as a “special adviser and instructor” to the Yankees until Dec. 31, 2017. In his 22-year career, Rodriguez hit 696 home runs–the fourth most in MLB history–and won three Most Valuable Player awards and a 2009 World Series title. The slugger was suspended for the entire 2014 season for taking performance-enhancing drugs.

DISCOVERED

Solid evidence that prehumans used tools to butcher and eat animals about 250,000 years ago, according to a study published in the Journal of Archaeological Sciences. Animal blood was detected on 17 of 44 tools believed to have been used by our ancestors in northeast Jordan and tested by a team of researchers led by April Nowell of the University of Victoria in Canada.

COMPLETED

The $115 million transfer of soccer star Paul Pogba back to Manchester United from the Italian club Juventus. The five-year contract is believed to be the biggest such fee ever agreed on and comes four years after the French midfielder joined Juventus from the English club on a free transfer.