Held during a worldwide economic crisis, many nations or athletes were unable to pay the trip to Los Angeles, and less than half of the number of participants from Amsterdam showed up.
An Olympic Village was built for the first time, occupied by the male athletes.
Babe Didrikson wins two gold medals in the javelin throw and the hurdles event, and only loses a third in the high jump because her jumping technique is ruled inferior and is placed second.
In field hockey, only three nations take part. The host nation loses 1-24 to India and 2-9 to Japan but wins a bronze medal anyway.
Finnish star Paavo Nurmi is barred from competing in the Olympic for being a professional.
Eddie Tolan wins both the 100 and 200 m sprint events.
Helene Madison wins three gold medals in swimming, while the Japanese upset the men's events and take all but one title.
The date of the Games' inception based on the count of years in Olympiads is reconstructed as 776 BC, although scholars' opinions diverge between dates as early as 884 BC and as late as 704 BC.
To organise the Games, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was established, with the Greek Demetrius Vikelas as its first president.
From the 245 participants from 15 nations in 1896, the Games grew to nearly 11,100 competitors from 202 countries at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.
The Games of the Olympiad, better known as the Summer Olympics, have been held every fourth year since 1896, with the exception of the years during the World Wars.
In fact, three Olympiads had to pass without Olympics because of war; due to World War I the 1916Games were cancelled, and because of World War II the games of 1940 and 1944 were also skipped.
In 1956 the Games were boycotted by the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland, because of the withdrawal of the Hungarian Uprising by the Warsaw Pact - furthermore the Melbourne Games were boycotted by Cambodia, Egypt, Iraq and the Lebanon, because of the Suez Crisis.
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