Originally known as the 100 Guinea Cup, the America's Cup became the namesake of New York Yacht Club’s rakish schooner America, led by NY Yacht Club Commodore John Cox Stevens, which won the trophy after defeating 14 British yachts in the All Nation’s Race at Cowes, Isle of Wight, on August 22, 1851.

On July, 1857, to encourage "friendly competition among foreign countries", George L. Schyler, the sole surviving owner of the America syndicate, assigned the America’s Cup to New York Yacht Club through a Deed of Gift. New York YC subsequently announced it would accept challenges for the America’s Cup from any organized yacht club of a foreign nation. America's Cup was born.

First Challenge by James Ashbury's Cambria and first America's Cup.

This series marked the entrance of Sir Thomas Lipton —"Tea King"— on to the America’s Cup scene.

The debut of the great J-class boats. It was the largest boat designed under the American Universal Measurement Rule.

Gone were the gaff rigs, long bowsprits and booms, clouds of sail, and the enormous crews, to be replaced by the "marconi" or "Bermuda" rigs, 150-foot masts, 120-foot hulls and sophisticated "coffee-grinder" winches to raise, lower and trim the sails. The boats needed 40 crew members to sail them.

Vanderbilt's Enterprise meets Lipton's Shamrock V in Newport, Rhode Island, winning 4-0.

America's Cup racing ended with World War II and it seemed as if it might have come to a permanent end, mainly because J-boats had become prohibitively expensive. In an effort to revive the America's Cup after the Second World War and reduce costs, the NYYC allowed the Deed of Gift to be changed to allow smaller boats to compete and the age of the 12 metre was born.

A new regulation said that the challengers' boats could be transported by ship, rather than having to sail across the ocean to the race site. Increasingly, the designs became more similar and the racing got tighter. Even so, the Americans continued their winning streak, defending the Cup through 8 matches.

Gretel II defeats two hopefuls, France I and Sweden's Sveridge, to become the official challenger.

1983 "Louis Vuitton Cup" is established to weed out multiple challengers. Bond's Australia II, skippered by John Bertrand and sporting the infamous "winged keel," comes back from a 3-1 deficit to defeat Conner's Liberty 4-3. The Cup moves to Australia.

Stars and Stripes from the San Diego Yacht Club, with the Conner-Burnham team, defeats Kookaburra, Australia's defender, 4-0.

The SDYC agreed to defend in a best two out of three series and built a 60-foot catamaran (multi-hulled vessel) to defend against NZ Michael Fay's 120-foot monohull. Conner had no problem winning two straight races.

America3 wins over Il Moro di Venezia 4-1, the first european Louis Vuitton Cup winner.

The persistent New Zealanders, like their Australian counterparts a decade earlier, proved relentless in their quest for the Cup.

In the 29th defense, the Kiwis' black boat became a symbol of supremacy on the seas off Point Loma, amassing an unprecedented 42-1 record during the four-month long Louis Vuitton Cup challenger trials. They easily won the finals to earn the right to host the 1999-2000 defense.

Alinghi won the 31st America’s Cup Match in Auckland and, for the first time in its 152-year history, the America’s Cup is going back to Europe. The new home of the America's Cup is the Societe Nautique de Geneve in landlocked Switzerland.