Video: 'History of the First Special Olympics'

(Saturday, July 20, 1968) — The first International Special Olympics Summer Games, an international sporting competition for athletes with intellectual disabilities, were held today at Soldier Field in Chicago.

About 1,000 athletes from the U.S. and Canada took part in the one-day event, which was organized by Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the sister of President John F. Kennedy and senators Robert F. Kennedy and Ted Kennedy.