On July 17, 1941, Joe DiMaggio is held hitless for the first time in a game since May 15. This ends his historic 56 game hitting streak.
The streak began on May 15, 1941, a couple of weeks before the death of Lou Gehrig, when DiMaggio went 1-4 against the Chicago White Sox. Major newspapers covered the streak early on, but as he approached George Sisler’s modern era record of 41 games, it became a national phenomenon. He showed little interest in breaking Sisler’s record at first saying, “I’m not thinking a whole lot about it… I’ll either break it or I won’t.