On this day in history, August 9, 1936, Jesse Owens wins fourth gold at Berlin Olympics

Jesse Owens, one of the most electrifying stars in the history of track and field — and whose record-setting speed and athleticism humiliated Adolf Hitler on the global stage — won his fourth gold medal at the Berlin Olympics on this day in history, August 9, 1936. 

"The African-American son of a sharecropper and the grandson of slaves had single-handedly crushed Hitler's myth of Aryan supremacy," ESPN wrote in 2000, while placing Owens at no. 6 on its list of the greatest North American athletes of the 20th century. 

Jesse Owens ran the first leg of the 4x100 relay as he and American teammates Foy Draper, Ralph Metcalfe and Frank Wykoff sprinted to victory with a world-record time of 39.8 seconds. 

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It was an astonishing 1.3 seconds better than silver medalist Italy. 

Germany placed third. 

The U.S. relay team's mark stood for 20 years. 

Members of the American relay team that won the 400-meter relay race at the Olympics in Berlin. They bettered the world and the Olympic records at 0:39.8 seconds. Left to right: Jesse Owens, Ralph Metcalfe, Foy Draper and Frank Wykoff on Aug. 18, 1936. (Getty Images)

It was the final gold medal of the Berlin Games for Owens. 

Over the previous week, he bested the global competition in 100 meters (10.3 seconds, Olympic record), 200 meters (20.7 seconds, world record) and long jump (8.06 meters, short of his own world record 8.13 meters). 

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"In one week in the summer of 1936, on the sacred soil of the Fatherland, the master athlete humiliated the master race," proclaimed ESPN.

Owens was just 22 years old at the time.