In 1939, Lou Gehrig voluntarily ended his record streak of consecutive games played at 2,130. He never played again. The record stood until 1995 when it was broken by Cal Ripken, Jr. Exactly two years and one month later, on June 2, 1941, Gehrig died of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a disease that bears his name.
Lou Gehrig with Detroit slugger Hank Greenberg in 1935