Lou Gehrig: 75 years after Yankee great's death, here are his best quotes, farewell address Published: Jun. 02, 2016, 8:53 a.m. Lou Gehrig officially retired from baseball on July 4, 1939.

July 4th marks the 75th anniversary of Lou Gehrig's iconic speech. WSJ's Jonathan Eig joins Simon Constable on the News Hub to look back at this historic moment and what we know now. Photo: AP ...

Gehrig delivered a farewell speech now known as the "Luckiest Man Alive" speech to Yankee Stadium fans in 1939, two weeks after he was diagnosed with ALS, in an event labeled Lou Gehrig Day.

French pathologist Jean-Martin Charcot first described ALS in 1869. Though the British called it motor-neuron disease, Americans began calling it Lou Gehrig's Disease after the famous speech.

A transcript of Lou Gehrig's iconic speech: "Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.

McCarthy whispered enouragement to him and Lou hobbled to the bank of microphones. Gehrig did not have a written speech to deliver — and no actual copy of it appears to exist.

The image of Lou Gehrig saying farewell to Yankees fans, his head bowed as he speaks into a cluster of microphones near home plate on July 4, 1939, remains indelible, even after 75 years.

Very few speeches stand the test of time, but July 4 marked the 75th anniversary of one such speech given by a dying Lou Gehrig at Yankee Stadium. Gehrig's "Luckiest Man on the Face of the Earth ...

The American Film Institute later ranked “the luckiest man” speech the 38th best on its list of the 100 Greatest Movie Quotes, but these were no scripted lines. Gehrig actually said them.

Today marks 75th anniversary of Gehrig's "luckiest man" speech — -- On the 75th anniversary of Lou Gehrig’s unforgettable “luckiest man on the face of the earth” speech, Major League ...

Because there, on July 4, 1939, an emotional Lou Gehrig stood, this time as a broken-down Iron Horse, ... The only speech that can rival Gehrig’s is Jim Valvano’s powerful 1993 ESPY speech.