Many sports have a group of four top events called the “Grand Slam.” The four tennis Grand Slam events are the Australian Open (mid January), French Open (May and June), Wimbledon (June and July) and the U.S. Open (August and September).
 
A traditional Grand Slam is when a tennis player wins all four events in the same calendar year. Don Budge (1915-2000) was the first player to win a Grand Slam when he accomplished this in 1938.
 
   
Wikipedia: Grand Slam (tennis)
The Grand Slam tournaments, also called majors, are the four most important annual tennis events. They offer the most ranking points, prize money, public and media attention, the greatest strength and size of field, and greater number of “best of” sets for men. The Grand Slam itinerary consists of the Australian Open in mid January, the French Open in May and June, Wimbledon in June and July, and the US Open in August and September. Each tournament is played over a period of two weeks. The Australian and United States tournaments are played on hard courts, the French on clay, and Wimbledon on grass. Wimbledon is the oldest, founded in 1877, followed by the US in 1881, the French in 1891, and the Australian in 1905. However, of these four, only Wimbledon was a major before 1924/25, the time when all four became designated Grand Slam tournaments.
 
The term Grand Slam also, and originally, refers to the achievement of winning all four major championships in a single calendar year within one of the five events: men’s and women’s singles; men’s, women’s, and mixed doubles. In doubles, one team may accomplish a Grand Slam playing together or one player may achieve it with different partners. The term “Grand Slam” without qualification refers to winning the four majors in a single calendar year.
 
Wikipedia: Australian Open
The Australian Open is a major tennis tournament held annually over the last fortnight of January in Melbourne, Australia. First held in 1905, the tournament is chronologically the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events of the year – the other three being the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. It features men’s and women’s singles; men’s, women’s, and mixed doubles and junior’s championships; as well as wheelchair, legends and exhibition events. Prior to 1988 the tournament had been played on grass. Since 1988 two types of hardcourt surfaces have been used at Melbourne Park – green Rebound Ace to 2007 and blue Plexicushion from 2008.
 
Wikipedia: French Open
The French Open, often referred to as Roland Garros (French: [ʁɔlɑ̃ ɡaʁɔs]), is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks between late May and early June at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. Named after the French aviator Roland Garros, it is the premier clay court tennis championship event in the world and the second of four annual Grand Slam tournaments, the other three being the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open. Roland Garros is the only Grand Slam event held on clay and ends the clay court season.
 
Wikipedia: The Championships, Wimbledon
The Championships, Wimbledon, commonly known as “Wimbledon”, is the oldest tennis tournament in the world, and is widely considered the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Club in Wimbledon, London since 1877. It is one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, the others being the Australian Open, the French Open and the US Open. Since the Australian Open shifted to hardcourt in 1988, Wimbledon is the only major still played on grass.
 
Wikipedia: US Open (tennis)
The United States Open Tennis Championships is a hardcourt tennis tournament which is the modern version of one of the oldest tennis championships in the world, the U.S. National Championship, for which men’s singles was first contested in 1881. Since 1987, the US Open has been chronologically the fourth and final tennis major comprising the Grand Slam each year; the other three are the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon.
 
The US Open is held annually, starting on the last Monday in August, and lasting for two weeks into September, with the middle weekend coinciding with the Labor Day holiday. The main tournament consists of five event championships: men’s and women’s singles, men’s and women’s doubles, and mixed doubles, with additional tournaments for senior, junior, and wheelchair players. Since 1978, the tournament has been played on acrylic hard courts at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, Queens, New York City.
 
15 January 1927, Augusta (GA) Chronicle, “The Sportlight” by Grantland Rice, pg. A10, col. 7:
After a Grand Slam
(...)
The French has set their dream at cleaning up the menu from St. Cloud and Wimbledon to Germantown and Forest Hills.
 
3 July 1937, Hutchinson (KS) News, pg. 1, col. 1:
Grand Slam Is Made By Budge
Wins Or Shares Three Wimbledon Titles
Wimbledon, Eng. (AP)—Twenty-seven-year-old Dorothy Round captured the all-England women’s singles championship today as Don Budge, America’s red-haired terror of the tennis courts, wrote a new chapter in classic Wimbledon history.
(...)
The tall Oakland, Calif., redhead, who had beaten Baron Gottfried von Cramm in the men’s singles final yesterday, annexed a share in both the men’s and mixed doubles championships today.
 
8 August 1937, The News and Courier (Charleston, SC), “John Donald Budge: He Needs One Win for a Grand Slam” by Sam Jackson (AP Feature Writer, pg. 3-B, col. 2:
If Budge wins the U.S. singles championship in September, he will have accomplished a grand slam in tennis.
 
21 February 1938, Gettysbrug (PA) Times, “Sports Roundup” by Sid Feder (AP), pg. 3, col. 2:
Latest dope says Don Budge wants to do a “Bobby Jones grand slam” before turning pro…By winning the Australian, German, French, Wimbledon and United States titles all in one year…With the Aussie honors captured,  it’s one down and four to go.
 
12 June 1938, Galveston (TX) Morning News, pg. 16, col. 7:
Don Budge Complete Grand Slam
By Taking French Tournament
Auteuil, France, June 11.—(AP)—Don Budge completed his tennis “grand slam” today. to add the French hard courts championship to his American, British and Australian singles titles and became the first player in history to hold all four at the same time.
 
The red-headed Californian crushed Roderich Menzel, huge Czech, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4,
 
New York (NY) Times
Don Budge, First to Win Tennis’s Grand Slam, Dies at 84
By ROBIN FINN
Published: January 27, 2000
Don Budge, the red-haired athlete who helped redefine the terms of his sport by becoming the first player to win the Grand Slam of tennis, in 1938, died yesterday in Scranton, Pa. He was 84.
(...)
Despite offers to turn professional in 1938, Budge elected to preserve his amateur status to help keep the Davis Cup; he also, in an understated campaign he referred to as ‘‘something of an afterthought,’’ became the first player to capture all four Grand Slam events within a calendar year. Budge won the Australian, French, Wimbledon and United States Nationals with the loss of only one set over all in the four finals.