Happy World Table Tennis Day! Learn about how the U.S. and China bonded over Ping Pong

On April 6, 1971, history was made when China invited the U.S. table tennis team to play in the Asian country. They were the first Americans that were allowed in China since the communist takeover in 1949.

The U.S. team would tour China and play matches from April 11 to 17 as the American public watched from home, according to PBS. The popular matches would become known as "Ping Pong Diplomacy," and marked a turnaround in diplomatic relations between the two countries.

"You have opened a new chapter in the relations of the American and Chinese people," Premier Chou En-lai told the team at the Great Hall of People in China on April 14. "I am confident that this beginning again of our friendship will certainly meet with majority support of our two peoples."

On April 15, the U.S. announced its plans to lift a longstanding trade embargo on China. Later that year, President Nixon announced he would visit China in 1972, the first U.S. president to visit the country in history.