On This Day:
Monday September 2, 2013 This is the 245th day of the year, with 120 days remaining in 2013. Fact of the Day: marathon The first modern marathon race was held at the Olympic Games in Athens, Greece in 1896 and covered a distance of 24.85 miles. The winner of this race was a Greek, Spiridon Louis, who ran the race in 2:58:50. The marathon honors the feat of a Greek soldier, Pheidippides, who, in 490 BC, ran approximately 25 miles from Marathon to Athens to deliver the news of the Athenian victory over the Persians - and then died. At the 1908 Olympic Games in London, the marathon distance was changed to 26 miles to cover the ground from Windsor Castle to White City stadium, with 385 yards added on so the race could finish in front of the royal family's viewing box. However, the official distance of the modern Olympic marathon race, 26 miles 385 yards, was not established until 1924. The Boston Marathon, one of the more famous marathon races, began in 1897.
Holidays Qatar Independence Day (from Great Britain).
Events 490 B.C.E. - Phidippides of Athens ran the legendary first marathon in running from Marathon to Athens, a distance of about 25 miles, to announce the defeat of the Persian army after the Battle of Marathon. In his honor, the 26-mile marathon became part of the Olympic Games in 1896.
31 B.C.E. - Roman leader Octavian defeated the alliance of Mark Antony and Cleopatra, queen of Egypt in a naval battle in the Ionian Sea. This put the Roman world under Octavian's control and he became the first Roman emperor as Augustus Caesar.
1666 - The Great Fire of London began when King Charles II's baker, Thomas Farrinor, forgot to turn off the oven in his home on Pudding Lane near London Bridge.
1751 - Julian calendar replaced in Britain and its colonies with the Gregorian calendar, adjusted so that the following day was September 14 and New Year's Day moved from March 25 to January 1.
1789 - U.S. Treasury Department was established.
1796 - Cleveland, Ohio was founded.
1833 - "New York Sun," the first "penny paper," was published.
1880 - First night game in baseball was played.
1885 - White coal miners in Rock Springs, Wyoming attacked their Chinese co-workers, killing 28 and seriously wounding 15.
1897 - First issue of "McCall's Magazine" was published.
1901 - Vice President Theodore Roosevelt gave a speech at the Minnesota State Fair in which he says, "Speak softly and carry a big stick."
1930 - First non-stop airplane flight from Europe to the United States was completed by Dieudonne Coste and Maurice Bellonte of France aboard the Question Mark.
1945 - Just hours after the Japanese surrender in World War II, Ho Chi Minh, the Communist leader, proclaimed the independent Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
1963 - Alabama Governor George Wallace blocked the desegregation of Tuskegee High School by surrounding its building with state troopers. Eight days later, President John F. Kennedy federalized the Alabama National Guard to force an end to Wallace's blockade.
1998 - Swissair Flight 111, in route to Geneva from New York City, crashed about five miles off Nova Scotia while attempting an emergency landing at Halifax International Airport. Two-hundred and twenty-nine people died in the crash.
Births 1917 - Cleveland Amory, American writer and "TV Guide" columnist.
1918 - Martha Mitchell, American socialite and wife of U.S. Attorney General John Mitchell.
1941 - John Thompson, American college basketball coach.
1948 - Nate "Tiny" Archibald, American basketball Hall-of-Famer.
1948 - Terry Bradshaw, American pro football Hall-of-Famer and sportscaster.
1948 - Christa McAuliffe (Sharon Christa Corrigan), American astronaut who died in the space shuttle Challenger.
1951 - Mark Harmon, American actor.
1952 - Jimmy Connors, American tennis champion.
1960 - Eric Dickerson, American football player.
1964 - Keanu Reeves, Lebanese-born Anglo/Canadian actor.
1966 - Salma Hayek, Mexican-born American actress.
Deaths 1910 - Henri Rousseau, French painter.
1969 - North Vietnamese president Ho Chi Minh.
1973 - J.R.R. Tolkien, English scholar and writer.
1991 - Alfonso García Robles, Mexican diplomat and politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.
2001 - Christiaan Barnard, South African cardiac surgeon. He is famous for performing the world's first successful human-to-human heart transplant.
2005 - Bob Denver, an American comedic actor best known for his role as Willy "Gilligan" Gilligan on the television series Gilligan's Island.
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