2 September

Events490 BC - After the Battle of Marathon, where the Greeks defeated the invading Persians, Pheidippides, who had already run 140 miles in 2 days and nights, ran 26 miles from Marathon to Athens to carry the news of the victory. His last words before he collapsed and died, "Rejoice, we are victorious."44 BC - Pharaoh Cleopatra VII of Egypt declares her son co-ruler as Ptolemy XV Caesarion.44 BC - The first of Cicero’s Philippics (oratorical attacks) on Mark Antony. He will make 14 of them over the next several months.31 BC - Final war of the Roman Republic: Battle of Actium - Off the western coast of Greece, forces of Octavian defeat troops under Mark Antony and Cleopatra.1649 - The Italian city of Castro is completely destroyed by the forces of Pope Innocent X, ending the Wars of Castro.1666 - The Great Fire of London breaks out and burns for three days, destroying 10,000 buildings including St. Paul's Cathedral.1752 - The United Kingdom adopts the Gregorian Calendar, nearly two centuries later than most of Western Europe.1789 - The United States Department of the Treasury is founded.1792 - During what became known as the September Massacres of the French Revolution, rampaging mobs slaughter three Roman Catholic Church bishops, more than two hundred priests, and prisoners believed to be royalist sympathizers.1807 - British Navy bombards Copenhagen with fire bombs and phosphorus rockets to prevent Denmark from surrendering its fleet to Napoleon.1833 - Oberlin College is founded by John Shipherd and Philo P. Stewart.1862 - American Civil War: President Abraham Lincoln reluctantly restores Union General George B. McClellan to full command after General John Pope's disastrous defeat at the Battle of Second Bull Run.1864 - American Civil War: Union forces enter Atlanta, Georgia a day after the Confederate defenders flee the city.1867 - Mutsuhito, the Meiji Emperor of Japan, marries Masako Ichijō. The Empress consort is thereafter known as Lady Haruko. Since her death in 1914, she's called by the posthumous name Empress Shōken.1870 - Franco-Prussian War: Battle of Sedan - Prussian forces take French Emperor Napoleon III and 100,000 of his soldiers prisoner.1885 - In Rock Springs, Wyoming, 150 white miners, who were struggling to unionize so they could strike for better wages and work conditions, attack their Chinese fellow workers, killing 28, wounding 15, and forcing several hundred more out of town.1898 - Battle of Omdurman - British and Egyptian troops defeat Sudanese tribesmen and establishing British dominance in the Sudan.1901 - Vice President of the United States Theodore Roosevelt utters the famous phrase, "Speak softly and carry a big stick" at the Minnesota State Fair.1925 - The U.S. Zeppelin the USS Shenandoah crashes, killing 14.1935 - Labor Day Hurricane of 1935: A large hurricane hits the Florida Keys killing 423.1939 - World War II: Following the invasion of Poland, Freie Stadt Danzig Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) is annexed to Nazi Germany.1945 - Combat in World War II ends in the Pacific Theater: The final official surrender of Japan is accepted aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.1945 - Vietnam declares its independence, forming the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam).1958 - U.S. Air Force C-130A-II is shot down by fighters over Yerevan, Armenia when it strays into Soviet airspace while conducting a sigint mission. All crew lost.1963 - CBS Evening News becomes U.S. network television's first half-hour weeknight news broadcast, when the show is lengthened from 15 to 30 minutes.1969 - The first automatic teller machine in the United States is installed in Rockville Center, New York.1970 - NASA announces the cancellation of two Apollo missions to the Moon, Apollo 15 (the designation was re-used by a later mission), and Apollo 19.1990 - Transnistria unilaterally proclaimed as Soviet republic; the Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev declares the decision null and void.1991 - The United States recognizes the independence of the Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.1996 - A peace agreement is signed between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the Moro National Liberation Front in Malacañang Palace.1998 - Swissair Flight 111 crashes near Peggys Cove, Nova Scotia. All 229 people on board are killed.1998 - The UN's International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda finds Jean-Paul Akayesu, the former mayor of a small town in Rwanda, guilty of nine counts of genocide.2005 - The Natural Bridge, a very popular tourist attraction in Aruba, collapses after thousands of years in good condition.2006 - Waziristan War ends. US and Pakistani Troops leave Waziristan mountain area.
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