IT HAPPENED TODAY
490BC:
The Greeks defeated the Persians under Darius at the Battle of Marathon. Philippides had run 150 miles in two days in a futile attempt to ask the Spartans to assist the Greek army, but in the end their help was not required.
1321:
Italian poet Dante Alighieri died in Ravenna.
1759:
The British under General Wolfe (above) won the Battle of Quebec — but Wolfe was killed in the fighting.
1788:
New York became federal capital of the new United States of America.
1874:
Composer Arnold Schoenberg (below) was born in Vienna. As a triskaidekaphobe (someone afraid of the number 13), he predicted he would die on the 13th at the age of 76 (7+6=13). He did, on July 13, 1951 at 13 minutes to midnight. His last word was “harmony”.
The first performance took place of Oscar Strauss’s The Chocolate Soldier, the operetta based on Shaw’s Arms And The Man. It introduced the famous song My Hero.
1957:
The Mousetrap, a murder-mystery, became Britain’s longest running play, reaching its 1,998th performance.
1985:
The World Health Organisation declared Aids a worldwide epidemic.
2008:
Hurricane Ike ravaged parts of Texas and Louisiana, battering the US coast with 110mph gusts of wind .
ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR:
29-yearold debut novelist Fiona Mozley was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for a book she began writing on her mobile phone on her way to work.
BIRTHDAYS:
Jacqueline Bisset, actress, 74; Bobby Davro, comedian, 60; Zak Starkey, rock musician, 53; Michael Johnson, former athlete, 51; Shane Warne, cricketer, 49; Goran Ivanisevic, former tennis player, 47; Stella McCartney (above), fashion designer, 47; Niall Horan, singer (One Direction), 25.