Sept 2 in History

44 BC — Cicero, Roman statesman, orator, lawyer and philosopher, launches the first of his 14 “Philippicae” (oratorical attacks) in the senate on

Mark Antony.

1666 — The Great Fire of London starts at 2am in a bakery on Pudding Lane. It is brought under control on the 6th, having consumed 13,200 houses, 87 churches, St Paul’s Cathedral and most of the city authorities’ buildings. Only six verified deaths are recorded.

1806 — A massive landslide, with an estimated volume of 40-million cubic metres, destroys the town of Goldau, Switzerland, killing 457.

1838 — Queen Lili’uokalani, Hawaii’s last sovereign (1891-93) before annexation by the US, is born Lydia Lili‘u Loloku Walania Kamaka’eha in Honolulu. She composes more than 160 songs. The most famous, “Aloha Oe”, is a global classic synonymous with the Hawaiian Islands.

1901 — US Vice President Theodore Roosevelt utters the famous phrase, “Speak softly and carry a big stick”, at the Minnesota State Fair.

1937 — Pierre de Coubertin, 74, French baron who initiated the revival of the Olympic Games, dies in Geneva, Switzerland.

1945 — A Japanese delegation signs the Japan Instrument of Surrender on board the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, ending World War 2.

1945 — Ho Chi Minh reads the Vietnamese Declaration of Independence in Ba Dinh Square, Hanoi. A French colony since 1884, Vietnam was seized by Japan after France fell to Germany in 1940 (with the French still running the administration). Seeing an opportunity to liberate his country, Ho returned to Vietnam in early 1941 after 30 years in exile. He dies on September 2 1969, aged 79.

1952 — Jimmy Connors, the only tennis player to win the US Open on three different surfaces (five in total), is born in East St Louis, Illinois. He also wins Wimbledon twice and the Australian Open once. He still holds a number of records, including most career titles (109: 1972-89) and career matches won (1,257: 1970-89).

1958 — Dr HF Verwoerd succeeds Adv JG Strijdom as SA prime minister.

1967 — Paddy Roy Bates, 46, retired British army major, occupies Roughs Tower (built as an antiaircraft gun platform during World War 2 in the North Sea about 12km off the coast of Suffolk) and declares it the sovereign Principality of Sealand.

2001 — Prof Chris Barnard, 78, SA heart-transplant pioneer who wanted to be remembered for his lifesaving heart surgery on babies, dies of a severe asthma attack while on holiday in Paphos, Cyprus.