On this day

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 won the Battle of Quebec – but Wolfe died in the fighting.

1788: New York became federal capital of the new United States of America.

1874: Composer Arnold Schoenberg 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.

1909: 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.

1915: The process for making breakfast cereal flakes was patented by Frank Martin, as previously the combination of corn, oats and grain had proved indigestible for the public.

1944: William Heath Robinson, the English artist known for his drawings of complex machinery which performed simple tasks, died.

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, pictured, hit parts of Texas and Louisiana, battering the coast with 110mph gusts and torrential rain.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR:

A landmark experiment opened a window to a sci-fi future in which babies are conceived from skin cells.