After a nearly yearlong journey, NASA's robotic spacecraft Viking 2 landed on Mars this day in 1976 and began relaying information about the planet's atmosphere and soil as well as colour photographs of the rocky surface.
| 1894: | | Labor Day was celebrated as a legal holiday in the United States for the first time. |
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| 1783: | | The Treaty of Paris (part of the Peace of Paris) was signed between Britain and the United States. |
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| 1658: | | | English soldier and statesman Oliver Cromwell died in London. |
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| 1609: | | English navigator Henry Hudson, in a quest for a passage to India on behalf of the Dutch East India Company, sailed into the harbour of present-day New York City and up the river that now bears his name. |
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