This Day in History: “Titanic” became the first film to earn $1 billion

The following are some of the events to have occurred on March 2:

1917 – Tsar Nicholas II of Russia abdicated.

1962 – The Burmese army, led by Ne Win, seized power in a coup.

1998 – The film “Titanic” became the first to earn $1 billion.

2002 – Pope John Paul II paid Moscow a “virtual visit”, joining his flock through a live satellite broadcast, despite opposition from the Orthodox Church.

2002 – Martha Catalina Daniels, a Colombian senator from the opposition Liberal Party, was shot dead near Zipacon, 25 miles (40 km) west of Bogota, in a killing blamed on FARC rebels.

2003 – Alinghi, the yacht representing landlocked Switzerland, became the first European team to win the Americas Cup, world sport’s oldest trophy.

2003 – Half a million Algerians gave French President Jacques Chirac a rousing welcome at the start of the first full state visit by a French president since Algeria won independence in 1962.

2008 – Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in Baghdad, the first visit by an Iranian president since Saddam Hussein launched an eight-year war on Iran in 1980, in which 1 million people died.

2014 – Dozens dead in China’s Kunming train station stabbing.

2015 – Volkswagen Passat named car of the year at 85th Geneva Auto Show.

2015 – Royal Mint unveils new portrait of Queen for coins.

(Reuters)