Today Is...The Battle Of Marathon

If it wasn't for an Athenian runner named Pheidippides, the 490 BC dust up between Persia and Greece would be as well remembered as all the other scraps between the two but his actions gave the name to an Olympic event and a peanut filled confectionery, but mainly the Olympic event.
Sent by his commanders to run from Athens to Sparta to ask for assistance, he ran a distance of 140 miles and then quite understandably promptly died of exhaustion but the Spartans marched the 25 miles to head off a Persian army and somehow that became the distance for future marathons.
The Olympic organisers were looking for a great event which recalled the ancient glory of Greece and legend has it that the person who came up with it when they were organising the modern Olympics got his wired crossed but then they just went with it anyway because making athletes run 140 miles was deemed atad excessive.
The first modern Olympics in 1896 did run from Marathon to Athens and the event proved so popular that it became a permanent fixture at the Olympic Games, with the distance starting at 25 miles then increased to 26 miles and then becoming fixed at 26 miles 385 yards in 1921 when the British Royal Family wanted the runners to finish directly in front of their viewing box, which added on the extra 385 yards.