Reuters historical calendar - March 2

London, Mar 1 (Reuters) Following are some of the events to have occurred on March 2 since 1900: 1917 - Tsar Nicholas II of Russia abdicated.

1930 - D H Lawrence, English novelist, author of ''Sons and Lovers'' and ''Lady Chatterley's Lover'', died.

1939 - Howard Carter, British Egyptologist, died. In 1922 he discovered the tomb of King Tutankhamun.

1949 - Captain James Gallagher completed the first non-stop round-the-world flight. He finished the 37,742-km (23,452-mile) flight in 94 hours and one minute.

1962 - The Burmese army, led by Ne Win, seized power in a coup; military rule ended on the same date in 1974, when a new constitution took effect and Ne Win became president.

1969 - The first of two prototype Concorde supersonic airliners made its maiden flight from Toulouse.

1970 - A new constitution came into effect in Rhodesia, turning the country into a republic.

1972 - The US spacecraft Pioneer 10 was launched. It passed close by Jupiter and Neptune before leaving the solar system. It was more than six billion miles from earth in 1997 when NASA stopped communicating with it.

1981 - Al-Zulfiqar militants hijacked a Pakistani airliner with 148 passengers on board. All hostages were released on March 15 after Pakistan freed 55 political prisoners.

1998 - The film ''Titanic'' became the first ever to earn 1 billion US dollars.

2002 - Pope John Paul paid Moscow a ''virtual visit'', joining his flock through a live satellite broadcast, despite opposition from the Orthodox Church who dubbed it an ''invasion''.

2002 - Martha Catalina Daniels, a Colombian senator from the opposition Liberal Party, is 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 Chirac a rousing welcome at the start of the first full state visit by a French president since it won independence in 1962.

2004 - Europe's Rosetta space mission separated from an Ariane launch rocket, beginning its 10 year voyage to chase and then land on a comet.

REUTERS PB RAI0957