The man who defeated the machine and the first issue of the first Russian newspaper for expats are celebrated in tonight’s Historama.

Man vs. machine – a battle to remember

On this day in 2002, World Chess Champion Vladimir Kramnik competed against the popular computer chess program “Deep Fritz”.

The previous most-famous encounter happened in 1997: back then another Russian, Garry Kasparov, fought against a program called “Deep Blue”. Sadly, that ended in defeat for humans.

Although most commentators rated Kramnik as the stronger player, it was to everyone’s surprise and joy when the 2002 match finished in a 4-4 draw.

Kramnik went home with $700,000 prize money. In case of victory, he would have received one million, though.

Read more on this event in Russian history

First issue of Moscow News comes out

Today in 1930, the first issue of Moscow News in English was published.

It was created especially for foreign specialists working in the country.

Back then, this newspaper used to come out in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Arabic, Estonian, Greek, Hungarian, Finnish and even Esperanto.

Currently, it is published in Russian and English, but it is available on news stands in more than 50 countries.

­Russia’s most multicultural city founded

On this day in 1632, a small fortress was founded on the banks of the River Lena. It was built to protect the Russian border from nomadic tribes.

The stronghold soon grew into Yakutsk, one of the largest cities in the Far East. It now has a population of 260,000 with 120 nationalities represented.

This multicultural city is also the economic hub of the Yakutia Republic, which, incidentally, is Russia's largest region.