37 years ago today...
Mariner 9 became the first space probe (made by humans anyway)
to orbit Mars.
It couldn't see much at first due this rather major global dust storm,
but when the alien clouds cleared...
http://members.tripod.com/petermasek/mariner9.html
And there was a Cult of Ares/Mars in the really old days:
http://www.theoi.com/Cult/AresCult.html