24 August

Events

• 49 BC - Julius Caesar's general Gaius Curio is defeated in the Battle of the Bagradas River by the Pompeians under Attius Varus and King Juba of Numidia. Curio commits suicide.
• 79 - Mount Vesuvius erupts. The cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabiae are buried in volcanic ash.
• 410 - The Visigoths under Alaric sack Rome for three days
• 1215 - Pope Innocent III declares the Magna Carta invalid.
• 1349 - 6,000 Jews are killed in Mainz because they are blamed for the bubonic plague.
• 1391 - Jews massacred in Palma de Mallorca.
• 1456 - The printing of the Gutenberg Bible is completed.
• 1511 - The Portuguese conquer Malacca.
• 1572 - Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre: On the orders of king Charles IX of France, a massacre of Huguenots (French Protestants) begins.
• 1608 - The first official British representative to India lands in Surat.
• 1662 - Act of Uniformity requires England to accept the Book of Common Prayer
• 1682 - William Penn receives the area that is now the state of Delaware, and adds it to his colony of Pennsylvania.
• 1690 - Calcutta, India is founded
• 1814 - British troops invade Washington, D.C. and burn down the White House and several other buildings.
• 1831 - Charles Darwin is asked to travel on the HMS Beagle.
• 1847 - Charlotte Brontë finishes Jane Eyre.
• 1853 - Potato chips first prepared.
• 1857 - Beginning of the Panic of 1857, one of the most severe economic crises in US history.
• 1858 - In Richmond, Virginia, 90 blacks are arrested for learning.
• 1891 - Thomas Edison patents the motion picture camera.
• 1909 - Workers start pouring concrete for the Panama Canal.
• 1912 - Alaska becomes a United States territory
• 1914 - German troops capture Namur.
• 1929 - Turkey and Persia sign a friendship treaty.
• 1931 - France and the Soviet Union sign a neutrality/no attack treaty.
• 1932 - Amelia Earhart is the first woman to fly across the United States non-stop (from Los Angeles to Newark, New Jersey).
• 1936 - The Australian Antarctic Territory is created.
• 1942 - The Battle of the East Solomon Islands. Japanese aircraft carrier Ryuho is sunk.
• 1944 - French and allied troops start the attack on Paris.
• 1949 - The treaty creating NATO goes into effect.
• 1950 - Edith Sampson is the first black US delegate to the UN.
• 1954 - The Communist Control Act goes into effect. The American Communist Party is outlawed.
• 1960 - A temperature of -88°C (-127°F) is measured in Vostok, Antarctica - a world-record low.
• 1963 - The 200 meter freestyle is swum in less than 2 minutes for the first time (Don Schollander in 1:58).
• 1968 - France explodes its first hydrogen bomb, thus becoming the world's fifth nuclear power.
• 1979 - In Central Park, New York a concert is given by cars.
• 1981 - Mark David Chapman is sentenced to 20 years to life in prison for murdering John Lennon.
• 1989 - Colombian drugs barons declare "total war" on the Colombian government.
• 1989 - Cincinnati Reds manager Pete Rose is banned from baseball for gambling by Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti
• 1989 - Voyager 2 passes Neptune.
• 1990 - A judge rules that Judas Priest is not responsible for the deaths of two youths who committed suicide after listening to the band's music.
• 1990 - Sinead O'Connor refuses to perform at the Garden State Arts Plaza in Homdel NJ if The Star Spangled Banner is played before her show, as is customary.
• 1991 - Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as head of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
• 1991 - Ukraine declares itself independent from the Soviet Union.
• 1992 - Diplomatic relations are established between the People's Republic of China and South Korea.
• 1992 - Hurricane Andrew hits South Florida
• 1994 - Initial accord between Israel and the PLO about partial self-rule of the Palestinians on the West Bank.
• 1995 - Windows 95 becomes available.
• 1998 - The Netherlands is selected as the site for the trial of the two Libyan suspects of the 1988 PanAm bombing.

Births

• 1113 - Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, father of Henry II of England
• 1198 - Alexander II of Scotland
• 1358 - King John I of Castile
• 1591 - Robert Herrick, English poet
• 1669 - Alessandro Marcello, composer (d. 1747)
• 1759 - William Wilberforce, campaigner against slavery
• 1772 - King William I of the Netherlands (1814-1840)
• 1787 - James Weddell, Antarctic explorer († 1834)
• 1817 - Aleksei Tolstoi, novelist and poet
• 1837 - Théodore Dubois, composer and teacher (d. 1924)
• 1863 - Dragutin Lerman, Africa explorer († 1918)
• 1865 - King Ferdinand I of Romania
• 1873 - Max Beerbohm, theater critic (d. 1956)
• 1880 - Joshua Lionel Cowen, inventor of the toy electric train
• 1884 - Earl Derr Biggers, author (d. 1933)
• 1890 - Duke Kahanamoku, swimmer, surfer (d. 1968)
• 1898 - Malcolm Cowley, literary critic, writer, editor (d. 1989)
• 1899 - Jorge Luis Borges, Argentinian writer (d. 1986)
• 1901 - Preston Foster, actor
• 1915 - James Tiptree, Jr., writer
• 1929 - Yasser Arafat, Palestinian leader
• 1934 - Kenny Baker, actor
• 1936 - A. S. Byatt, novelist
• 1938 - David Freiburg, bass guitar player (Jefferson Starship)
• 1943 - John Cipollina
• 1944 - Jim Capaldi, singer
• 1945 - Ken Hensley, rock musician (Uriah Heep)
• 1945 - Vince McMahon, professional wrestling entrepreneur
• 1951 - Orson Scott Card, novelist
• 1952 - Joe Strummer, musician
• 1957 - Stephen Fry, English comedian, author, and actor
• 1958 - Steve Guttenberg, actor
• 1960 - Cal Ripken, Jr., baseball player
• 1963 - Hideo Kojima, video game director
• 1963 - John Bush, singer (Anthrax)
• 1965 - Marlee Matlin, Academy Award winning actress
• 1988 - Rupert Grint, actor

Deaths

• 79 - Pliny the Elder, polymath
• 1103 - Magnus III Berføtt, king of Norway (1093-1103)
• 1313 - Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor, (1312-1313)
• 1680 - Thomas Blood, thief of the British Crown Jewels
• 1832 - Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot, mathematician
• 1940 - Paul Nipkow, television pioneer
• 1967 - Henry Kaiser, industrialist
• 1967 - Brian Epstein, manager of The Beatles
• 1975 - Eamon de Valera, Irish politician and patriot
• 1978 - Louis Prima, band leader
• 1985 - Paul Creston, composer
• 1991 - Bernard Castro, inventor of the convertible couch
• 1998 - E.G. Marshall, actor
• 2002 - Hoyt Wilhelm, Baseball Hall of Fame member

Holidays and observances

• Liberia: Flag Day
• Sierra Leone: President's Birthday
• Ukraine: National Holiday

August 23 - August 25 - July 24 - September 24 -- listing of all days

January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

Referenced By