Wikipedia: August 24

August 24
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

August 24 is the 236th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (237th in leap years), with 129 days remaining.

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

See Also:

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

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