August 24th is the 236th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (237th in leap years), with 129 days remaining.
Events:
- 79: Mount Vesuvius erupts. The cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabiae are buried in volcanic ash.
- 410: The Visigoths take Rome.
- 1215: Pope Innocent III declares the Magna Carta invalid.
- 1349: 6,000 Jews are killed in Mainz because they are blamed for the plague.
- 1391: Jews massacred in Palma de Mallorca.
- 1456: The printing of the Gutenberg Bible is completed.
- 1511: The Portugueses conquer Malacca.
- 1572: Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre: Ordered by king Charles IX, a massacre of Huguenots (French Protestants) is started. In the end, 70,000 people will be killed.
- 1608: The first official British representative to India lands in Surat.
- 1682: William Penn receives the area that is now the state of Delaware, and adds it to his colony of Pennsylvania.
- 1814: British troops invade Washington DC 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, 90 blacks are arrested for learning.
- 1891: Thomas Edison patents the motion picture camera.
- 1909: Workers start pouring concrete for the Panama Canal.
- 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 first woman to fly across the United States non-stop (from Los Angeles to Newark).
- 1936: The Australian Antarctic Territory is created.
- 1944: French and allied troops start the attack on Paris.
- 1949: The 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 200m freestyle is swum under 2 minutes for the first time (Don Schollander in 1:58).
- 1968: France explodes its first hydrogen bomb, thus becoming the world's fifth thermonuclear power.
- 1979: In Central Park, New York a concert is given by cars.
- 1981: Mark David Chapman is sentenced to 20 years to life for murdering John Lennon.
- 1989: Colombian drugs barons declare "total war" on the Colombian government.
- 1989: Voyager 2 passes Neptune.
- 1990: A judge rules Judas Priest irresponsible for the death 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 custom.
- 1991: Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as head of the Communist Party.
- 1991: The Ukraine declares itself independent from the Soviet Union.
- 1992: Diplomatic relations are established between China and South Korea.
- 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 are selected as the site for the trial of the two Libyan suspects of the 1988 PanAm bombing.
Births:
- 1113: Geoffrey Plantaget, conqueror of Normandy for France
- 1750: M. Laetitita Bonaparte-Ramolino, Napoleon's mother
- 1759: Wilbur Wilberforce, campaigner against slavery
- 1772: Willem I, first king of the Netherlands (1814-1840)
- 1787: James Weddell, Antarctic explorer
- 1817: Aleksei Tolstoi, writer/poet
- 1865: Ferdinand I, king of Romania
- 1880: Joshua Lionel Cowen, inventor of the toy electric train
- 1899: Jorge Luis Borges, Argentinian writer
- 1901: Preston Foster, actor
- 1929: Yasser Arafat, Palestinian leader
- 1938: David Freiburg, bass guitar player (Jefferson Starship)
- 1944: Jim Capaldi, singer
- 1945: Ken Hensley, rock musician (Uriah Heep)
- 1958: Steve Guttenberg, actor
- 1960: Cal Ripken, Jr., shortstop
- 1963: John Bush, heavy metal singer (Anthrax)
- 1971: Claudia Schiffer, model
Deaths:
- 1103: Magnus III Berbein, king of Norway (1093-1103)
- 1313: Henry VII, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (1312-1313)
- 1680: Thomas Blood, thief of the British Crown Jewels
- 1991: Bernard Castro, inventor of the convertible couch, age 87
Holidays etcetera:
- Liberia: Flag Day (1847)
- Sierra Leone: President's Birthday
- Ukraine: National Holiday (1991)
August 23 - August 25 - July 24 - September 24 - more historical anniversaries
See Also: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December