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August 24 is the 236th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (237th in leap years), with 129 days remaining.
Events
100 BC-AD 1799
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 is slain in battle.
AD 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 - Alfonso de Albuquerque of Portugal conquers the Sultanate of 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.
1800-1899
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 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.
1900-1975
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.
1931 - Resignation of the United Kingdom's Second Labour Government. Formation of the UK National Government.
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 - World War II: The Battle of the East Solomon Islands. Japanese aircraft carrier Ryuho is sunk.
1944 - World War II: French and Allied troops start the attack on Paris.
1949 - The treaty creating NATO goes into effect.
1950 - Edith Sampson is the first black U.S. 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 metre 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.
1976-1999
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 drug 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 are not responsible for the deaths of two youths who committed suicide after listening to the band's music.
1990 - Sinéad O'Connor refuses to perform at the Garden State Arts Plaza in Holmdel, New Jersey 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.
2000-2099
2001 - Air Transat Flight 236 runs out of fuel over the Atlantic Ocean (en route to Lisbon from New York) and makes an emergency landing in the Azores.
2003 - US Spacecraft Voyager 2 was 71 astronomical units distant from Earth and is escaping the solar system at a speed of about 3.3 AU per year (ca. 15 km/s). It will be approximately 40,000 years before Voyager 2 approaches another planetary system.
2004 - Two airliners in Russia, carrying a total of 89 passengers, crash within minutes of each other after flying out of Domodedovo International Airport, near Moscow, leaving no survivors. Authorities suspect suicide attacks by rebels from the breakaway republic of Chechnya to be the cause of the crashes.
Births
1100-1899
1113 - Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, father of Henry II of England
1198 - Alexander II of Scotland (d. 1249)
1358 - King John I of Castile
1393 - Arthur III, the Justicier, Duke of Brittany
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, Antarctica explorer (d. 1834)
1817 - Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, novelist, poet and dramatist (d. 1875)
1837 - Théodore Dubois, composer and teacher (d. 1924)
1863 - Dragutin Lerman, Croat explorer of Africa (d. 1918)
1865 - King Ferdinand I of Romania
1872 - Max Beerbohm, theater critic (d. 1956)
1880 - Joshua Lionel Cowen, inventor of the toy electric train
1884 - Earl Derr Biggers, author (d. 1933)
1887 - Harry Hooper, Baseball Hall of Famer (d. 1974)
1890 - Duke Kahanamoku, swimmer, surfer (d. 1968)
1890 - Jean Rhys, Dominican writer (d. 1979)
1898 - Malcolm Cowley, literary critic, writer, editor (d. 1989)
1899 - Jorge Luis Borges, Argentine writer (d. 1986)
1900-1999
1901 - Preston Foster, actor
1915 - James Tiptree, Jr., writer
1916 - Hal Smith, American actor (The Andy Griffith Show) and voice artist (died 1994)
1923 - Arthur Jensen, educational psychologist
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
1947 - Paulo Coelho, author
1949 - Jean-Michel Jarre, musician
1951 - Orson Scott Card, novelist
1952 - Joe Strummer, musician
1956 - John Culberson, American politician
1957 - Stephen Fry, English comedian, author, and actor
1958 - Steve Guttenberg, actor
1960 - Cal Ripken, Jr., baseball player
1962 - Craig Kilborn, talk show host
1963 - John Bush, singer (Anthrax)
1963 - Hideo Kojima, video game director
1965 - Marlee Matlin, Academy Award winning actress
1965 - Reggie Miller, basketball star
1973 - Inge de Bruijn, Dutch swimmer
1974 - Jennifer Lien, actress ()
1978 - Rafael Furcal, Major League Baseball All-Star
1981 - Chad Michael Murray, actor
1983 - Christopher Parker, actor
1988 - Rupert Grint, actor
Deaths
1-1899
79 - Pliny the Elder, polymath
1103 - Magnus III Berføtt, king of Norway (1093-1103)
1313 - Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor, (1312-1313)
1542 - Gasparo Contarini, Italian diplomat and cardinal (b. 1483)
1680 - Thomas Blood, thief of the British Crown Jewels
1832 - Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot, mathematician
1841 - Theodore Edward Hook, English author
1900-1999
1940 - Paul Gottlieb Nipkow, television pioneer
1946 - James Clark McReynolds, U.S. Supreme Court justice (b. 1816)
1954 - Getúlio Vargas, Brazilian president
1967 - Henry Kaiser, industrialist
1975 - Eamon de Valera, Irish politician and patriot
1978 - Louis Prima, band leader
1979 - Hanna Reitsch, German Aviator (b. 1912)
1985 - Paul Creston, composer
1991 - Bernard Castro, inventor of the convertible couch
1995 - Alfred Eisenstaedt, photographer
1998 - E.G. Marshall, actor
2000-2099
2002 - Hoyt Wilhelm, Baseball Hall of Fame member
2003 - Sir Wilfred Thesiger, British explorer
2004 - Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, author of On Death and Dying
Holidays and observances
Feast day of Saint Bartholomew
Liberia: Flag Day
Sierra Leone: President's Birthday
Ukraine: National Holiday
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August 23 - August 25 - July 24 - September 24 -- listing of all days
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