http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
Aug 24, 79: Eruption of Mount Vesuvius begins
Mount Vesuvius near Pompeii, Italy, begins to erupt on this day in the year 79; within the next 25 hours, it wipes out the entire town. Hundreds of years later, archaeologists excavated Pompeii and found everything and everyone that had been there that day perfectly preserved by the volcano's ash.
Pompeii, about 90 miles south of Rome, was established in 600 B.C.E. in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius, which stood approximately 6,500 feet high. Apparently, no one was aware that Vesuvius was an active volcano, even after an earthquake in February of the year 63.
The preserved remains of Pompeii are not the only evidence of the disaster. Two authors who witnessed the eruption also recorded their observations. Pliny the Elder was across the bay from Vesuvius on the morning of August 24 when a large cloud was noticed emanating from the volcano. He dispatched several ships to the coastal town of Resina to investigate, but the ships could not land because they were pelted by flaming rocks from the volcano. Pliny the Elder headed toward the town of Stabiae, where ash continued to fall through the night. By the following morning, the ash even obscured the sun from view. On August 25, Pliny the Elder died, apparently overtaken by sulfur gases released from the volcano.
Pliny the Younger, just 18 years old at the time, was also a witness to the eruption. He reported people climbing through waves of ash to escape. His account of the tons of pumice, rock and ash that Vesuvius pumped out over a 25-hour period, combined with the evidence left in Pompeii, indicates that about 2,000 residents of Pompeii survived the initial eruption of Vesuvius on August 24. It was the following morning when another, more powerful eruption killed everyone in an instant. When rain mixed with the ash, it formed a sort of concrete, preserving the city. The town of Herculaneum was also buried on August 25, but by a mudslide set off by the eruption and accompanying tremors. It is estimated that 13,000 people in total died from the eruption.
It was not until 1595, during the construction of an aqueduct, that Pompeii was rediscovered. Unfortunately, what can be viewed today is only a small fraction of what was found then, as looting and pillaging over the years has greatly reduced the archaeological value of the site. Some scientists believe that there may still be other villages buried by Vesuvius that have yet to be discovered.
Aug 24, 1981: John Lennon’s killer sentenced
On this day in 1981, Mark David Chapman is sentenced to 20 years to life for the murder of John Lennon, a founding member of The Beatles, one of the most successful bands in the history of popular music.
On December 8, 1980, Chapman shot and killed the 40-year-old singer, songwriter and peace activist, outside Lennon’s New York City apartment building, the Dakota, where he lived with his wife Yoko Ono and their young son Sean. Lennon, who was born on October 9, 1940, in Liverpool, England, shot to fame in the 1960s with The Beatles, whose multiple best-selling albums and hit films, such as A Hard Day’s Night (1964), turned the group into hugely influential global pop icons. After The Beatles broke up in 1970, Lennon embarked on a successful solo music career, writing and performing such songs as “Imagine” and “(Just Like) Starting Over.” He also directed a 1972 documentary film, also titled Imagine, which was a sometimes-surreal glimpse at a day in the life of Lennon and Ono, set to their music.
On the day of Lennon’s murder, Chapman, a Beatles fan who was born in 1955, spent the day hanging out near the musician’s apartment on West 72nd Street and Central Park West. Late that afternoon, a photographer captured a shot of Lennon as he stopped to autograph his Double Fantasy album for Chapman before walking with Yoko Ono toward a limousine waiting to take them to a recording session. Later that night, shortly before 11 p.m., the couple returned to the Dakota, where a waiting Chapman shot Lennon four times as the musician walked toward his building. Chapman stayed at the scene, reading The Catcher in the Rye, a book he was obsessed with, until the police arrived and took him into custody. Lennon was pronounced dead at Manhattan’s Roosevelt Hospital around 11:15 p.m.
Chapman initially entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity; however, he later decided to drop the insanity defense and plead guilty to second-degree murder. At his sentencing hearing on August 24, 1981, Chapman read from The Catcher in the Rye. Chapman’s requests for parole have all been denied and he continues to serve time at New York’s Attica State Prison.
Lennon’s iconic life, and his untimely death, have in recent years inspired several films, including Chapter 27 (2007), which starred a bloated Jared Leto as Chapman and chronicled the three days leading up to the assassination. The visual artist Sam Taylor-Wood will reportedly direct a Lennon biopic, Nowhere Man, to be filmed partially in Lennon’s hometown of Liverpool.
This was not a good day in Roman history. Julius' Caesar's general, Gaius Scribonius Curio, was defeated at the Second Battle of the Bagradas River, by the Numidians, and commits suicide so as to avoid capture. Thirty years later on this day, Mount Vesuvius erupted. And hundreds of years later on this date, Rome was overrun by the Visigoths, which symbolized the fall of the Roman Empire as we know it. On this day in 1349, Jews in Cologne set themselves on fire rather than submit to being baptized. In 1814, British troops took over and burned Washington, D.C., during the War of 1812. Franklin D. Roosevelt gave the FBI the authority to pursue communists and fascists. The Luftwaffe bombed London. The Soviet Union launched Luna 11 to orbit around the moon. J. Vorster, a former Nazi sympathizer, became the Minister of Justice for South Africa during the days of apartheid.
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
49 BC - Julius Caesar's general Gaius Scribonius Curio is
defeated in the Second Battle of the Bagradas River by the Numidians under
Publius Attius Varus and King Juba of Numidia. Curio commits suicide to avoid
capture.
79 - Mt Vesuvius erupts, buries Pompeii & Herculaneum,
15,000 die
410 - Rome overrun by Visigoths, symbolized fall of Western
Roman Empire
1215 - Pope Innocent III declares Magna Carta invalid
1217 - Battle at South Foreland: English fleet beats France
1349 - 6,000 Jews, blamed for the Plague, are killed in
Mainz
1349 - Jews of Cologne Germany set themselves on fire to
avoid baptism
1391 - Jews of Palma Majorca massacred
1456 - The printing of the Gutenberg Bible is completed.
1511 - Alfonso de Albuquerque of Portugal conquers Malacca,
the capital of the Sultanate of Malacca.
1516 - Battle at Aleppo: Turks beat Syria
1542 - Conquistador Francisco de Orellana returns to Spain
1572 - St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of Protestants by
Roman Catholics begins in Paris and later spreads to the French provinces
1608 - 1st English convoy lands at Surat India
1654 - Louis II Condé disbands ends of Atrecht
1658 - Battle at Grevelingen: English fleet beats Spanish
1662 - Act of Uniformity requires English to accept book of
Common Prayer
1682 - Duke James of York gives Delaware to William Penn
1690 - Job Charnock founds Calcutta India
1704 - Sea
battle at Malaga
1751 - Thomas Colley executed in England for drowning
supposed witch
1787 - Wolfgang A Mozart completes his viola sonata in A,
K526
1814 - British forces captured Washington, DC, & burned
down many landmarks
1816 - The Treaty of St. Louis is signed in St. Louis,
Missouri.
1820 - Constitutionalist insurrection at Oporto, Portugal;
see Portugal's crises of the Nineteenth Century.
1826 - Netherland's South Willems Port (Bosch-Luik) opens
1828 - Dutch army takes Fort Du Bus in New Guinea
1831 - John Henslow asks Charles Darwin to travel with him
on HMS Beagle
1833 - HMS Beagle reaches Bahia Blanca, Argentina
1847 - Charlotte Bronte finishes manuscript of "Jane
Eyre"
1853 - 1st potato chips prepared by Chef George Crum
(Saratoga Springs NY)
1854 - National emigration convention meets in Cleveland
1857 - The Panic of 1857 begins, setting off one of the most
severe economic crises in U.S. history.
1858 - Richmond "Daily Dispatch" reports 90 blacks
arrested for learning
1869 -
Cornelius Swarthout patents waffle iron
1870 - The Wolseley Expedition reaches Manitoba to end the
Red River Rebellion.
1876 - Riot abolishes fairs in Amsterdam, 2 killed
1891 - Thomas Edison patents motion picture camera
1893 - Tornado destroys coast of Savannah & Charleston,
about 1000 die
1904 - 24th US Mens Tennis: Holcombe Ward beats William
Clothier (108 64 97)
1904 - Field battle at Liao-Yang-200,000 Japanese against
150,000 Russian
1905 - Chicago Cubs beat Phillies 2-1 in 20 innings
1906 - Cincinnati Red John Weimer no-hits Dodgers, 1-0 in 7
inning game
1908 - Tommy Burns KOs Bill Squires in 13 for heavyweight
boxing title
1908 - NY Giants scores shown on electric diamonds known as
"Compton's Baseball Bulletin" at Madison Square Garden
1909 - Workers start pouring concrete for Panama Canal
1911 - Manuel d'Arriaga elected 1st president of Portugal
1912 - NYC ticker tape parade for Jim Thorpe &
victorious US olympians
1912 - District Alaska becomes an organized incorporated
territory of the United States
1912 - US passes Anti-gag law, federal employees right to petition government
1914 - Battle at Bergen: Germans defeat Belgian/British
troops
1914 - German troops occupy Namur Belgium
1914 - Jerome Kern & Michael E Rourles musical premieres
in NYC
1918 - Chicago Cubs, win earliest pennent ever (season ended
Sept 2)
1918 - Sect Baker grants extended exemption to World Series
players
1919 - Cleveland pitcher Ray Caldwell is flattened by a bolt
of lightning
1921 - Battle of Sakaray Valley begins between Turkey &
Greece
1921 - British airship R-38 crashes in Humber, 44 die
1922 - 1st Phillie to hit for cycle (Cy Williams)
1923 - Paavo Nurmi runs world record 3 mile (14:11.2)
1925 - 39th US Womens Tennis: Helen Wills Moody beats K
McKane (36 60 62)
1929 - 43rd US Womens Tennis: Helen Wills Moody beats Phoebe
H Watson (64 62)
1929 - Palestinians attack orthodox Jews in Jerusalem
1929 - Turkey & Persia signs friendship treaty
1931 - France & USSR sign neutrality/no attack treaty
1932 - 1st transcontinental non-stop flight by a woman,
Amelia Earhart
1936 - Australian Antarctic Territory created
1936 - FDR gives FBI authority to pursuit fascists &
communists
1937 - Republican offensive near Belchite Spain
1937 - In the Spanish Civil War, the Basque Army surrenders
to the Italian Corpo Truppe Volontarie following the Santoña Agreement.
1938 - England beat Australia by an innings & 579 runs
at The Oval
1938 - Virgil Trucks strikes out his 418th batter, highest
season total in organized ball-for Andalusia in an Alabama-Florida League game
1939 - Germany & USSR sign 10-year non-aggression pact
1940 - Luftwaffe bombs London
1940 - Red Sox left fielder Ted Williams pitches the last 2
innings in a 12-1 loss to Detroit Tigers, Williams allows 3 hits & 1 run
1942 - Sea battle off Eastern Solomon Islands
1942 - Transport nr 23 departs with French Jews to Nazi-Germany
1943 - Phila A's drop AL record tying 20th game in a row,
win the 2nd game
1944 - Gen LeClercs troops open assault on Paris
1945 - Cleveland ace Bob Feller returns from Navy &
strike out 12
1949 - North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) goes into
effect
1950 - 1st US Negro delegate to UN appointed-ES Sampson
Baseball Player Ted WilliamsBaseball Player Ted Williams
1950 - Edith Sampson named 1st black US delegate to UN
1950 - Operation Magic Carpet concludes transporting 45,000
Yemenite Jews
1951 - Bill Veeck's "Fans Managers' Night," Browns
defeat A's 5-3; Browns coaches hold up placards for fans to vote on
1954 - Communist Control Act passed, at height of
McCarthyism
1954 - Eisenhower signs Communist Control Act, outlawing the
Communist Party
1954 - International Amateur Athletic Federation recognizes
Red China
1954 - William Heatherton's "Reluctant Debutante,"
premieres in London
1956 - 1st non-stop transcontinental helicopter flight
arrived Wash DC
1957 - British soccer player Jimmy Greaves' (17) 1st game
for Chelsea
1958 - Fay Crocker wins LPGA Waterloo Golf Open
1958 - Sergei Popov wins Stockholm marathon (2:15:17.0) (WR)
1959 - England complete 5-0 series drubbing of India
1959 - Hiram L Fong sworn in as 1st Chinese-American senator
while Daniel K Inouye sworn in as 1st Japanese-American Rep (Both from Hawaii)
1960 - -127°F (-88°C), Vostok, Antarctica (world record)
1960 - 60 people die when bus plunges off bridge into Turvo
River, Brazil
1961 - Windward Islands' Airways International (Winair)
forms
1961 - Former Nazi leader Johannes Vorster becomes South
Africa's minister of justice (if the shoe fits...)
1962 - Dodger coach Leo Durocher suffers a near-fatal
allergic reaction to a penicillin injection while in the clubhouse at the Polo
Grounds
1962 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1963 - 1st 200 meter freestyle swum under 2 minutes (Don
Schollander 1:58)
1963 - John Pennel is 1st to pole-vault 17'
1964 - 2nd Mayor's Trophy Game, Yanks beat Mets 6-4
1966 - USSR launches Luna 11 for orbit around Moon
1967 - Liberian flag designed
1968 - France became world's 5th thermonuclear power,
explodes on Mururoa
1969 - Carol Mann wins LPGA Tournament of Champs Golf
Tournament
1969 - Peru nationalizes US oil interests
1970 - Bomb kills 1 at U of Wisconsin's Army Math Research
Center in Madison
1971 - India beat England by 4 wickets, their win against
the Poms
1972 - 8th Mayor's Trophy Game, Yanks beat Mets 2-1
1972 - Dennis Amiss scores 1st one-day int century, 103 v
Australia
1972 - Gordie Howe & Jean Beliveau inducted in Hockey
Hall of Fame
1973 - Garry Sobers scores 26th & last Test Cricket ton
150 v Eng Lord's
1973 - John Adams & his drum - become a right-field
fixture in Cleve Stadium
1974 - Sandra Haynie wins LPGA National Jewish Hospital Golf
Open
1975 - Davey Lopes steals his 38th consecutive base, then
thrown out stealing
1975 - Judy Rankin wins LPGA National Jewish Hospital Golf
Open
1975 - Papadopoulos/Pattakos/Makarezos sentenced to death in
Athens
1975 - SF Giant Ed Halick no-hits NY Giants, 6-0
1975 - Tampa Bay Rowdies beat Portland 2-0 for NASL cup
1976 - Soyuz 21 returns to Earth
1978 - USSR performs underground nuclear test
1979 - Cars play concert in NY Central Park
1979 - NFL fans (60,916) choose old Patriots logo over new
1979 - UN's Vienna office begins issuing postage stamps
1980 - Beth Daniel wins Columbia Savings LPGA Golf Classic
1980 - Jozef Pinkovski replaces Poland premier Babiuch
1981 - American Charles Chapman is 1st black to swim English
Channel
1981 - Mark David Chapman is sentenced to 20 yrs to life for
Lennon's murder
1982 - KC's John Wathan steals 31st en route to 36 base for
catcher's record
1983 - Cin Red Pete Rose ends consecutive games played
streak at 745
1984 - Pat Bradley set LPGA record for 9 holes with a 28 at
Denver
1985 - STS 51-I mission scrubbed at T -5m because of bad
weather
1986 - Juli Inkster wins Atlantic City LPGA Golf Classic
1987 - Announcement of possible Martian tornadoes
1989 - British brewery Bass buys Holiday Inn hotel chain
1989 - Pete Rose is suspended from baseball for life for
gambling
1989 - Voyager 2 flies past Neptune
1990 - 3,500 peacekeepers arrive in Liberia
1990 - Iraqi troops surround US & other embassies in
Kuwait City
1991 - Emmy Creative Arts Award presentation
1991 - Gorbachev resigns as head of USSR Communist Party
1991 - Silky Stallone, wins the Cane Pace at Yonkers Raceway
1991 - Taiwan captures its 15th Little League World Series,
11-0
1991 - Ukraine declares independence from USSR
1992 - 1st structural steel beams are erected at Gateway
(Jacobs Field)
1992 - Cleveland Browns suffer their worst preseason loss,
56-3, to Vikings
1992 - Hurricane Andrew hits South Florida; 35 die
1992 - Screw magazine superimposed a gunsight over a picture
of Larry Flint
1992 - Diplomatic relations are established between the
People's Republic of China and South Korea.
1993 - Mars Observer comes closest to Mars
1993 - Padres scores 14 in 1st vs Cardinals
1994 - Kieren Perkins swims world record 1500m free style
(14:41.66)
1994 - Kieren Perkins swims world record 800m free style
(7:46.00)
1994 - Israel & PLO initialed accord giving autonomy to
Palestinians in West Bank in education, health, taxation, social welfare &
tourism
1995 - Fire that wipes 6,000 acres begins in Hamptons on
Long Island
1995 - Windows 95 debuts
1997 - 97th US Golf Amateur Championship won by Joel Kribel
1997 - Colleen Wakjer wins Star Bank LPGA Classic
1997 - Gordon Spence discovers 2^2976221 - 1 (36th known
Mersenne prime)
Golfer Greg NormanGolfer Greg Norman 1997 - Greg Norman wins
World Series of Golf shooting 273
1997 - Mark Calcavecchia wins Greater Vancouver Golf Open shooting
265
1997 - Saint Luke's Senior Golf Classic
1998 - The Netherlands is selected as the site for the trial
of the two Libyan suspects of the 1988 Pan Am bombing.
1998 - First RFID human implantation tested in the United
Kingdom.
2000 - Argon fluorohydride, the first Argon compound ever
known, is discovered at the University of Helsinki by Finnish scientists.
2001 - Air Transat Flight 236 runs out of fuel over the
Atlantic Ocean (en route to Lisbon from Toronto) and makes an emergency landing
in the Azores.
2004 - 89 passengers die after two airliners explode after
flying out of Domodedovo International Airport, near Moscow. The explosions
were caused by suicide bombers (reportedly female) from the Russian Republic of
Chechnya.
2006 - The International Astronomical Union (IAU) redefines
the term "planet" such that Pluto is considered a Dwarf Planet.
2012 - Monsoon rains and floods kill 26 people in Pakistan
2012 - Yangmingtan Bridge collapses in China killing three
people
2012 - Both Apple and Samsung are found guilty of patent
infringement in a South Korean court
2012 - A US jury in California finds that Samsung is guilty
of patent infringement and awards over US$1 billion in damages to Apple
0079 - Mount Vesuvius erupted killing approximately 20,000 people. The cities of Pompeii, Stabiae and Herculaneum were buried in volcanic ash. 0410 - The Visigoths overran Rome. This event symbolized the fall of the Western Roman Empire. 1456 - The printing of the Gutenberg Bible was completed. 1572 - The Catholics began their slaughter of the French Protestants in Paris. The killings claimed about 70,000 people. 1814 - Washington, DC, was invaded by British forces that set fire to the White House and Capitol. 1853 - The first convention of the American Pharmaceutical Association was held. 1869 - A patent for the waffle iron was received by Cornelius Swarthout. 1891 - Thomas Edison applied patents for the kinetoscope and kinetograph (U.S. Pats. 493,426 and 589,168). 1912 - A four-pound limit was set for parcels sent through the U.S. Post Office mail system. 1932 - Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the U.S. non-stop. The trip from Los Angeles, CA to Newark, NJ, took about 19 hours. 1949 - The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) went into effect. The agreement was that an attack against on one of the parties would be considered "an attack against them all." 1954 - The Communist Party was virtually outlawed in the U.S. when the Communist Control Act went into effect. 1959 - Three days after Hawaiian statehood, Hiram L. Fong was sworn in as the first Chinese-American U.S. senator while Daniel K. Inouye was sworn in as the first Japanese-American U.S. representative. 1963 - John Pennel pole-vaulted 17 feet and 3/4 inches becoming the first to break the 17-foot barrier. 1968 - France became the 5th thermonuclear power when they exploded a hydrogen bomb in the South Pacific. 1975 - Davey Lopes of the Los Angeles Dodgers set a major league baseball record when he stole his 38th consecutive base. 1985 - 27 anti-apartheid leaders were arrested in South Africa as racial violence rocked the country. 1986 - Frontier Airlines shut down. Thousands of people were left stranded. 1989 - Pete Rose, the manager of the Cincinnati Reds, was banned from baseball for life after being accused of gambling on baseball. 1989 - "Total war" was declared by Columbian drug lords on their government. 1989 - The U.S. space probe, Voyager 2, sent back photographs of Neptune. 1990 - Iraqi troops surrounded foreign missions in Kuwait. 1991 - Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as the head of the Communist Party. 1992 - China and South Korea established diplomatic relations. 1995 - Microsoft's "Windows 95" went on sale. 1998 - U.S. officials cited a soil sample as part of the evidence that a Sudan plant was producing precursors to the VX nerve gas. And, therefore made it a target for U.S. missiles on August 20, 1998. 1998 - A donation of 24 beads was made, from three parties, to the Indian Museum of North America at the Crazy Horse Memorial. The beads are said to be those that were used in 1626 to buy Manhattan from the Indians. 2001 - In McAllen, TX, Bridgestone/Firestone agreed to settle out of court and pay a reported $7.5 million to a family in a rollover accident in their Ford Explorer. 2001 - The remains of nine American servicemen killed in the Korean War were returned to the U.S. The bodies were found about 60 miles north of Pyongyang. It was estimated that it would be a year before the identies of the soldiers would be known. 2001 - U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly was randomly picked to take over the Microsoft monopoly case. The judge was to decide how Microsoft should be punished for illegally trying to squelch its competitors. 2001 - NASA announced that operation of the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite would end by September 30th due to budget restrictions. Though the satellite is best known for monitoring a hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica, it was designed to provide information about the upper atmosphere by measuring its winds, temperatures, chemistry and energy received from the sun. 2005 - The planet Pluto was reclassified as a "dwarf planet" by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Pluto's status was changed due to the IAU's new rules for an object qualifying as a planet. Pluto met two of the three rules because it orbits the sun and is large enough to assume a nearly round shape. However, since Pluto has an oblong orbit and overlaps the orbit of Neptune it disqualified Pluto as a planet.
79 Mount Vesuvius erupted and buried the towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum. 1572 70,000 French Protestants, or Huguenots, were killed in the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre. 1814 The British set fire to the White House and the Capitol when they invaded Washington, DC during the War of 1812. 1821 Mexico gained its independence from Spain with the Treaty of Cordoba. 1949 The North Atlantic Treaty went into effect. 1968 France became the world's fifth nuclear power as it exploded a hydrogen bomb in the South Pacific. 1989 Pete Rose was banned from baseball for gambling. 1991 Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as the general secretary of the Communist Party after a failed coup attempt against him. 1992 Hurricane Andrew hit Florida, causing record damage.
The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:
http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php
http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/aug24.htm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory
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