The August 24 reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

August 24

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

Jul - August - Sep
Su	Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr	Sa
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30	31
2004 day arrangement All days

Table of contents

1 Events 2 Births 3 Deaths 4 Holidays and observances

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 - 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 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 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.

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, Antarctica explorer (d. 1834)
• 1817 - Aleksei Tolstoi, novelist and poet
• 1837 - Théodore Dubois, composer and teacher (d. 1924)
• 1863 - Dragutin Lerman, Croatian Africa explorer (d. 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
• 1841 - Theodore Edward Hook, English author
• 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

This is the "August 24" reference article from the English Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.