Community Corner

On This Day ... August 24

Events that occurred today in history

… in 79, Mount Vesuvius erupted, burying Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabiae in volcanic ash

… in 1215, Pope Innocent III declared the Magna Carta invalid

… The Gutenberg Bible is completed in 1456

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… in 1682, William Penn receives the area now known as Delaware, and adds it to the colony of Pennsylvania

… in 1814, British troops invade Washington, D.C. and burn down the White House

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… The Treaty of St. Louis was signed in 1816 in St. Louis, MO

… in 1831, Charles Darwin is asked to travel on the HMS Beagle

… Thomas Edison patented the motion picture camera in 1891

… Concrete is poured for the Panama Canal in 1909

… in 1912, Alaska becomes a U.S. territory

Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the U.S. non-stop from L.A. to Newark, NJ in 1932

… in 1967, Abbie Hoffman and the Youth International Party disrupted trading at the New York Stock Exchange by throwing dollar bills from the viewing gallery

… John Lennon’s murderer, Mark David Chapman, is sentenced to 20 years to life in prison in 1981

… in 1989, Pete Rose is banned from baseball for gambling

Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as head of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1991

Ukraine became independent from the Soviet Union in 1991

… The Category 5 Hurricane Andrew hit South Florida in 1992

Windows 95 is released by Microsoft in 1995

… Pluto is renamed a Dwarf Planet by the International Astronomical Union in 2006

… American Mafioso Carlo Gambino was born in 1902 … Nobel Peace Prize winner and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was born in 1929 … pro wrestling promoter and WWE CEO Vince McMahon was born in 1945 … actress Anne Archer was born in 1947 … politician Mike Huckabee was born in 1955 … actor Steve Guttenberg was born in 1958 … baseball player Cal Ripken Jr. was born in 1960 … TV host Craig Kilborn was born in 1962 … actor David Koechner was born in 1962 … actress Marlee Matlin was born in 1965 … comedian Dave Chappelle was born in 1973 … actor Rupert Grint was born in 1988 …

Pliny the Elder, a Roman writer, died in 79 …  


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