EVENTS
- 79 – The volcano of Mount Vesuvius erupts and buries Pompeii in volcanic ash.
- 1456 – The Gutenberg Bible is finished printing.
- 1572 – Thousands of Protestant Huguenots were massacred in Paris and throughout France by Catholics, in what became known as the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre.
- 1814 – British troops burn down the White House.
- 1853 – The first potato chips (called Saratoga chips) are prepared in NY.
- 1869 – The waffle iron is Patented in the United States. Cornelius Swartwout, a Troy, New York resident invented and received the patent for the waffle iron, a device used to cook waffles. His design for the waffle iron included two plates of iron connected together with hinges. Users could pour waffle batter on one plate and place the other plate on top and cook the batter over an open fire or on a wood-burning oven. This day is often celebrated as National Waffle Day in the United States.
- 1891 – The motion picture camera is patented by Thomas Edison.
- 1932 – Amelia Earhart completes her flight across the United States non-stop. She is the first woman to do so.
- 1949 – NATO is Established. The North Atlantic Treaty, which established the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), an intergovernmental military alliance, came into effect on this day. The Treaty, which was signed on April 4, 1949 in Washington DC, created a collective defense system, where an attack on one member is considered an attack on all the other signatories. Initially, the treaty was signed by 12 countries – Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, United Kingdom, and United States. Today, membership has increased from the original 12 to 28.
- 1991 – Ukraine gains its independence. The Eastern European country gained independence from the Soviet Union after a failed coup to remove Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev. The country’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, passed the Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine and put the decision out to the public as a referendum. August 24 is celebrated each year as Independence Day in Ukraine.
- 2006 – Pluto is declassified as a planet. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) declassified Pluto as a planet and classified it as a dwarf planet. According to the IAU definition, a dwarf planet is neither a planet or a natural satellite. It is ‘a celestial object orbiting a star that is massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity but has not cleared its orbit of space debris’. Discovered in 1930 by American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, Pluto is the largest but second-most massive dwarf planet in our solar system. The most massive dwarf planet orbiting our sun is Eris.
BIRTHDAYS
- 1759 – William Wilberforce (English politician, philanthropist)
- 1899 – Jorge Luis Borges (Argentine writer)
- 1929 – Yasser Arafat (Palestinian leader)
- 1945 – Vince McMahon (American wrestler, promoter, producer, actor)
- 1951 – Orson Scott Card (Author wrote Ender’s Game)
- 1957 – Stephen Fry (English comedian, actor, journalist, author)
- 1960 – Cal Ripkin Jr ((Baseball player)
- 1965 – Reggie Miller (Basketball Player)
- 1973 – Dave Chapelle (Comedian)
- 1981 – Chad Michael Murray (Actor)
- 1988 – Rupert Grint (Actor played Ron Weasley in Harry Potter movies)
DEATHS
- 1943 – Simone Weil (French mystic, philosopher)
- 1946 – James Clark McReynolds (American lawyer, judge)
- 1983 – Scott Nearing (American writer, educator)
- 2014 – Richard Attenborough (English director)
- 2015 – Justin Wilson (English race car driver)