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On this day August 24

2016


An earthquake strikes Central Italy with a magnitude of 6.2, with aftershocks felt as far as Rome and Florence.

2010


In San Fernando, Tamaulipas, Mexico, 72 illegal immigrants are killed by Los Zetas and eventually found dead by Mexican authorities.

2006


The International Astronomical Union (IAU) redefines the term "planet" such that Pluto is now considered a dwarf planet.

2004


Eighty-nine passengers die after two airliners explode after flying out of Domodedovo International Airport, near Moscow. The explosions are caused by suicide bombers from Chechnya.

1998


First radio-frequency identification (RFID) human implantation tested in the United Kingdom.

1995


Microsoft Windows 95 was released to the public in North America.

1994


Initial accord between Israel and the PLO about partial self-rule of the Palestinians on the West Bank.

1992


Hurricane Andrew makes landfall in Homestead, Florida as a Category 5 hurricane, causing up to $25 billion (1992 USD) in damages.

1991


Ukraine declares itself independent from the Soviet Union.

1991


Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as head of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

1989


Tadeusz Mazowiecki is chosen as the first non-communist prime minister in Central and Eastern Europe.

1989


Cincinnati Reds manager Pete Rose is banned from baseball for gambling by Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti.

1989


Colombian drug barons declare "total war" on the Colombian government.

1981


Mark David Chapman is sentenced to 20 years to life in prison for murdering John Lennon.

1970


Vietnam War protesters bomb Sterling Hall at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, leading to an international manhunt for the perpetrators.

1967


Led by Abbie Hoffman, the Youth International Party temporarily disrupts trading at the New York Stock Exchange by throwing dollar bills from the viewing gallery, causing trading to cease as brokers scramble to grab them.

1963


Buddhist crisis: As a result of the Xá Lợi Pagoda raids, the US State Department cables the United States Embassy, Saigon to encourage Army of the Republic of Vietnam generals to launch a coup against President Ngô Đình Diệm if he did not remove his brother Ngô Đình Nhu.

1954


Getúlio Dornelles Vargas, president of Brazil, commits suicide and is succeeded by João Café Filho.

1954


The Communist Control Act goes into effect, outlawing the American Communist Party.

1950


Edith Sampson becomes the first black U.S. delegate to the United Nations.

1949


The treaty creating the North Atlantic Treaty Organization goes into effect.

1944


World War II: Allied troops begin the attack on Paris.

1942


World War II: The Battle of the Eastern Solomons. Japanese aircraft carrier Ryūjō is sunk, with the loss of 7 officers and 113 crewmen. The US carrier USS Enterprise is heavily damaged.

1941


Adolf Hitler orders the cessation of Nazi Germany's systematic T4 euthanasia program of the mentally ill and the handicapped due to protests, although killings continue for the remainder of the war.

1937


Spanish Civil War: Sovereign Council of Asturias and León is proclaimed in Gijón.

1937


Spanish Civil War: the Basque Army surrenders to the Italian Corpo Truppe Volontarie following the Santoña Agreement.

1936


The Australian Antarctic Territory is created.

1933


The Crescent Limited train derails in Washington, D.C., after the bridge it is crossing is washed out by the 1933 Chesapeake-Potomac hurricane.

1932


Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly across the United States non-stop (from Los Angeles to Newark, New Jersey).

1931


Resignation of the United Kingdom's Second Labour Government. Formation of the UK National Government.

1931


France and the Soviet Union sign a neutrality pact.

1929


Second day of two-day Hebron massacre during the 1929 Palestine riots: Arab attacks on the Jewish community in Hebron in the British Mandate of Palestine, result in the death of 65-68 Jews; the remaining Jews are forced to flee the city.

1914


World War I: The Battle of Cer ends as the first Allied victory in the war.

1914


World War I: German troops capture Namur.

1911


Manuel de Arriaga is elected and sworn-in as the first President of Portugal.

1909


Workers start pouring concrete for the Panama Canal.

1898


Count Muravyov, Foreign Minister of Russia presents a rescript that convoked the First Hague Peace Conference.

1891


Thomas Edison patents the motion picture camera.

1875


Captain Matthew Webb became the first person to swim the English Channel.

1870


The Wolseley expedition reaches Manitoba to end the Red River Rebellion.

1857


The Panic of 1857 begins, setting off one of the most severe economic crises in United States history.

1821


The Treaty of Córdoba is signed in Córdoba, now in Veracruz, Mexico, concluding the Mexican War of Independence from Spain.

1820


Constitutionalist insurrection at Oporto, Portugal.

1816


The Treaty of St. Louis is signed in St. Louis, Missouri.

1815


The modern Constitution of the Netherlands is signed.

1814


British troops invade Washington, D.C. and during the Burning of Washington the White House, the Capitol and many other buildings are set ablaze.

1812


Peninsular War: A coalition of Spanish, British, and Portuguese forces succeed in lifting the two-and-a-half-year-long Siege of Cádiz.

1781


American Revolutionary War: A small force of Pennsylvania militia is ambushed and overwhelmed by an American Indian group, which forces George Rogers Clark to abandon his attempt to attack Detroit.

1690


Job Charnock of the East India Company establishes a factory in Calcutta, an event formerly considered the founding of the city (in 2003 the Calcutta High Court ruled that the city's foundation date is unknown).

1682


William Penn receives the area that is now the state of Delaware, and adds it to his colony of Pennsylvania.

1662


The Act of Uniformity requires England to accept the Book of Common Prayer.

1608


The first official English representative to India lands in Surat.

1561


Willem of Orange marries duchess Anna of Saxony.

1516


The Ottoman Empire under Selim I defeats the Mamluk Sultanate and captures present-day Syria at the Battle of Marj Dabiq.

1482


The town and castle of Berwick upon Tweed is captured from Scotland by an English army

1456


The printing of the Gutenberg Bible is completed.

1349


Six thousand Jews are killed in Mainz after being blamed for the bubonic plague.[1]

1215


Pope Innocent III declares Magna Carta invalid.

1200


King John of England, signer of the first Magna Carta, marries Isabella of Angoulême in Bordeaux Cathedral.

1185


Sack of Thessalonica by the Normans.

455


The Vandals, led by king Genseric, begin to plunder Rome. Pope Leo I requests Genseric not destroy the ancient city or murder its citizens. He agrees and the gates of Rome are opened. However, the Vandals loot a great amount of treasure.

410


The Visigoths under king Alaric I begin to pillage Rome.

394


The Graffito of Esmet-Akhom, the latest known inscription in Egyptian hieroglyphs, was written.

367


Gratian, son of Roman Emperor Valentinian I, is named co-Augustus at the age of eight by his father .

79 AD


Mount Vesuvius erupts. The cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabiae are buried in volcanic ash (note: this traditional date has been challenged, and many scholars believe that the event occurred on October 24).

49 BC


Julius Caesar's general Gaius Scribonius Curio is defeated in the Battle of the Bagradas (49 BC) by the Numidians under Publius Attius Varus and King Juba of Numidia. Curio commits suicide to avoid capture.

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