August 24
After centuries of being dormant, Mount Vesuvius erupts in southern Italy, to devastate the prosperous Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum to kill thousands. A flow of rock and ash follows to bury the dead and freeze the citizens in time, which tells the story of their every-day life. – 79 C.E..
During the War of 1812 between the United States and England, British troops enter Washington, D.C. and burn the White House in retaliation for the American attack on the city of York in Ontario, Can., in June 1812. – 1814.
August 25
Matthew Webb, a 27-year-old merchant Navy captain, becomes the first known person to successfully swim the English Channel. Captain Webb accomplished the grueling 21-mile crossing, which really entailed 39 miles of swimming because of tidal currents. He completed the swim in 21 hours and 45 minutes. – 1875.
French General Jacques Leclerc enters the free French capital triumphantly. Pockets of German intransigence remained, but Paris was free from German control. – 1944.
August 26
With America in the depths of the Great Depression, the Comptroller of the Currency announces a temporary halt on foreclosures of first mortgages. – 1932.
The first televised Major League Baseball game is broadcast on station W2XBS, the station that was to become WNBC-TV. Announcer Red Barber called the game between the Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, N. Y.. Only approximately 400 residents of the New York area owned televisons at the time. – 1939.
August 27
The most powerful volcanic eruption in recorded history occurs on Krakatau, called Krakatoa, a small, uninhabited volcanic island west of Sumatra in Indonesia. Heard 3,000 miles away, the explosions throw five cubic miles of earth 50 miles into the air, create 120-foot tsunamis, and kill 36,000 humans. Fine dust from the explosion drifted around the earth and caused spectacular sunsets and forms an atmospheric veil that lowered temperatures worldwide by several degrees. – 1883.
U.S. president Harry Truman orders the U.S. Army to seize all of the Nation’s railroads to prevent a general strike. The railroads were not returned to their owners until two years later. – 1950.
August 28
More than 23,000 Hungarian Jews are murdered by the Gestapo in German-occupied Ukraine. – 1941.
The march for jobs and freedom, the Martin Luther King, Jr. “I Have A Dream” speech march, is held in Washington, D.C. with 250,000 participating. – 1963.
At the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, tens of thousands of Vietnam War protesters battle police in the streets, while the Democratic Party falls apart over an internal disagreement concerning its stance on Vietnam. – 1968.
August 29
Atahuallpa, the 13th and last emperor of the Incas, dies by strangulation at the hands of Francisco Pizarro’s Spanish conquistadors. The execution of Atahuallpa, the last free reigning emperor, marked the end of 300 years of Inca civilization. – 1533.
At a remote test site at Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan, the USSR successfully detonates its first atomic bomb, code name “First Lightning.” – 1949.
Hurricane Katrina makes landfall near New Orleans, La., as a Category 4 hurricane. It is believed that the hurricane caused more than 1,300 deaths and up to $150 billion in damages along the coasts of Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana. – 2005.
August 30
After speaking at a factory in Moscow, Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin is shot twice by a member of the Social Revolutionary Party. Lenin was seriously wounded, but survived the attack. – 1918.
U.S. president Franklin Roosevelt’s Wealth Tax Act increases taxes on rich citizens and big business and lowers taxes for small businesses. – 1935.
A 24-hour-a-day hot line between Moscow and Washington goes into effect. The hot line was supposed to help speed communication between the governments of the United States and the Soviet Union and help prevent the possibility of an accidental war. – 1963.
Thurgood Marshall becomes the first African American to be confirmed as a U.S. Supreme Court justice. He remained on the Supreme Court for 24 years before retiring for health reasons. He left a legacy of upholding the rights of the individual as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. – 1967.