August 23
Four counties in western North Carolina declare their independence as the state of Franklin. The counties lay in what eventually would become Tennessee. – 1784.
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. – 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
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.
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
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
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.
Sources: History.com, Toil and Trouble, by Thomas R. Brooks; American Labor Struggles, by Samuel Yellen; IWW calendar, Solidarity Forever; Historical Encyclopedia of American Labor, edited by Robert E. Weir and James P. Hanlan; Southwest Labor History Archives/George Meany Center; Geov Parrish’s Radical History; workday Minnesota; Andy Richards and Adam Wright, AFL-CIO Washington DC Metro Council.