August 24 is the 236th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (237th in leap years), with 129 days remaining.

Events

100 BC-AD 1799

• 49 BC - Julius Caesar's general Gaius Curio is defeated in the Battle of the Bagradas River by the Pompeians under Attius Varus and King Juba of Numidia. Curio is slain in battle.
• AD 79 - Mount Vesuvius erupts. The cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabiae are buried in volcanic ash.
• 410 - The Visigoths under Alaric sack Rome for three days
• 1215 - Pope Innocent III declares the Magna Carta invalid.
• 1349 - 6,000 Jews are killed in Mainz because they are blamed for the bubonic plague.
• 1391 - Jews massacred in Palma de Mallorca.
• 1456 - The printing of the Gutenberg Bible is completed.
• 1511 - Alfonso de Albuquerque of Portugal conquers the Sultanate of Malacca.
• 1572 - Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre: On the orders of king Charles IX of France, a massacre of Huguenots (French Protestants) begins.
• 1608 - The first official British representative to India lands in Surat.
• 1662 - Act of Uniformity requires England to accept the Book of Common Prayer
• 1682 - William Penn receives the area that is now the state of Delaware, and adds it to his colony of Pennsylvania.
• 1690 - Calcutta, India is founded.

1800-1899

• 1814 - British troops invade Washington, D.C. and burn down the White House and several other buildings.
• 1831 - Charles Darwin is asked to travel on HMS Beagle.
• 1847 - Charlotte Brontë finishes Jane Eyre.
• 1853 - Potato chips first prepared.
• 1857 - Beginning of the Panic of 1857, one of the most severe economic crises in US history.
• 1858 - In Richmond, Virginia, 90 blacks are arrested for learning.
• 1891 - Thomas Edison patents the motion picture camera.

1900-1975

• 1909 - Workers start pouring concrete for the Panama Canal.
• 1912 - Alaska becomes a United States territory.
• 1914 - German troops capture Namur.
• 1929 - Turkey and Persia sign a friendship treaty.
• 1931 - France and the Soviet Union sign a neutrality/no attack treaty.
• 1931 - Resignation of the United Kingdom's Second Labour Government. Formation of the UK National Government.
• 1932 - Amelia Earhart is the first woman to fly across the United States non-stop (from Los Angeles to Newark, New Jersey).
• 1936 - The Australian Antarctic Territory is created.
• 1942 - World War II: The Battle of the East Solomon Islands. Japanese aircraft carrier Ryuho is sunk.
• 1944 - World War II: French and Allied troops start the attack on Paris.
• 1949 - The treaty creating NATO goes into effect.
• 1950 - Edith Sampson is the first black U.S. delegate to the UN.
• 1954 - The Communist Control Act goes into effect. The American Communist Party is outlawed.
• 1960 - A temperature of −88°C (−127°F) is measured in Vostok, Antarctica — a world-record low.
• 1963 - The 200 metre freestyle is swum in less than 2 minutes for the first time (Don Schollander in 1:58).
• 1968 - France explodes its first hydrogen bomb, thus becoming the world's fifth nuclear power.

1976-1999

• 1979 - In Central Park, New York a concert is given by cars.
• 1981 - Mark David Chapman is sentenced to 20 years to life in prison for murdering John Lennon.
• 1989 - Colombian drug barons declare "total war" on the Colombian government.
• 1989 - Cincinnati Reds manager Pete Rose is banned from baseball for gambling by Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti
• 1989 - Voyager 2 passes Neptune.
• 1990 - A judge rules that Judas Priest are not responsible for the deaths of two youths who committed suicide after listening to the band's music.
• 1990 - Sinéad O'Connor refuses to perform at the Garden State Arts Plaza in Holmdel, New Jersey if "The Star-Spangled Banner" is played before her show, as is customary.
• 1991 - Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as head of the Ukraine declares itself independent from the Soviet Union.
• 1992 - Diplomatic relations are established between the People's Republic of China and South Korea.
• 1992 - Hurricane Andrew hits South Florida
• 1994 - Initial accord between Israel and the PLO about partial self-rule of the West Bank.
• 1995 - Windows 95 becomes available.
• 1998 - The Netherlands is selected as the site for the trial of the two Libyan suspects of the 1988 PanAm bombing.

2000-2099

• 2001 - Air Transat Flight 236 runs out of fuel over the Atlantic Ocean (en route to Lisbon from New York) and makes an emergency landing in the Azores.
• 2003 - US Spacecraft Voyager 2 was 71 astronomical units distant from Earth and is escaping the solar system at a speed of about 3.3 AU per year (ca. 15 km/s). It will be approximately 40,000 years before Voyager 2 approaches another planetary system.
• 2004 - Two airliners in Russia, carrying a total of 89 passengers, crash within minutes of each other after flying out of Domodedovo International Airport, near Moscow, leaving no survivors. Authorities suspect suicide attacks by rebels from the breakaway republic of Chechnya to be the cause of the crashes.

Births

1100-1899

• 1113 - Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, father of Henry II of England
• 1198 - Alexander II of Scotland (d. 1249)
• 1358 - King John I of Castile
• 1393 - Arthur III, the Justicier, Duke of Brittany
• 1591 - Robert Herrick, English poet
• 1669 - Alessandro Marcello, composer (d. 1747)
• 1759 - William Wilberforce, campaigner against slavery
• 1772 - King William I of the Netherlands (1814-1840)
• 1787 - James Weddell, Antarctica explorer (d. 1834)
• 1817 - Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, novelist, poet and dramatist (d. 1875)
• 1837 - Théodore Dubois, composer and teacher (d. 1924)
• 1863 - Dragutin Lerman, Croat explorer of Africa (d. 1918)
• 1865 - King Ferdinand I of Romania
• 1872 - Max Beerbohm, theater critic (d. 1956)
• 1880 - Joshua Lionel Cowen, inventor of the toy electric train
• 1884 - Earl Derr Biggers, author (d. 1933)
• 1887 - Harry Hooper, Baseball Hall of Famer (d. 1974)
• 1890 - Duke Kahanamoku, swimmer, surfer (d. 1968)
• 1890 - Jean Rhys, Dominican writer (d. 1979)
• 1898 - Malcolm Cowley, literary critic, writer, editor (d. 1989)
• 1899 - Jorge Luis Borges, Argentine writer (d. 1986)

1900-1999

• 1901 - Preston Foster, actor
• 1915 - James Tiptree, Jr., writer
• 1916 - Hal Smith, American actor (The Andy Griffith Show) and voice artist (died 1994)
• 1923 - Arthur Jensen, educational psychologist
• 1929 - Yasser Arafat, Palestinian leader
• 1934 - Kenny Baker, actor
• 1936 - A. S. Byatt, novelist
• 1938 - David Freiburg, bass guitar player (Jefferson Starship)
• 1943 - John Cipollina
• 1944 - Jim Capaldi, singer
• 1945 - Ken Hensley, rock musician (Uriah Heep)
• 1945 - Vince McMahon, professional wrestling entrepreneur
• 1947 - Paulo Coelho, author
• 1949 - Jean-Michel Jarre, musician
• 1951 - Orson Scott Card, novelist
• 1952 - Joe Strummer, musician
• 1956 - John Culberson, American politician
• 1957 - Stephen Fry, English comedian, author, and actor
• 1958 - Steve Guttenberg, actor
• 1960 - Cal Ripken, Jr., baseball player
• 1962 - Craig Kilborn, talk show host
• 1963 - John Bush, singer (Anthrax)
• 1963 - Hideo Kojima, video game director
• 1965 - Marlee Matlin, Academy Award winning actress
• 1965 - Reggie Miller, basketball star
• 1973 - Inge de Bruijn, Dutch swimmer
• 1974 - Jennifer Lien, actress (Star Trek: Voyager)
• 1978 - Rafael Furcal, Major League Baseball All-Star
• 1981 - Chad Michael Murray, actor
• 1983 - Christopher Parker, actor
• 1988 - Rupert Grint, actor

Deaths

1-1899

• 79 - Pliny the Elder, polymath
• 1103 - Magnus III Berføtt, king of Norway (1093-1103)
• 1313 - Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor, (1312-1313)
• 1542 - Gasparo Contarini, Italian diplomat and cardinal (b. 1483)
• 1680 - Thomas Blood, thief of the British Crown Jewels
• 1832 - Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot, mathematician
• 1841 - Theodore Edward Hook, English author

1900-1999

• 1940 - Paul Gottlieb Nipkow, television pioneer
• 1946 - James Clark McReynolds, U.S. Supreme Court justice (b. 1816)
• 1954 - Getúlio Vargas, Brazilian president
• 1967 - Henry Kaiser, industrialist
• 1975 - Eamon de Valera, Irish politician and patriot
• 1978 - Louis Prima, band leader
• 1979 - Hanna Reitsch, German Aviator (b. 1912)
• 1985 - Paul Creston, composer
• 1991 - Bernard Castro, inventor of the convertible couch
• 1995 - Alfred Eisenstaedt, photographer
• 1998 - E.G. Marshall, actor

2000-2099

• 2002 - Hoyt Wilhelm, Baseball Hall of Fame member
• 2003 - Sir Wilfred Thesiger, British explorer
• 2004 - Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, author of On Death and Dying

Holidays and observances

• Feast day of Saint Bartholomew
• Liberia: Flag Day
• Sierra Leone: President's Birthday
• Ukraine: National Holiday

August 23 - August 25 - July 24 - September 24 -- listing of all days