Today in History – August 24th

Published August 24, 2012 |

79, Pliny the Elder, Roman writer and naturalist (b. 23) died.
410, The Visigoths under king Alaric I begin to pillage Rome.
1185, Sack of Thessalonica by the Normans.
1200, King John of England, signee of the 1st Magna Carta, marries Isabella of Angouleme in Bordeaux Cathedral.
1215, Pope Innocent III declares Magna Carta invalid.
1349, Six thousand Jews are killed in Mainz after being blamed for the bubonic plague.
1391, Jews are massacred in Palma de Mallorca.
1456, The printing of the Gutenberg Bible is completed.
1561, Willem of Orange marries duchess Anna of Saxony.
1662, The 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.
1759, William Wilberforce, English abolitionist (d. 1833) was born.
1814, British troops invade Washington, D.C. and burn down the White House and several other buildings. bit.ly/P1sYMS
1815, The modern Constitution of the Netherlands is signed.
1816, The Treaty of St. Louis is signed in St. Louis, Missouri.
1831, Charles Darwin is asked to travel on HMS Beagle.
1857, The Panic of 1857 begins, setting off one of the most severe economic crises in US history.
1870, The Wolseley Expedition reaches Manitoba to end the Red River Rebellion.
1875, Captain Matthew Webb became 1st person to swim the English Channel
1891, Thomas Edison patents the motion picture camera.
1902, A statue of Joan of Arc is unveiled in Saint-Pierre-le-Moutier. bit.ly/MNGy4Y
1909, Workers start pouring concrete for the Panama Canal.
1912, Alaska becomes a US territory.
1914, WWI: German troops capture Namur.
1922, Rene Levesque, Premier of Quebec (d. 1987) was born.
1931, France and the Soviet Union sign a neutrality/no attack treaty.
1932, Amelia Earhart becomes the 1st woman to fly across the US non-stop (from Los Angeles to Newark, New Jersey).
1936, The Australian Antarctic Territory is created.
1944, WWII: Allied troops begin the attack on Paris.
1949, The treaty creating NATO goes into effect.
1950, Edith Sampson becomes the 1st black US delegate to the United Nations.
1954, The Communist Control Act goes into effect. The American Communist Party is outlawed.
1978, Louis Prima, American band leader (b. 1910) died.
1981, Mark David Chapman is sentenced to 20 years to life in prison for murdering John Lennon.
1991, Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as head of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
1991, Ukraine declares itself independent from the Soviet Union.

Follow us on Twitter to get the latest history news and find out what happened on this day in history — http://www.twitter.com/Yesteeyear

Chris Rivait

Chris loves history and hopes that Yesteeyear becomes a place where everyone can share their history knowledge. Chris owns an Internet Marketing company, Arrivait Marketing. He has a wonderful wife and four great children.