On This Day In History
August 23rd
79 Mount Vesuvius begins stirring, on feast day of Vulcan, Roman god of fire (goes on to destroy Pompeii) [approx date] [1] [2]
1305 Scottish patriot William Wallace is executed for high treason by Edward I of England at Smithfield, London
1542 Rabbi Joseph Caro completes his commentary of Tur Code
1850 1st US National Women’s Rights Convention convenes in Worcester, Massachusetts
1942 Battle of Stalingrad: 600 Luftwaffe planes bomb Stalingrad (40,000 die)
1943 50th day of Battle of Kursk, USSR: Largest tank battle in history ends with Russia’s defeat of Germany; over 10,000 tanks take part, nearly 250,,000 combatants killed
1996 Osama bin Laden issues message entitled “A declaration of war against the Americans occupying the land of the two holy places”
2005 Hurricane Katrina forms over the Bahamas, later becoming a category 5 hurricane
Did You Know?
World War II: last cavalry charge in history takes place at Isbushenskij, Russia; the Italian Savoia Cavalleria charges Soviet infantry
Today in History in 1942
Would You Believe?
Mars’ closest approach to Earth since 10th century
Today in History in 1924
August 24th
79 Believed until 2018 to be the date of the massive eruption of Mt. Vesuvius which buried the cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, Oplontis and Stabiae, killing untold thousands. Latest evidence suggests the eruption occurred after 17 October. [1] [2]
410 Rome overrun by Visigoths under Alaric I for the first time in nearly 800 years, seen as the fall of the Western Roman Empire
1516 Battle of Marj Dabiq: Ottoman forces decisively beat the Mamluk Sultanate
1572 St. Bartholomew‘s Day Massacre of Protestants by Roman Catholics begins in Paris and later spreads to the French provinces
1662 Act of Uniformity requires English to accept Book of Common Prayer
1814 British forces capture Washington, D.C. and destroy many landmarks (War of 1812)
1968 France becomes the world’s fifth thermonuclear power with a detonation on Mururoa Atoll in the South Pacific