This Day In History – August 24

1200 – King John of England, signee of the first 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.

1482 – The town and castle of Berwick upon Tweed is captured from Scotland by an English army

1680 – Thomas Blood, Irish-born thief of the British crown jewels (b. 1618), died.

1682 – William Penn receives the area that is now the state of Delaware, and adds it to his colony of Pennsylvania.

1814 – British and Canadian troops invade Washington, D.C. and during the Burning of Washington the White House is set ablaze, though not burned to the ground; as well as several other buildings.

1857 – The Panic of 1857 begins, setting off one of the most severe economic crises in United States history.

1891 – Thomas Edison patents the motion picture camera.

1912 – Alaska becomes a United States territory.

1929 – Second day of two-day Hebron massacre during the 1929 Palestine riots: Arab attacks on the Jewish community in Hebron in the British Mandate of Palestine, result in the death of 65-68 Jews and the remaining Jews being forced to leave the city.

1931 – Resignation of the United Kingdom’s Second Labour Government. Formation of the UK National Government.

1932 – Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly across the United States non-stop (from Los Angeles to Newark, New Jersey).

1941 – Adolf Hitler orders the cessation of Nazi Germany’s systematic T4 euthanasia program of the mentally ill and the handicapped due to protests, although killings continue for the remainder of the war.

1950 – Edith Sampson becomes the first black U.S. delegate to the United Nations.

1954 – The Communist Control Act goes into effect. The American Communist Party is outlawed.

1955 – Mike Huckabee, American politician, Governor/Presidential candidate was born.

1963 – Buddhist crisis: As a result of the Xa Loi Pagoda raids, the US State Department cables the US Embassy in Saigon to encourage Army of the Republic of Vietnam generals to launch a coup against President Ngo Dinh Diem if he did not remove his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu.

1973 – The deadly disease that affects horses Eastern Equine Encephalitis affecting the horses brain has struck down 50 horses in Mass and surrounding states, the disease is spread by the Mosquito and helicopters are being used to spray many thousands of acres with Malathion to kill the Mosquitos. It has been confirmed that a case of the human strain Encephalitis is being treated in a local hospital. The disease is not carried from human to human which is why a mass spraying of mosquito spray is being used.

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.

1991 – Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as head of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

1992 – Hurricane Andrew makes landfall just south of Miami as a Category 5 hurricane.

1994 – Initial accord between Israel and the PLO about partial self-rule of the Palestinians on the West Bank.

1998 – First RFID human implantation tested in the United Kingdom.

2004 – Eighty-nine passengers die after two airliners explode after flying out of Domodedovo International Airport, near Moscow. The explosions are caused by suicide bombers (reportedly female) from the Russian Republic of Chechnya.

2006 – The International Astronomical Union (IAU) redefines the term “planet” such that Pluto is now considered a Dwarf Planet.

2007 – Aaron Russo, American film producer and director (b. 1943), died.

2010 – In San Fernando, Tamaulipas, Mexico, 72 illegal immigrants were killed by Los Zetas and eventually found dead by Mexican authorities.

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