What happened on August 24? There are more than 310 events that were made this day in history. Here are the important historical events, facts, and some myths about this day.
Interesting Facts & Myths About August 24
August 24 is the 237th day of the year 2024. There are 129 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Saturday. This day falls under the 34th week of the year 2024.
On this day in Autryville, North Carolina 28318 sunrise will occur at 06:40 AM and sunset will occur at 07:52 PM (local time).
The zodiac sign of a person born on this day is Virgo. The modern birthstone for this month is Peridot while the mystical birthstone is Diamond.
According to the Chinese calendar, there are 158 days remaining before the start of the next Chinese New Year (January 29, 2025).
Is your birthday coming up in two days? Are you not curious to find out who is sharing your special day? Discover all the April 22 famous birthdays. There are fun facts about that day that you must know. (Sponsored link)
Historical Events For August 24
- 49 BCJulius Caesar’s general Gaius Scribonius Curio is defeated in the Second Battle of the Bagradas River by the Numidians under Publius Attius Varus and King Juba of Numidia. Curio commits suicide to avoid capture.
- 79Mount Vesuvius erupts. The cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabiae are buried in volcanic ash (note: this traditional date has been challenged, and many scholars believe that the event occurred on October 24).
- 410The Visigoths under king Alaric I begin to pillage Rome.
- 1200King John of England, signee of the first Magna Carta, marries Isabella of Angouleme in Bordeaux Cathedral.
- 1215Pope Innocent III declares Magna Carta invalid.
- 1349Six thousand Jews are killed in Mainz after being blamed for the bubonic plague.
- 1391Jews are massacred in Palma de Mallorca.
- 1456The printing of the Gutenberg Bible is completed.
- 1561Willem of Orange marries duchess Anna of Saxony.
- 1608The first official English representative to India lands in Surat.
- 1662The Act of Uniformity requires England to accept the Book of Common Prayer.
- 1682William Penn receives the area that is now the state of Delaware, and adds it to his colony of Pennsylvania.
- 1690Job Charnock of the East India Company establishes a factory in Calcutta, an event formerly considered the founding of the city (in 2003 the Calcutta High Court ruled that the city has no birthday).
- 1812Peninsula War: A coalition of Spanish, British, and Portuguese forces succeed in lifting the two-and-a-half-year-long Siege of Cádiz.
- 1814British troops invade Washington, D.C. and burn down the White House and several other buildings.
- 1815The modern Constitution of the Netherlands is signed.
- 1816The Treaty of St. Louis is signed in St. Louis, Missouri.
- 1820Constitutionalist insurrection at Oporto, Portugal.
- 1821The Treaty of Córdoba is signed in Córdoba, now in Veracruz, Mexico, concluding the Mexican War of Independence from Spain.
- 1831Charles Darwin is asked to travel on HMS Beagle.
- 1857The Panic of 1857 begins, setting off one of the most severe economic crises in United States history.
- 1870The Wolseley Expedition reaches Manitoba to end the Red River Rebellion.
- 1875Captain Matthew Webb became first person to swim the English Channel
- 1891Thomas Edison patents the motion picture camera.
- 1898Count Muravyov, Foreign Minister of Russia presents a rescript that convoked the First Hague Peace Conference.
- 1902A statue of Joan of Arc is unveiled in Saint-Pierre-le-Moûtier.
- 1909Workers start pouring concrete for the Panama Canal.
- 1912Alaska becomes a United States territory.
- 1914World War I: German troops capture Namur.
- 1929Second 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.
- 1931France and the Soviet Union sign a neutrality/no attack treaty.
- 1931Resignation of the United Kingdom’s Second Labour Government. Formation of the UK National Government.
- 1932Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly across the United States non-stop (from Los Angeles to Newark, New Jersey).
- 1933The Crescent Limited train derails in Washington, D.C., after the bridge it is crossing is washed out by the 1933 Chesapeake–Potomac hurricane.
- 1936The Australian Antarctic Territory is created.
- 1937In the Spanish Civil War, the Basque Army surrenders to the Italian Corpo Truppe Volontarie following the Santoña Agreement.
- 1941Adolf 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.
- 1942World War II: The Battle of the Eastern Solomons. Japanese aircraft carrier Ryūjō is sunk and US carrier USS Enterprise heavily damaged.
- 1944World War II: Allied troops begin the attack on Paris.
- 1949The treaty creating NATO goes into effect.
- 1950Edith Sampson becomes the first black U.S. delegate to the United Nations.
- 1954Getúlio Dornelles Vargas, president of Brazil, commits suicide and is succeeded by João Café Filho.
- 1954The Communist Control Act goes into effect. The American Communist Party is outlawed.
- 1963Buddhist 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.
- 1963Don Schollander swims the 200-metre freestyle in less than 2 minutes for the first time, in a world record time of 1:58.
- 1967Led by Abbie Hoffman, the Youth International Party temporarily disrupts trading at the NYSE by throwing dollar bills from the viewing gallery, causing trading to cease as brokers scramble to grab them.
- 1981Mark David Chapman is sentenced to 20 years to life in prison for murdering John Lennon.
- 1989Cincinnati Reds manager Pete Rose is banned from baseball for gambling by Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti.
- 1989Colombian drug barons declare “total war” on the Colombian government.
- 1991Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as head of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
- 1991Ukraine declares itself independent from the Soviet Union.
- 1992Hurricane Andrew makes landfall just south of Miami as a Category 5 hurricane.
- 1994Initial accord between Israel and the PLO about partial self-rule of the Palestinians on the West Bank.
- 1998First RFID human implantation tested in the United Kingdom.
- 2001Air Transat Flight 236 runs out of fuel over the Atlantic Ocean (en route to Lisbon from Toronto) and makes an emergency landing in the Azores.
- 2004Eighty-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.
- 2006The International Astronomical Union (IAU) redefines the term “planet” such that Pluto is now considered a Dwarf Planet.
Who Were Born On August 24?
- 1113Geoffrey of Anjou, Count of Anjou (d. 1151)
- 1198King Alexander II of Scotland (d. 1249)
- 1358King John I of Castile (d. 1390)
- 1393Arthur III, Duke of Brittany (d. 1458)
- 1552Lavinia Fontana, Italian painter (d. 1614)
- 1578John Taylor, English poet (d. 1653)
- 1591Robert Herrick, English poet (d. 1674)
- 1635Peder Griffenfeld, Danish statesman (d. 1699)
- 1669Alessandro Marcello, Italian composer (d. 1747)
- 1707Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon, English Evangelical Revivalist (d. 1791)
- 1750Letizia Ramolino, mother of Napoleon Bonaparte (d. 1836)
- 1758Sophia Frederica of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, queen of Denmark and Norway (d. 1794)
- 1759William Wilberforce, English abolitionist (d. 1833)
- 1772King William I of the Netherlands (d. 1840)
- 1787James Weddell, English explorer of Antarctica (d. 1834)
- 1824Antonio Stoppani, Italian geologist and scholar (d. 1891)
- 1837Théodore Dubois, French composer and teacher (d. 1924)
- 1845James C. Calhoun, American soldier, brother-in-law of George Armstrong Custer (d. 1876)
- 1851Tom Kendall, Australian cricketer (d. 1924)
- 1852Deacon White, American baseball player (d. 1919)
- 1863Dragutin Lerman, Croatian explorer (d. 1918)
- 1865King Ferdinand I of Romania (d. 1927)
- 1872Max Beerbohm, British caricaturist (d. 1956)
- 1880Joshua Lionel Cowen, American entrepreneur, creator of Lionel Trains (d. 1965)
- 1884Earl Derr Biggers, American author (d. 1933)
- 1887Harry Hooper, American baseball player (d. 1974)
- 1890Duke Kahanamoku, Hawaiian swimmer and surfer (d. 1968)
- 1890Jean Rhys, British writer (d. 1979)
- 1893Haim Ernst Wertheimer, German-born Israeli biochemist, recipient of the Israel Prize (d. 1978)
- 1895Richard Cushing, archbishop of Boston (d. 1970)
- 1897Fred Rose, American songwriter and publishing executive (d. 1954)
- 1898Malcolm Cowley, American literary critic (d. 1989)
- 1899Albert Claude, Belgian biologist, Nobel laureate (d. 1983)
- 1899Gaylord DuBois, American comic book writer (d. 1993)
- 1899Jorge Luis Borges, Argentine writer (d. 1986)
- 1901Preston Foster, American actor (d. 1970)
- 1902Carlo Gambino, Sicilian-born American mafioso (d. 1976)
- 1902Fernand Braudel, French historian (d. 1985)
- 1903Karl Hanke, Nazi official (d. 1945)
- 1904Alice White, American actress (d. 1983)
- 1904Ida Cook (aka Mary Burchell), British heroine and novelist (d. 1986)
- 1905Arthur Crudup, American singer and guitarist (d. 1976)
- 1905Siaka Stevens, President of Sierra Leone (d. 1988)
- 1907Bruno Giacometti, Swiss architect
- 1908Shivaram Rajguru, Indian revolutionary (d. 1931)
- 1909Ronald Grieveson, South African cricketer (d. 1998)
- 1911Lofty England, English automotive engineer and race team manager (d. 1995)
- 1911Michel Pablo, Greek Trotskyist leader (d. 1996)
- 1911Viktor Barna, Hungarian table tennis player (d. 1972)
- 1912Durward Kirby, American television personality (d. 2000)
- 1913Charles Houston, American mountaineer (d. 2009)
- 1915James Tiptree, Jr., American writer (d. 1987)
- 1916Hal Smith, American actor (d. 1994)
- 1916Léo Ferré, French composer and singer (d. 1993)
- 1917Dennis James, American game show host (d. 1997)
- 1918Sikander Bakht, Governor of Kerala (d. 2004)
- 1919Enrique Llanes, Mexican professional wrestler (d. 2004)
- 1920Alex Colville, Canadian painter
- 1921Sam Tingle, Zimbabwean racing driver (d. 2008)
- 1922Howard Zinn, American historian and activist (d. 2010)
- 1922René Lévesque, Premier of Quebec (d. 1987)
- 1923Arthur Jensen, American psychologist
- 1924Alyn Ainsworth, British bandleader (d. 1990)
- 1924Jimmy Gardner, British actor (d. 2010)
- 1927David Ireland, Australian author
- 1927Harry Markowitz, American economist, Nobel laureate
- 1929Betty Dodson, American feminist and sex educator
- 1929Yasser Arafat, Palestinian leader, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 2004)
- 1930Roger McCluskey, American racing driver (d. 1993)
- 1932Robert D. Hales, LDS apostle
- 1934Kenny Baker, English actor
- 1936A. S. Byatt, English novelist
- 1936Kenny Guinn, American politician (d. 2010)
- 1937Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, Nigerian politician (d. 1998)
- 1938David Freiberg, American bassist (Quicksilver Messenger Service and Jefferson Starship)
- 1938Halldór Blöndal, Icelandic politician
- 1938Mason Williams, American guitarist and composer
- 1940Francine Lalonde, Quebec politician
- 1942Howard Jacobson, British novelist and newspaper columnist
- 1942Max Cleland, American politician
- 1943John Cipollina, American guitarist (Quicksilver Messenger Service) (d. 1989)
- 1943Pini Zahavi, Israeli football agent
- 1944Bill Goldsworthy, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1996)
- 1944Gregory Jarvis, American astronaut (d. 1986)
- 1944Rocky Johnson, Canadian professional wrestler
- 1945Ken Hensley, English musician (Uriah Heep)
- 1945Ronee Blakley, American singer and actress
- 1945Vince McMahon, American professional wrestling promoter
- 1947Anne Archer, American actress
- 1947Joe Manchin, American politician, governor and junior senator of West Virginia
- 1947Paulo Coelho, Brazilian author
- 1947Roger De Vlaeminck, Belgian cyclist
- 1947Vladimir Masorin, Russian admiral
- 1948Jean-Michel Jarre, French musician
- 1948Kim Sung-Il, Chief of Staff of Republic of Korea Air Force
- 1949Charles Rocket, American actor (d. 2005)
- 1949Joe Regalbuto, American actor
- 1949Pia Degermark, Swedish actress
- 1950John Banaszak, Pittsburgh Steelers three-time Super Bowl champion
- 1950Tim White, American anthropologist
- 1951Orson Scott Card, American writer
- 1951Oscar Hijuelos, American author
- 1952Bob Corker, American politician, junior senator of Tennessee
- 1952Holly Hallstrom American model for The Price is Right
- 1952Linton Kwesi Johnson, Jamaican dub poet
- 1952Mike Shanahan, American football coach
- 1952Peter Vogel, German footballer
- 1953Ron Holloway, American tenor saxophonist
- 1954Alain Daigle, French Canadian ice hockey player
- 1954Philippe Cataldo, French singer
- 1955Mike Huckabee, American politician, Governor/Presidential candidate
- 1956Dick Lee, Singaporean singer-songwriter
- 1956John Culberson, American politician
- 1957Jeffrey Daniel, American dancer and singer (Shalamar)
- 1957Stephen Fry, English comedian and actor
- 1958Chris Offutt, American author
- 1958Steve Guttenberg, American actor
- 1958Tracy Harris, American artist
- 1959Adrian Kuiper, former South African cricketer
- 1960Cal Ripken, Jr., American baseball player
- 1960Kim Christofte, Danish footballer
- 1960Takashi Miike, Japanese filmmaker
- 1961Ingrid Berghmans, Belgian judoka
- 1961Jared Harris, English actor
- 1962Craig Kilborn, American talk show host
- 1962David Koechner, American actor
- 1962Major Garrett, American journalist
- 1963Hideo Kojima, Japanese video game director
- 1963John Bush, American singer (Anthrax)
- 1964Éric Bernard, French racing driver
- 1964Dana Gould, American comedian and writer
- 1964Salizhan Sharipov, Russian cosmonaut
- 1965Brian Rajadurai, Sri Lankan cricketer
- 1965Marlee Matlin, American actress
- 1965Reggie Miller, American basketball player
- 1967Michael Thomas, English footballer
- 1968Andreas Kisser, Brazilian guitarist (Sepultura)
- 1968Benoît Brunet, French Canadian ice hockey player
- 1968James Toney, Professional boxer
- 1968Shoichi Funaki, Japanese professional wrestler
- 1968Tim Salmon, American baseball player
- 1970Dan Henderson, American mixed martial artist
- 1970David Gregory, American television journalist
- 1970Tugay Kerimoğlu, Turkish footballer
- 1971Pierfrancesco Favino, Italian actor
- 1972Jean-Luc Brassard, Canadian freestyle skier
- 1973Andrew Brunette, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1973Carmine Giovinazzo, American actor
- 1973Dave Chappelle, American actor and Comedian
- 1973Grey DeLisle, voice actress
- 1973Inge de Bruijn, Dutch swimmer
- 1974Jennifer Lien, American actress
- 1974Orla Fallon, Irish Vocalist for Celtic Woman
- 1975Mark de Vries, Surinamese-Dutch footballer
- 1976Alex O'Loughlin, Australian actor
- 1976Nordin Wooter, Dutch footballer
- 1977Denílson, Brazilian footballer
- 1977Jürgen Macho, Austrian footballer
- 1977John Green, American author
- 1977Per Gade, Danish footballer
- 1977Robert Enke, German footballer (d. 2009)
- 1978Beth Riesgraf, American actress
- 1978Derek Morris, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1978Rafael Furcal, Dominican baseball player
- 1979Elva Hsiao, Taiwanese singer
- 1979Markus Walger, German rugby player
- 1979Michael Redd, American basketball player
- 1979Orlando Engelaar, Dutch footballer
- 1980Sonja Bennett, Canadian actress
- 1981Chad Michael Murray, American actor
- 1981Jiro Wang, Taiwanese singer, actor, model
- 1982Kim Kallstrom, Swedish footballer
- 1983Brett Gardner, American baseball player
- 1983Christopher Parker, British actor
- 1983Marcel Goc, German ice hockey player
- 1984Charlie Villanueva, American basketball player
- 1984Kyle Schmid, Canadian actor
- 1984Yesung, Korean singer (Super Junior)
- 1986Fabiano Santacroce, Italian footballer
- 1986Nick Adenhart, American baseball player (d. 2009)
- 1986Shanthnu Bhagyaraj, Indian Tamil actor
- 1987Anže Kopitar, Slovenian ice hockey player
- 1987Jon Scheyer, American basketball player
- 1988Dávid Verrasztó, Hungarian swimmer
- 1988Helga Krapf, Filipina actress
- 1988Rupert Grint, English actor
- 1990Juan Pedro Lanzani, Argentine actor and singer
Who Died On August 24?
- 79Pliny the Elder, Roman writer and naturalist (b. 23)
- 1042Michael V, Byzantine Emperor (b. 1015)
- 1103King Magnus III of Norway (b. 1073)
- 1217Eustace the Monk, French mercenary and pirate (b. c.1170)
- 1540Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola, Italian painter (b. 1503)
- 1542Gasparo Contarini, Italian diplomat and cardinal (b. 1483)
- 1572Victims of the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre: Charles de Téligny, French Huguenot soldier (b. c.1535)
- 1572Victims of the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre: Gaspard de Coligny, French Huguenot leader (b. 1519)
- 1572Victims of the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre: Pierre de la Ramée, French humanist (b. 1515)
- 1595Thomas Digges, English astronomer (b. 1546)
- 1647Nicholas Stone, English sculptor and architect (b. 1586)
- 1664Maria Cunitz, Silesian astronomer (b. c.1610)
- 1679Jean François Paul de Gondi, French cardinal and agitator (b. 1614)
- 1680Thomas Blood, Irish-born thief of the British crown jewels (b. 1618)
- 1683John Owen, English non-conformist theologian (b. 1616)
- 1759Ewald Christian von Kleist, German poet (b. 1715)
- 1779Saint Cosmas of Aetolia, Greek Orthodox martyr (b. 1714)
- 1798Thomas Alcock, English clergyman (b. 1709)
- 1818James Carr, U.S. Congressman (b. 1777)
- 1831August von Gneisenau, Prussian field marshal (b. 1760)
- 1832Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot, French mathematician (b. 1796)
- 1841John Ordronaux, privateer of the War of 1812 (b. 1778)
- 1841Theodore Edward Hook, English author (b. 1788)
- 1888Rudolf Clausius, German physicist (b. 1822)
- 1895Albert F. Mummery, British mountaineer (b. 1855)
- 1921Nikolay Gumilyov, Russian poet (b. 1886)
- 1930Tom Norman, English freak showman (b. 1860)
- 1940Paul Gottlieb Nipkow, German television pioneer (b. 1860)
- 1943Simone Weil, French philosopher and social activist (b. 1909)
- 1945Midori Naka, Japanese actress, survivor of the Hiroshima atomic bombing, died of radiation poisoning (b. 1909)
- 1946James Clark McReynolds, U.S. Supreme Court justice (b. 1862)
- 1954Getúlio Vargas, President of Brazil (b. 1882)
- 1956Kenji Mizoguchi, Japanese film director (b. 1898)
- 1958Paul Henry, Northern Irish artist (b. 1876)
- 1961Günter Litfin, the first person to be shot at the Berlin Wall
- 1967Henry J. Kaiser, American industrialist (b. 1882)
- 1967Lam Bun, Hong Kong radio commentator (murdered) (b. 1930)
- 1974Alexander de Seversky, Russian-American aviation pioneer (b. 1894)
- 1977Buddy O'Connor, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1916)
- 1978Louis Prima, American band leader (b. 1910)
- 1979Hanna Reitsch, German test pilot (b. 1912)
- 1979Sampson Sievers, Russian Orthodox Christian monk and wonder-worker (b. 1898)
- 1980Yootha Joyce, British actress (b. 1927)
- 1982Félix-Antoine Savard, French Canadian catholic priest and novelist (b. 1896)
- 1983Scott Nearing, American writer, educator and activist (b. 1883)
- 1985Paul Creston, American composer (b. 1906)
- 1987Malcolm Kirk, English wrestler (b. 1936)
- 1990Gailli AbedElrhman, Sudanese writer (b. 1931)
- 1990Sergei Dovlatov, Russian writer (b. 1941)
- 1991Bernard Castro, Italian inventor (b. 1904)
- 1995Alfred Eisenstaedt, German-born photographer (b. 1898)
- 1997Werner Abrolat, German actor (b. 1924)
- 1998E.G. Marshall, American actor (b. 1910)
- 1999Alexandre Lagoya, Greek-Italian classical guitarist (b. 1929)
- 2000Andy Hug, Swiss karateka and kickbox champion (b. 1964)
- 2001Jane Greer, American actress (b. 1924)
- 2002Nikolay Guryanov Russian Orthodox Christian mystic and priest (b. 1909)
- 2003Sir Wilfred Thesiger, British explorer (b. 1910)
- 2004Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Swiss-born psychiatrist (b. 1926)
- 2005Harold “Hal” Kalin, American singer (The Kalin Twins) (b. 1934)
- 2005Kaleth Morales, Colombian Vallenato singer (b. 1984)
- 2006Cristian Nemescu, Romanian film director (b. 1979)
- 2006Léopold Simoneau, French Canadian tenor (b. 1916)
- 2007Aaron Russo, American film producer and director (b. 1943)
- 2007Andrée P. Boucher, Mayor of Quebec City (b. 1937)
- 2010Satoshi Kon, Japanese film director (b. 1963)
- 2011Mike Flanagan, American baseball pitcher (b. 1951)
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