Today In History

Today in History: Wednesday, August  24, 2016
AP Highlight in History:
On Aug. 24, 1992, Hurricane Andrew smashed into Florida, causing record damage; 55 deaths in Florida, Louisiana and the Bahamas were blamed on the storm.
AP Photo/Lynn Sladky
On this date in:
79 Mount Vesuvius erupted, burying the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum in volcanic ash. An estimated 20,000 people died.
1572 The slaughter of French Protestants at the hands of Catholics began in Paris.
1814 British forces invaded Washington, D.C., and set fire to the Capitol and the White House.
1857 The New York branch of the Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Co. failed, sparking the Panic of 1857.
1932 Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly nonstop across the United States, traveling from Los Angeles to Newark, N.J., in just over 19 hours.
1949 The North Atlantic Treaty went into effect.
1954 The Communist Control Act went into effect, virtually outlawing the Communist Party in the United States.
1968 France became the world’s fifth thermonuclear power as it exploded a hydrogen bomb in the South Pacific.
1970 A bomb planted by anti-war extremists exploded at the University of Wisconsin’s Army Math Research Center in Madison, killing a researcher.
1981 Mark David Chapman was sentenced in New York to 20 years to life in prison for the murder of rock musician John Lennon.
1989 Baseball Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti banned Pete Rose from the game for gambling.
2006 The International Astronomical Union declared that Pluto was no longer a planet, demoting it to the status of a “dwarf planet.”
2007 A judge in Inverness, Fla., sentenced John Evander Couey to death for kidnapping 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford, raping her and burying her alive.
2007 James Ford Seale, a reputed Ku Klux Klansman, was sentenced to three life terms for his role in the 1964 abduction and murder of two black teenagers in Mississippi.
2007 The NFL suspended Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick for his involvement in dogfighting.
2011 Steve Jobs resigned as CEO of Apple Inc.
Today’s Birthdays:
Actor Rupert Grint (“Harry Potter” movies) turns 28 years old today.
AP Photo/Joel Ryan
Name Profession Age
Kenny Baker Actor (R2D2 in “Star Wars”) 82
Max Cleland Former U.S. senator, D-Ga. 74
Anne Archer Actress 69
Joe Manchin U.S. senator, D-W.Va. 69
Joe Regalbuto Actor (“Murphy Brown”) 67
Bob Corker U.S. senator, R-Tenn. 64
Mike Shanahan Football coach 64
Mike Huckabee Former governor of Arkansas 61
Gerry Cooney Boxer 60
Stephen Fry Actor 59
Steve Guttenberg Actor 58
Cal Ripken Jr. Baseball Hall of Famer 56
Jared Harris Actor (“Mad Men”) 55
Craig Kilborn Talk show host 54
Reggie Miller Basketball Hall of Famer 51
David Gregory Broadcast journalist (“Meet the Press”) 46
Dave Chappelle Actor, comedian (“Chappelle’s Show”) 43
Chad Michael Murray Actor (“One Tree Hill”) 35
Actress Marlee Matlin turns 51 years old today.
AP Photo/Evan Agostini

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