Today in History

Today in History Today is Tuesday, Aug. 24, the 236th day of 2021. There are 129 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On August 24, 1814, during the War of 1812, British forces invaded Washington, D.C., setting fire to the Capitol (which was still under construction) and the White House, as well as other public buildings. On this date: In A.D. 79, long-dormant Mount Vesuvius erupted, burying the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum in volcanic ash; an estimated 20,000 people died. In 1932, Amelia Earhart embarked on a 19-hour flight from Los Angeles to Newark, New Jersey, making her the first woman to fly solo, non-stop, from coast to coast. In 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty came into force. In 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Communist Control Act, outlawing the Communist Party in the United States. In 1968, France became the world’s fifth thermonuclear power as it exploded a hydrogen bomb in the South Pacific. In 1981, Mark David Chapman was sentenced in New York to 20 years to life in prison for murdering John Lennon. (Chapman remains imprisoned.) In 1989, Baseball Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti (juh-MAH’-tee) banned Pete Rose from the game for betting on his own team, the Cincinnati Reds. In 1992, Hurricane Andrew smashed into Florida, causing $30 billion in damage; 43 U.S. deaths were blamed on the storm. In 2001, Tom Green, a Mormon fundamentalist with five wives and 30 children, was sentenced by a court in Provo, Utah, to five years in prison for his conviction on four counts of bigamy and one count of failure to pay child support. In 2003, the Justice Department reported the U.S. crime rate in 2002 was the lowest since studies began in 1973. In 2008, on the final day of the Beijing Games, Kobe Bryant hit two 3-pointers in a big fourth quarter to help the United States defeat Spain 118-107 and win the men’s basketball gold medal for the first time since 2000. In 2019, police in Aurora, Colorado, responding to a report of a suspicious person, used a chokehold to subdue Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old Black man; he suffered cardiac arrest on the way to the hospital and was later declared brain dead and taken off life support. (Three officers were placed on leave but returned to the force after prosecutors found insufficient evidence to support charging them.) Ten years ago: A defiant Moammar Gadhafi vowed from hiding to fight on ‘œuntil victory or martyrdom’� and called on residents of the Libyan capital and loyal tribesmen across his North African nation to free Tripoli from the ‘œdevils and traitors’� who had overrun it. Steve Jobs resigned as CEO of Apple Inc.; he was succeeded by Tim Cook. Five years ago: A 6.2 magnitude earthquake reduced three central Italian towns to rubble and killed nearly 300 people. Astronaut Jeffrey Williams, commander of the International Space Station, marked a U.S. record-breaking 521st day in orbit, a number accumulated over four flights. (Upon his return to earth 13 days later, Williams had logged a grand total of 534 days in space).