This Week in History

August 24

A.D. 79: Mount Vesuvius erupted, burying the Roman cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabiae under a layer of ash between 50 feet and 300 feet deep.
1891: Thomas Edison received a patent for the motion picture camera.
1909: Workers began pouring concrete for the Panama Canal.
1932: Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly non-stop across the United States, from Los Angeles to Newark, N.J.
2017: Largest-ever lottery jackpot win in the US – $758.7m won by Mavis Wanczyk of Massachusetts in US Powerball Jackpot.

August 25

1875: Captain Matthew Webb became first person to swim across the English Channel, swimming from Dover, England, to Calais, France, in 22 hours.
1894: An article in The Lancet described the infectious agent of the bubonic plague.
2019: Double Dave, a rare two-headed timber rattlesnake found in Pine Barrens forest, New Jersey.

August 26

1498: Michelangelo was commissioned by French Cardinal Jean de Bilhères to carve the Pietà.
1920: The 19th Amendment to U.S. Constitution went into effect, giving women the right to vote.
2019: Johnson & Johnson ordered to pay state of Oklahoma $572 million in 1st trial against opioid manufacturer.

August 27

1859: Petroleum was discovered in Titusville, Pa., leading to the development of the world’s first commercially successful oil well.
2000: Singer and songwriter Willie Nelson became the first entertainer in history to have a forest fire named after him; the “Willie” fire started near Red Lodge, Mont., while Nelson was performing a concert there; the fire was started by a motorcycle accident on the Beartooth Highway, and the town of Red Lodge was evacuated because of it.
2003: Mars made its closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years, passing a mere 34,646,418 miles away.
2015: 15th Athletics World Championships: Usain Bolt of Jamaica adds the Mens 200m gold to his 100m win.

August 28

1830: The first steam locomotive, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad’s Tom Thumb, raced a horse-drawn car, foretelling steam’s role in American railroading.
1898: “Brad’s Drink,” a carbonated soft drink made by Caleb Bradham at his drugstore in New Bern, N.C., was renamed Pepsi-Cola.|
1937: Toyota Motor Corporation was founded in Tokyo.
1963: The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I have a dream” speech in Washington, D.C.
2009: The elderly male bank robber known as the Geezer Bandit committed the first of 16 armed robberies in Southern California; his most recent heist was Dec. 2, 2011, and he remains at large as of August 2015.
2017: Matt Vogel makes his debut as the voice of Kermit the Frog in “Muppet Thought of the Week” video.
2019: Discovery of 3.8-million-year-old skull of early human ancestor Australopithecus anamensis, found by Yohannes Haile-Selassie, at Miro Dora, Ethiopia, upends previous evolutionary theory published in journal “Nature”.

August 29

1898: Frank Seiberling founded the Goodyear tire company in Akron, Ohio.
1922: Radio station WEAF-AM in New York City broadcast the first radio advertisement.
1966: The Beatles performed their last concert before paying fans at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.
2005: Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast from New Orleans to the Florida panhandle.
2017: Hurricane Harvey sets rainfall record (51.88 inches in Cedar Bayou) from a tropical cyclone in continental US, according to US National Weather Service.
2018: Star quarterback Aaron Rodgers signs NFL record contract extension with the Green Bay Packers; 4 years worth $134m rising to a possible $180m with a record $103m in guarantees.

August 30

30 B.C.: Cleopatra, the ruler of Egypt, committed suicide by allowing a poisonous snake to bite her.
1963: The hotline between leaders of the USA and Soviet Union began operating.
1984: The Space Shuttle Discovery took off on its maiden voyage.
2017: Hurricane Irma forms near Cape Verde Islands, will go on to become category 5 hurricane.
2019:
Second interstellar comet ever detected by Ukrainian amateur astronomer Gennady Borisov (later named 2I/Borisov).

ON THIS DAY… AUGUST 24 – AUGUST 30

August 24- VESUVIUS DAY
We commemorate the eruption of Mount Vesuvius on this day. 

August 25- NATIONAL
BANANA SPLIT DAY
Give your taste buds the thrill of delicious ice cream and luscious chocolate covering a fresh banana topped off with nuts, a cherry and whipped cream. 

August 26- NATIONAL DOG DAY
Get ready to celebrate all of your furry friends in the best ways possible!

August 27-
INTERNATIONAL LOTTERY DAY
Today is the day where we all try our luck and you never know, a lifechanging sum of money could be on the horizon. 

August 28- NATIONAL  BOW TIE DAY
This day is dedicated to everyone’s favorite underrated accessory. 

August 29- NATIONAL LEMON JUICE DAY
When life hands you lemons, make
lemonade!

August 30 -FRANKENSTEIN DAY
Can you believe it has been over 200 years since the original “Frankenstein” story was published?