- 79: The cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabiae were destroyed
                 and 20,000 were killed by an eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Italy.
               - 410: Alaric and his Visigoth army sacked Rome, which symbolized
                 the fall of the Western Roman Empire.
               - 1572: The Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre in France brought the
                 death of up to 70,000 Protestant Huguenots.
               - 1814: British forces captured Washington, D.C., and burned down many
                 landmarks. President James Madison fled.
               - 1847: Charlotte Bronte finished writing "Jane Eyre."
               - 1869: Cornelius Swarthout patented the waffle iron.
               - 1891: Thomas Edison applied for a patent for his motion picture
                 camera.
               - 1912: The Territory of Alaska was formed.
               - 1932: Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the U.S.
                 nonstop.
               - 1949: The North Atlantic Treaty went into effect.
               - 1950: Edith Sampson became the first black U.S. delegate to the
                 United Nations.
               - 1954: President Dwight Eisenhower signed into law the Communist
                 Control Act, outlawing the Communist Party.
               - 1968: France became the fifth nuclear power when it exploded a
                 hydrogen bomb near Fugataufa Atoll, midway between Australia and
                 South America.
               - 1994: Israel and the PLO initialed an accord giving autonomy to
                 Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank in five important
                 areas -- education, health, taxation, social welfare and tourism.

               *Happy Birthday*
               ----------------
               - Stephen Fry, 41, English actor, "Jeeves and Wooster"
               - Steve Guttenberg, 40, actor, "Three Men & A Baby," "Cocoon"
               - Marlee Matlin, 33, actress, "Children of a Lesser God"
               - Reggie Miller, 33, NBA guard, Indiana Pacers
               - Cal Ripken Jr., 38, MLB shortstop, Baltimore Orioles