Born On This Day:

• William Wilberforce, 1759
• Max Beerbohm, 1872
• Jorge Luis Borges, 1899
• Graham Sutherland, 1903
• Howard Duff, 1913
• Stephen Fry, 1957
• Steve Guttenberg, 1958
• Cal Ripken, 1960
• Marlee Matlin, 1965
• Rupert Grint, 1988

Died On This Day:

• Pliny the Elder, AD 79
• Saint Rose of Lima, 1617
• Thomas Chatterton suicide, 1770
• Philidor, 1795
• Theodore Hook, 1841
• Henry Kaiser, 1967
• E.G. Marshall, 1998
• Julie Harris, 2013
• Richard Attenborough, 2014

Today's Events:

• 49 BC - Battle of Bagradas River in the Great Roman Civil War that saw Julius Caesar conquer Rome.
• AD 79 - Mount Vesuvius erupts, Pompeii destroyed, 25,000 dead. Largest eruption in recorded history.
• AD 410 - Rome sacked by Visigoths; first time in almost 800 years (since 387 BC) that Rome falls to an enemy.
• 1572 - Massacre of St. Bartholemew's day in Paris. Catholics slay Huguenots (Protestants).
• 1676 - America's first court-martial trial held in Newport, R.I.-Indian Sowagonish found guilty.
• 1814 - British troops capture Washington DC & set fire to James Madison's White House (War of 1812).
• 1869 - Cornelius Swarthout of Troy, N.Y. patents the waffle iron.
• 1875 - First man swims English Channel - Capt. Matthew Webb breaststrokes from Dover to Calais in 21 hrs.
• 1891 - Thomas Alva Edison files patent on his camera to take moving pictures.
• 1893 - Cyclone swirls through Georgia and South Carolina killing 1,000.
• 1907 - Paintings by Mary Cassatt, American expatriate living in France, first exhibited in New York.
• 1938 - A German Heinkel 178 becomes first working jet propelled airplane in test flight.
• 1949 - NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) comes into force; established by U.S., Canada & 10 European nations.
• 1989 - Voyager 2 reaches Neptune, most distant planet in solar system, 2.8 billion miles away from earth.
• 1992 - Hurricane Andrew slams into Miami at 150 mph destroying 63,000 homes making 10% homeless.
• 1995 - Microsoft finally releases Windows 95 4 months before 1996; huge sales, few happy users.
• 2016 - 6.2 earthquake in Central Italy, epicenter Amatrice which was reduced to rubble, kills 299.

Feast Day of Saint:

• Emily de Vialar
• Joan Thouret
• Bartholomew
• Ouen

Non-Specific Holiday:

• NAGA PANCHAMI, Hindu Festival of the Serpent God
• RAKHI, Hindu Festival to Pledge Protection
• CHUNG-CH'IU, Mid-autumn festival, Harvest or Moon Festival (fifteenth day of the eighth moon)
• TISH'AH B'AB (Jewish) Anniversary of fall of Jerusalem and destruction of first & 2nd temples Ab 9
• JANAM (OR JANMA) ASHTAMI, Hindu Birthday Festival of Krishna
• ANANT CHATURDASI, Hindu Eternal Anniversary of 14th day of Month Bhaedra
• CH'UNG YANG, Festival of High Places in China (ninth day of the ninth moon)
• Japanese visit graves of ancestors mid August
• GANESHA CHATURTHI, Hindu Festival of the Elephant God end of August
• FRIENDSHIP DAY - first Sunday in August in USA