August 24 Birthday
August 24, 79 CE: Mount Vesuvius erupted, burying Pompeii and Herculaneum under 13-20 feet of volcanic ash. Pliny the Younger watched from across the bay and wrote the only surviving eyewitness account. His uncle, Pliny the Elder, sailed toward the eruption to rescue people and died on the shore. The ash preserved the cities — bodies left cavities in the ash that archaeologists filled with plaster in the 19th century, creating casts of people in their final positions. The same date in 410 CE saw the Visigoths sack Rome, the first foreign sack in 800 years. People born on August 24 fall under the zodiac sign of Virgo. The birthstone is Peridot and the birth flower is Gladiolus. Historical events on August 24 include 79 CE: Vesuvius erupts burying Pompeii, 410 CE: Visigoths sack Rome, 1814: British burn Washington DC. Famous people born on August 24 include Jorge Luis Borges (1899), Ava DuVernay (1972), Dave Chappelle (1973).