24 August

10 weird and wonderful things which happened on 24 August

1. On this date in 1938, Clark Gable signed to play Rhett Butler in Gone With the Wind.
2. In 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) was established by the US, Canada, and 10 Western European nations. It declares that an armed attack against one or more of them will be considered an attack against all.
3. Charlotte Brontë, alias Currer Bell, sent her manuscript for Jane Eyre to her London publishers, Smith, Elder and Company on this date in 1847.
4. In 1963, Little Stevie Wonder became the first artist to make the Number One position on the pop single chart, the pop albums chart and the RandB singles chart all at once. His was also the first ever live recording to make No.1.
5. In 1975, Queen started recording Bohemian Rhapsody at Rockfield studio's in Monmouth, Wales.
6. It was on this date in 2006 that the International Astronomical Union redefined the term "planet" so Pluto was no longer considered a planet.
7. The wedding of Janet Dalrymple to David Dunbar, heir to the Scottish estate of Baldoon took place on this date in 1669. Legend has it that later that night, wedding guests were awoken by terrible screams from the bridal chamber. They found the groom half dead of stab wounds, and the bride completely insane. She died within a month, but the groom recovered. Local legend holds that the spirit of Janet Dalrymple still haunts the ruins of the castle.
8. On this date in 79 AD, at 1pm, Mount Vesuvius erupted. By coincidence, this occurred during the Festival of Vulcan. This eruption was the first to be described in detail. From 18 miles west of the volcano, Pliny the Younger recorded his observations, describing the Earthquakes before the eruption, the eruption column, air fall, the effects of the eruption on people, pyroclastic flows, and even a tsunami. Volcanologists use the term "plinian" to refer to sustained explosive eruptions like this one. Pompeii and Herculaneum were buried under ash deposited by a pyroclastic flow.
9. In 1992, thieves armed with a frozen rabbit smashed through the glass doors of a pub in Devon. They left the rabbit thawing on the counter.
10. Dennis Howell was appointed Minister for drought on this day in 1976. Within days, it was raining and there were floods in Exeter.

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