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On this Day August 24

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Celebrity Birthdays

1947 – Golden Globe-winning actress Anne Archer (“Paradise Alley,” “Short Cuts,” “Patriot Games,” “Clear and Present Danger,” “Man of the House,” “Fatal Attraction”)

1958 – Actor-comedian Steve Guttenberg (“Diner,” “The Day After,” “Police Academy,” “Cocoon,” “Short Circuit,” “Three Men and a Baby,” “The Big Green”)

1960 – Baseball Hall of Famer Cal Ripken, Jr., a.k.a. “Iron Man”

1961 – Actor Jared Harris (“Mad Men,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows,” “Lincoln,” “Man From U.N.C.L.E.”) 

1962 – Talk show host-turned-actor Craig Kilborn (“Old School,” “The Benchwarmers,” “Cursed”)

1965 – Oscar and Golden Globe-winning actress Marlee Matlin (“Children of a Lesser God,” “Switched at Birth,” “The West Wing”)

1973 – Stand-up comedian-screenwriter-actor Dave Chappelle (“Chappelle’s Show”)

1988 – Actor Rupert Grint, best known for playing Ron Weasley in the “Harry Potter” movie series

History Highlights

79 A.D. – Mount Vesuvius erupts in southern Italy, devastating the prosperous Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum and killing about 20,000 people. Buried under a thick layer of volcanic ash and mud, the cities are never rebuilt.

1814 – British troops enter Washington, D.C. and burn the White House in retaliation for the American attack on the city of York in Ontario, Canada, in June of 1812.

1981 – Mark David Chapman is sentenced to 20 years to life in prison for the murder of musical great John Lennon eight months earlier. 

1991 – Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as secretary-general of the Soviet Communist Party after a failed coup attempt against him. 

2012 – Anders Behring Breivik, the man who killed 77 people in a 2011 bombing and shooting attack in Norway, is sentenced to 21 years in prison, the maximum allowed under Norwegian law.

Musical Milestones

1963 – Stevie Wonder becomes the first artist ever with both a No. 1 album and single in the same week. His No. 1 album is “Little Stevie Wonder / The 12 Year Old Genius” and No. 1 single is “Fingertips Part 2.” And if that’s not enough, it’s also the first ever live recording to top the singles chart. 

1968 – Diana Ross and the Supremes go their separate ways. 

1974 – Paul Anka begins three weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart with “(You’re) Having My Baby,” his first No. 1 hit since 1959’s “Lonely Boy.”

1985 – “The Power of Love,” by Huey Lewis and the News — featured in the movie “Back To The Future” — kicks off two weeks on top of the singles chart. The track receives an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song at the 58th Academy Awards, but loses to Lionel Richie’s “Say You, Say Me.”

1991 – Bryan Adams holds on to the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 with “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You,” from the soundtrack to “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.”

1996 – “Macarena,” by Los Del Rio, is in the midst of a 14-week domination of the pop chart.

2009 – The Los Angeles County Coroner rules Michael Jackson’s death a homicide caused by a mix of drugs meant to treat insomnia.

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