On This Day

79 Mount Vesuvius begins stirring, on feast day of Vulcan, Roman god of fire (goes on to destroy Pompeii)

1933 Mahatma Gandhi released from Indian jail following another hunger strike

1939 Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union agree the Molotov-Ribbentrop non-aggression pact and secretly divide Poland between themselves, setting the stage for World War II

1942 Battle of Stalingrad: 600 Luftwaffe planes bomb Stalingrad (40,000 die)

1996 Osama bin Laden issues message entitled “A declaration of war against the Americans occupying the land of the two holy places”

2005 Hurricane Katrina forms over the Bahamas, later becoming a category 5 hurricane

2006 Natascha Kampusch, who was abducted at the age of 10, managed to escape from her captor Wolfgang Priklopil, after 8 years of captivity.

2007 Hashtag invented and first used in a tweet by US product designer Chris Messina

2011 Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi is overthrown after the National Transitional Council forces take control of Bab al-Azizia compound during the 2011 Libyan Civil War.

CD