79 – Mount Vesuvius begins stirring, on feast day of Vulcan, Roman god of fire (goes on to destroy Pompeii)
1942 – Battle of Stalingrad: 600 Luftwaffe planes bomb Stalingrad (40,000 die)
1947 – US President Truman’s daughter, Margaret’s 1st public singing concert
1963 – US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1985 – Said Aouita of Morocco sets 1.5k record (3:29.46) in Berlin
1988 – Mike Tyson and Mitch Green brawl at 4 A.M. in Harlem
1992 – Wilhelm Verwoerd, grandson of former South African Prime Minister, Hendrik Verwoerd, main architect of apartheid, joins the African National Congress
1993 – Fred McGriff and David Justice are 6th to hit back-to-back HRs twice in same game
2008 – Midfielder Ángel Di María scores a 58th minute winner as Argentina beats Nigeria 1-0 to take the men’s football gold medal at the Beijing Olympics; 89,102 at the National Stadium
2012 – Four people are killed and 28 injured in a hot air ballooning accident in Slovenia