40th year - N° 236 Sunday, 24 August 2025

BIRTH(+)FACT(᙮)DEATH(-)
40th year - N° 236 Sunday, 24 August 2025

24 August / Today's 32 Events:

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(x) 1946 years ago Thursday 24th of August 0079 Eruption of the volcano in Mount Vesuvius, Pompeii, Campania, Italy. Mount Vesuvius violently spewed forth a deadly cloud of super-heated tephra and gases to a height of 33 km, ejecting molten rock, pulverized pumice and hot ash at 1.5 million tons per second. The remains of over 1.500 people have so far been found. The total number of fatalities remains unknown.

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(-) 255 years ago Friday 24th of August 1770 Poet and forger of pseudo-medieval poetry Thomas Chatterton commits suicide by arsenic poisoning at the age of 18 in Brooke Street, Holborn, London, Greater London, United Kingdom. After drinking the poison Chatterton tore into fragments whatever literary remains were at hand.

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(-) 161 years ago Wednesday 24th of August 1864 Christian mystic and visionary Jakob Lorber aka Der Schreibknecht Gottes dies of pneumonia at the age of 64 in Graz, Steiermark, Austria.

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(-) 156 years ago Tuesday 24th of August 1869 Jean Kinck is poisoned with prussic acid by mass murderer Jean-Baptiste Troppmann aka Le Massacreur de Pantin in Uffholtz, Haut-Rhin, France. Troppmann had hoped to find 5.500 Francs that Kinck had promised to start up a company together. Kinck's body was found on 25 November.

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(x) 150 years ago He Set Off at a Steady Breaststroke Tuesday 24th of August 1875 27-year-old Swimmer Matthew Webb known for swimming the Channel becomes the first man to swim across the Channel. in Admiralty Pier, Dover, Kent, United Kingdom. Backed by three escort boats and smeared in porpoise oil Webb set off into the ebb tide at a steady breaststroke. Despite stings from jellyfish and strong currents off Cap Gris Nez after approximately 21 hours and 40 minutes he landed near Calais. Webb's zig-zag course across the Channel was nearly 66 km long.

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(-) 130 years ago Saturday 24th of August 1895 Dame Morand is killed and raped by serial killer Joseph Vacher aka L'Eventreur du Sud-Est in Saint-Ours, Haute-Savoie, France.

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(+) 110 years ago Tuesday 24th of August 1915 Science fiction writer Alice Bradley Sheldon aka James Tiptree Jr. is born in Chicago, Illinois, United States.

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(+) 106 years ago Sunday 24th of August 1919 Singer and band leader Benny Moré, originally Bartolomé Maximiliano Moré Gutiérrez aka El Bárbaro del Ritmo aka El Sonero Mayor is born in Lajas, Santa Clara, Cuba.

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(-) 102 years ago Friday 24th of August 1923 Heinrich Struß is killed and his meat sold by serial killer Fritz Haarmann aka Der Hannover Werwolf in Das Mordhaus, Rote Reihe 4, Hannover, Niedersachsen, Germany.

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(-) 96 years ago Saturday 24th of August 1929 Louise Lenzen is strangled and stabbed to death by serial killer Peter Kürten aka The Vampire of Düsseldorf in Aachener Straße, Düsseldorf, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.

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(+) 96 years ago Saturday 24th of August 1929 Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, originally Mohammed Yasser Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa is born in Caïro, Al Qahirah, Egypt.

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(-) 96 years ago Saturday 24th of August 1929 Gertrud Hamacher is strangled and throatcut by serial killer Peter Kürten aka The Vampire of Düsseldorf in Aachener Straße, Düsseldorf, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.

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(-) 86 years ago Thursday 24th of August 1939 Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run suspect Frank Dolezal commits suicide by hanging in his cell at the age of 52 in Cuyahoga County Jail, Cleveland, Ohio, United States. Dolezal was suspected of being the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run and badly beaten to force a confession.

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(+) 85 years ago Saturday 24th of August 1940 Serial killer Richard Fran Biegenwald aka The Jersey Shore Thrill Killer is born in Trenton, New Jersey, United States.

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(-) 82 years ago Tuesday 24th of August 1943 Philosopher, mystic and political activist Simone Adolphine Weil dies of cardiac failure due to anorexia nervosa at the age of 34 in Grosvenor Sanatorium, Ashford, Kent, United Kingdom.

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(+) 81 years ago Thursday 24th of August 1944 News reporter Christine Chubbuck is born in Hudson, Ohio, United States.

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(-) 63 years ago Friday 24th of August 1962 Cop killer James Dukes is executed by Old Sparky in Stateville Correctional Center, Crest Hill, Illinois, United States.

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(x) 48 years ago Wednesday 24th of August 1977 40-year-old Serial art vandal Hans-Joachim Bohlmann The painting 'Albrecht von Österreich' by Rubens is attacked with acid by in Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.

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(x) 44 years ago Monday 24th of August 1981 26-year-old Murderer Mark David Chapman aka The Man Who Shot John Lennon is sentenced to 20-years-to-life in Manhattan, New York, New York, United States.

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(x) 41 years ago Friday 24th of August 1984 The Texas School Book Depository from where 45-year-old Assassin Lee Harvey Oswald presumably operated is destroyed by arson in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas, United States.

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(x) 40 years ago The Night Stalker was There Saturday 24th of August 1985 30-year-old Bill Carns and his 29-year-old fiancée Inez Erickson are attacked and robbed by 25-year-old Serial killer Richard Ricardo Leyva Muñoz Ramirez aka The Night Stalker in Mission Viejo, California, United States. Cairns was shot in the head three times and Erickson was beaten, raped and sodomised. Before leaving the home Ramirez told Erickson "Tell them the Night Stalker was here."

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(-) 38 years ago Monday 24th of August 1987 Rapist and murderer Sterling J. Rault is executed by Old Sparky at the age of 36 in Louisiana State Penitentiary, Angola, Louisiana, United States. Rault's final meal request was for a T-bone steak, 12 shrimps, French fries, Pepsi and strawberry shortcake.

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(-) 38 years ago He Couldn't Be Dead Monday 24th of August 1987 Fictitious Robol scientist Edward Moolenbeek dies of unknown causes in Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, United Kingdom. In fact Moolenbeek was a fictional character created by Andrew M. McKenzie of The Hafler Trio.

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(-) 32 years ago Tuesday 24th of August 1993 Serial killer David Edwin Mason is executed by the gas chamber at the age of 37 in San Quentin State Prison, San Quentin, California, United States. Mason was the last man to die in San Quentin's Gas Chamber. Mason refused any last meal, requesting only ice water while in the death watch cell. Mason told the warden that he had no final words to impart.

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(-) 32 years ago Tuesday 24th of August 1993 Murderer Ruben Montoya Cantu is executed by lethal injection at the age of 27 in Huntsville Prison, 815 12th Street, Huntsville, Texas, United States. Cantu's final request was for a piece of bubble gum, which was denied.

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(x) 31 years ago Wednesday 24th of August 1994 A five kg pipe-bomb by 45-year-old Xenophobic serial bomber Franz Fuchs is found near the Rennerschule and transported to the airport for closer examination in Flughafen Klagenfurt, Klagenfurt, Kärnten, Austria. Police officer Theo Kelz examined the package and it exploded, ripping off both Kelz' hands. Kelz had a transplant of two new hands six years later.

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26 years ago The Eyes had it Tuesday 24th of August 1999 A stairway down into the ocean in Auckland, North Island, New Zealand.

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(-) 24 years ago Friday 24th of August 2001 Murderer Clifton Allen White is executed by lethal injection at the age of 43 in Raleigh State Prison, Raleigh, North Carolina, United States.

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(-) 19 years ago Thursday 24th of August 2006 Murderer Justin Chaz Fuller is executed by lethal injection at the age of 28 in Huntsville Prison, 815 12th Street, Huntsville, Texas, United States. Fuller declined a last meal request.

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18 years ago The Eyes had it Friday 24th of August 2007 The house where on 14 May 1970 Ulrike Meinhof assisted in the freeing of Andreas Baader with Gudrun Ensslin, Irene Goergens and Ingrid Schubert, and jumped in the underground in Deutsches Zentralinstitut für Soziale Fragen, Miquelstraße 83, Dahlem, Berlin, Berlin, Germany.

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(-) 15 years ago He Lived on Cigarettes and Beer Tuesday 24th of August 2010 Snooker player Alex Alexander Gordon Higgins aka Hurricane dies of a combination of malnutrition, pneumonia, tooth decay and a bronchial condition at the age of 61 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. Higgins had cancerous growths removed from his mouth in 1994 and 1996. He lost his teeth after intensive radiotherapy used to treat his throat cancer and had been living on liquid food, often Guinnes, for the last years of his life.

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(-) 11 years ago Sunday 24th of August 2014 Actor Richard Samuel Attenborough dies of heart failure at the age of 91 in London, Greater London, United Kingdom.

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