(79 CE) Vesuvius awakes, darkening skies and burying cities
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An ash and cinder plume rockets into the afternoon sky of southern Italy as Mt. Vesuvius erupts with a terrifying force, killing tens of thousands in Pompeii with searing heat and burying them in ash where they lay. The eruption’s flows also consume the city of Herculaneum.. |
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(410) ‘The eternal city’ is sacked as the Visigoths invade Rome
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A foreign enemy plunders the heart of a once invincible empire for the first time in 800 years as King Alaric I of the Visigoths and his Germanic forces enter Rome. They will leave most citizens alive and most buildings intact, but steal a mass of valuables during the three-day pillage. . |
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(1814) British set the White House and US Capitol ablaze
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President James Madison and First Lady Dolley Madison flee Washington, DC, just ahead of a British commander bent on destruction. After dining at a deserted White House, Major General Robert Ross’ soldiers set fire to the Presidential Mansion, the Capitol, and other public buildings.. |
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(1891) Inventor extraordinaire patents a motion picture camera
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With the invention of the light bulb, electric power lines, and the phonograph behind him, Thomas Alva Edison patents his newest invention, the Kinetographic Camera, a movie-recording device he describes as “an instrument which does for the eye what the phonograph does for the ear.”. |
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