MOMENTS IN TIME - Aug. 13, 2009

The History Channel

• On Aug. 24, 79 A.D., after centuries of dormancy, Mount Vesuvius erupts in southern Italy, devastating prosperous Roman cities nearby and killing thousands. The city of Pompeii was buried under 14 to 17 feet of ash and pumice, while Herculaneum was buried under more than 60 feet of mud and volcanic material.

• On Aug. 25, 1835, the first in a series of six hoax articles announcing the discovery of life on the moon appears in the New York Sun newspaper. The articles were supposedly reprinted from the Edinburgh Journal of Science. From the day the first moon hoax article was released, sales of the paper shot up considerably.

• On Aug. 29, 1885, the world’s first motorcycle, made by Gottlieb Daimler, is patented. The two-wheeled vehicle gained immense popularity after 1910, and it was used heavily by all branches of armed forces during World War I.

•On Aug. 27, 1908, future President Lyndon Baines Johnson is born on a farm near Stonewall, Texas. As president during the 1960s, Johnson pushed through the creation of Medicare/Medicaid, Head Start, the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

• On Aug. 30, 1967, Thurgood Marshall becomes the first black American to be confirmed as a Supreme Court justice. Over the next 24 years, Justice Marshall came out in favor of abortion rights and against the death penalty, and left a legacy of upholding the rights of the individual.

• On Aug. 28, 1972, the U.S. Air Force gets its first ace (a designation traditionally awarded for five enemy aircraft confirmed shot down) since the Korean War. Captain Richard S. Ritchie in an F-4 out of Udorn Air Base in Thailand, shot down his fifth MiG near Hanoi.

• On Aug. 26, 1980, workers at Harvey’s Resort and Casino in Lake Tahoe, Nev., discover a nearly 1,500-pound bomb disguised as a copy machine. From another hotel, experts tried to disassemble the bomb with robots. Unfortunately, they were unsuccessful: The bomb exploded, demolishing the hotel.

(c) 2009 King Features Synd., Inc.