On this day...

79 AD: Vesuvius erupted, destroying the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum and killing 2,000 people. Paradoxically, the eruption destroyed Pompeii but also preserved it for the rest of time.

1572: The St Bartholomew’s Day massacre took place in Paris when thousands of French Huguenots were killed by order of the Catholic French court.

1724: George Stubbs, portrait and animal painter (especially horses), was born in Liverpool.

1814: British troops under General Ross invaded Washington and set fire to the White House and the Capital. Both were rebuilt and enlarged.

1875: Matthew Webb, British merchant navy captain, became the first person to swim the English Channel, doing the breaststroke from Dover to Cap Gris Nez in 21 hours, 45 minutes.

1891: The motion picture camera was patented by Thomas Edison.

1916: Eight people died when Zeppelins raided the outskirts of London.

1965: The 450,000-year-old body of a man was found in a Hungarian limestone quarry.

2006: The International Astronomical Union (IAU) redefined the term “planet” such that Pluto was then considered a dwaf planet.

2008: Gordon Brown promised that the London Games would be “the best Olympics Ever” as the official handover to Mayor Boris Johnson took place in Beijing.

2014: A 6.0 magnitude earthquake struck Napa, California, in the northern San Francisco Bay area, it was the largest earthquake to strike northern California since the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.