THURSDAY, Aug. 24, 2023

1572 ― King Charles IX orders massacre of thousands of French Protestants

1814 ― British sack Washington, D.C., White House burned

1853 ― First potato chips prepared by Chef George Crum (Saratoga Springs, NY)

1869 ― Waffle iron invented

1891 ― Thomas Edison patents motion picture camera

1909 ― Workers start pouring concrete for Panama Canal

1912 ― Territory of Alaska organized

1949 ― North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) established

1961 ― Former Nazi leader Johannes Vorster becomes South Africa's minister of justice (if the shoe fits...)

1963 ― First 200-meter freestyle swum in under 2 minutes (Don Schollander 1:58)

1968 ― France becomes world's 5th thermonuclear power

1981 ― Mark David Chapman sentenced to 20 years to life for John Lennon's murder

1991 ― Ukraine declares independence from the USSR