Today in History - August 24th, 2013
1814 - The British captured Washington and burned the Capitol building and the White House.
1932 - Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly non-stop across the United States.
1987 - A U.S. appeals court in Cincinnati ruled public schools could require students to study textbooks not accepted by religious fundamentalists.
1990 - Irish-British hostage Brian Keenan, held by pro-Iranian Muslim extremists in Lebanon for more than four years, was freed.
1991 - Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev quit as general secretary of the Communist Party central committee. He also ordered his Cabinet to resign.
1992 - Hurricane Andrew smashed into Florida south of Miami with sustained winds of up to 145 mph, carving a path of destruction.
1995 - Beijing convicted and then expelled Chinese-American human rights activist Harry Wu, arrested in June while trying to enter China from Kazakhstan.
1996 - Four women became students at The Citadel, a military school in South Carolina that had fought in court to remain all-male.
2004 - Two Russian passenger jetliners crashed within minutes of each other after taking off from Domodedovo Airport in Moscow. A total of 89 people were killed.
2005 - U.S. President George Bush vowed in an Idaho speech that he wouldn't retreat from Iraq or the rest of the Middle East until U.S. troops win the war on terror.
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