August 24

1814: British forces captured Washington, D.C., and burned down many landmarks including the Capitol and the White House. 1832: Sadi Carnot, who investigated the efficiencies of steam engines and whom the Carnot Cycle is named after, died. 1888: Rudolf Clausius, who developed the 2nd law of thermodynamics, died. 1891: Thomas Edison patented his motion picture camera. 1909: The first concrete was poured for the Panama Canal. 1932: Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly non-stop across the United States. 1956: A U.S. Army H-21 helicopter became the first rotary-winged aircraft to fly non-stop across the United States. 1966: The USSR launched the Luna 11, which orbited the Moon while for the first time keeping in constant radio contact with earth. 1968: France exploded a hydrogen bomb over a South Pacific testing ground and became the world's 5th thermonuclear power. 1992: China and South Korea established diplomatic ties. 1995: Windows 95 debuted - I remember standing outside Office Depot waiting for the doors to open. 1997: Louis Essen, who invented the quartz crystal ring clock and the first practical atomic clock, died.