AUGUST 24 — LEO FERRÉ
French anarchist songwriter, composer, popular performer.

August 24, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS

England: BARTHOLOMEW FAIR. Originally a 12th-century
cloth fair, opening with the snapping of shears, but by the
15th century it had become a raucous, rowdy pandemonium
of midways, freaks, sideshows, performing animals.
After 1640 London theaters shut down to go perform at the fair.

ALSO ON AUGUST 24 IN HISTORY…
79 — Vesuvius erupts, southern Italy.
1814 — British burn U.S. Capitol building and White House.
1902 — Annales “long-durée” historian Fernand Braudel born, Lunéville, France.
1916 — French anarchist songwriter, composer Leo Ferré born, Monaco.
1943 — French writer, activist Simone Weil dies, Ashford, Kent, England.
1954 — U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower signs Communist Control Act.
1980 — Solidarnosc union founded, Gdansk, Poland, a challenge to Commie rule.