Aug. 24. 1814: British troops burn the Capitol and the White House after US troops, fleeing so fast that only eight of them were killed, left Washington, D.C. virtually undefended.

Aug. 25. 1819: Birth of Allen Pinkerton, whose strike breaking detectives ("Pinks") gave us the word "fink." Today, Pinkerton is not only, globally, a leading private security corporation, but in the forefront of building and managing private prisons.

Aug. 26. 1937: African American singer Bessie Smith dies after being refused treatment by a whites-only hospital, Clarksdale, Mississippi.

Aug. 27. 1903: A squadron of US troops ordered to Beirut "to protect US interests." 1927: Paris: Thousands turn out for violent protests over deaths of Sacco and Vanzetti.

Aug. 28. 1919: Seattle mayor demands "hang or incarcerate all anarchists for life." 1955: Emmett Till, a Detroit teenager visiting relatives in Mississippi, is tortured and killed for allegedly talking to a white woman in an "improper" way.

Aug. 29. 1758: First Indian reservation established. 1957: 2,300 people watch Nevada nuclear test on-site, so US Army can test the effects. Some observers later develop cancer.

Aug. 30. 1971: Ten empty school buses are blown up in Pontiac, Michigan only eight days before the daily bussing of 8,700 children to achieve racial balance in the city's schools was scheduled to begin.

Aug. 31. 1925: US Marines end eleven-year occupation of Haiti. The dictatorship they leave in place continues to pillage and murder Haitians for another 60 years, rendering destitute what was once the wealthiest country in the Western Hemisphere.

Sep. 1. 1807: Aaron Burr acquitted of charges of plotting to set up an empire. 1919: Communist Party USA founded.

Sep. 2. 1666: "Great Fire" in London rages. Before it was finally extinguished four days later, it destroyed almost 14,000 buildings, leaving 200,000 homeless. Four-fifths of the city was left in ashes.

Sep. 3. 1752: This day never happened--nor the next ten--as England adopts the Gregorian Calendar. People riot, thinking the government stole 11 days of their lives. True, but it was more days than that. 1813: "Uncle Sam" image used for the first time, in Troy (NY) Post.

Sep. 4. 1639: US's first prohibition law, outlawing the drinking of toasts, passed in Massachusetts. The law was repealed in 1645 as unenforceable.

Sep. 5. 1877: Crazy Horse assassinated at Fort Robinson, Nebraska, at age 33, bayoneted by a US soldier after allegedly resisting confinement in a jail cell. 1972: Palestinian terrorists seize nine athletes of the Israeli Olympic team, who are then shot dead by police during a rescue attempt. Munich, West Germany.

Sep. 6. 1522: One of Ferdinand Magellan's five ships, the Victoria, returns to Spain, thus completing the first successful circumnavigation of the world. Magellan, a Portuguese navigator employed by Spain, set out from Seville three years earlier with 265 men, but only 15 survived the journey. Magellan himself was killed by angry natives in the Philippines, but it was too little, too late.