Today in History: August 10

612 B.C.: Ninevah is sacked and razed to the ground, ending the 600-year-old Assyrian Empire.

258 A.D.: The patron of librarians, St. Lawrence, is roasted to death on a grill by Imperial authorities at Rome.

1519: Ferdinand Magellan and five ships set sail from Seville for a voyage around the world.  Only one ship and 18 crew members will complete the voyage.

1792: A mob fomented by the Paris authorities storms the Tuileries Palace and takes King Louis XVI prisoner.

1821: Missouri is admitted to the Union as the 24th state.

1821: Financier Jay Cooke is born at Sandusky, Ohio.  He will go bankrupt in the Panic of 1873, but will eventually pay back every nickel he owed and make a second fortune.

1893: Rudolf Diesel successfully tests the first prototype of the new engine that bears his name.

1909: Clarence Leonidas “Leo” Fender is born at Fullerton, California.  His “Precision” electric bass will revolutionize the music business.

1948: The precursor of modern “reality television” hits ABC Television with Allen Funt’s Candid Microphone.  The name will be changed to Candid Camera a year later when it moves to NBC.

1954: Ground is broken at Massena, New York, for the proposed St. Lawrence Seaway.

1972: Actress Angie Harmon (Assistant DA Abbie Carmichael on TV’s Law and Order) is born at Highland Park, Texas.