Today is the anniversary of both the destruction of Pompeii in AD79 and the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre of 1572.
For the Romans, the Pompeii incident was very much like a hurricane Katrina. For an excellent fictionalized account, Robert Harris' Pompeii is book worth reading.
And for the Protestants in France, this day was every bit a September 11.
And with the massacre in 1572, this was a terrible event during the Wars of Religion which burdened France for decades. It was Roman Catholic vs. Reformed/Calvinistic Huguenot. It's a sad story both in what the Huguenots suffered and also in how misguided they were in what they were trying to accomplish. They paid a terrible price and their vision was utterly destroyed in 1685, when the 'sun-king', the wicked Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes and the Huguenots were persecuted and largely driven out of France. There are some very moving stories from that period and many great deeds. Claude Brousson's ministry has been called apostolic and the stories are truly amazing. He was burned at the stake in the end.
August 24 is day with some interesting history.