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A bit of August 23rd history…
79 - Mt Vesuvius begins stirring, on feast day of Vulcan, Roman god of fire (goes on to destroy Pompeii)
1305 - William Wallace, Scottish patriot, is executed for high treason by Edward I of England
1793 - The French National Convention adopts the levee en masse, conscripting all able bodied men between 18 & 25 for military service during the French Revolution
1990 - US begins call up of 46,000 reservists to the Persian Gulf
2007 - Hashtag invented and 1st used in a tweet by US product designer Chris Messina
2013 - UN inspectors are stopped by Syrian government from investigating a reported site of a chemical massacre
2017 - World’s driest place, the Atacama Desert in Chile, blooms after an unexpected rainfall (pictured)
Today In History: August 23