August 24: Mount Vesuvius

Mount Vesuvius erupted today in 79 CE, obliterating the city of Pompeii on its slopes, and killing anywhere from 3 to 10,000 people within hours (estimates vary widely). Following an earlier eruption in 62 CE, the poet Seneca had ominously warned, "The Earth will go up in smoke" - but volcanic activity at Vesuvius was considered normal, and went ignored in the years afterward.

Early Christians saw the destruction of Pompeii as a sign of god's wrath against the Roman Empire. Revelation 8:8-9 seems to be a reference to the Vesuvius eruption:

The second angel sounded, and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea; and a third of the sea became blood, and a third of the creatures which were in the sea and had life, died; and a third of the ships were destroyed.