Why August 24th is as unlucky as Friday the 13th

I’m going to include a few non-medieval events today.
On August 24th, 410 AD, the Visigoths sacked Rome, but oddly enough, they apparently were rather humane about it—no bloodbath. And on August 24th, 455 AD, it happened again, or almost did; this time it was the Vandals who were about to sack the city. But after their king met with Pope Leo, the Vandals turned around and left Rome in their dust I saw a movie about this as a child and I remember being fascinated, wanting so much to know what the pope could have said to convince the Vandal king to spare the city. It was disillusioning years later to learn that this mystery was so easily solved—the mother of all bribes.
For years, it was thought that Mt Vesuvius erupted on August 24th, 79 AD, destroying Pompeii and two other towns, but some historians now think it occurred in October. I don’t know which date is correct, but here is an eye-witness account of the tragedy. http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/po...
August 24th, 1113 was the birthday of Count Geoffrey of Anjou, famous for being the father of Henry II and for being the source of the dynasty name Plantagenet; he liked to put a sprig of broom ( planta genista in Latin) in his cap, or so the story goes. Historians and many novelists use the term Plantangenet for convenience, but it was not actually used by the kings themselves until the 15th century; Richard, Duke of York, father of the Yorkist kings Edward IV and Richard III, is believed to have been the first to do so.
August 24th was an important day for King John. He wed the very young Isabelle d’Angouleme on this day in 1200, and in 1215, Pope Innocent III cooperatively declared the Magna Carta null and void on the grounds that John had signed it under duress.
August 24, 1217 is the date of a famous sea battle off Sandwich; the notorious pirate Eustace the Monk was captured and beheaded. One of John’s illegitimate sons, Richard Fitz Roy, a character in my novel Here Be Dragons, was a hero of this battle.
On August 24th, 1349, six thousand Jews were massacred in the German city of Mainz, blamed by the townspeople for the bubonic plague. Many people don’t know that in Germany and France there were horrific pogroms after the plague struck, as the panicked population looked for scapegoats.
On August 24th, 1572, the St Bartholomew’s Day massacre was on-going, one of the bloodier chapters in French history, which I’ve discussed on several occasions this month.
And on August 24th, 1814, the White House was set on fire by the British. We don’t hold a grudge, though!
Looking over this list of events, August 24th seems as unlucky to me as a Friday the 13th. Probably a good day to stay in bed; at least that is going to be my excuse.