Mars makes its closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years, passing 34,646,418 miles (55,758,005 km) distant.

Mars and Earth have varying distances between them due to their elliptical orbits around the Sun. The closest approach of Mars to Earth is called “opposition,” which occurs when Mars and the Sun are on opposite sides of Earth. During opposition, Mars and Earth are relatively close, making it an optimal time for observing Mars from Earth.

On average, Mars is about 225 million kilometers (140 million miles) away from Earth. However, during opposition, the distance between the two planets can be significantly reduced. The closest recorded distance in recent history occurred on August 27, 2003, when Mars was about 54.6 million kilometers (33.9 million miles) away from Earth. This was an unusually close approach and won’t be matched until September 2035, when Mars will again come relatively close to Earth.

The first edition of the Guinness Book of Records is published in Great Britain

Hurricane Irene strikes the United States east coast, killing 47 and causing an estimated $15.6 billion in damage

First day of the Sarny Massacre, perpetrated by Germans and Ukrainians.

The sacking of Rome by the Visigoths ends after three days.

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The sacking of Rome by the Visigoths ends after three days.

On August 27, 410, Visigoths from eastern Europe ended a three-day sack of the city of Rome, now the capital of Italy. This was the first time Rome had been sacked, or defeated and looted, in nearly 800 years. The Visigoth Sack of Rome is considered a major event in the fall of the Roman Empire and the slow move from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages.

By the time the Visigoths, led by Alaric, entered the city, Rome had already lost its political position in its former empire. The empire itself had split in two. Real power rested in the Eastern Roman Empire also called the Byzantine Empire whose capital was Constantinople, what is today Istanbul, Turkey. The capital of the Western Roman Empire had moved to Ravenna, about 350 kilometers northeast of Rome.

The Visigoths themselves were not entirely different from Romans. In fact, Alaric had tried to join forces with the Western Roman Empire for years. Like most Romans, Visigoths were Christians, and gathered and protected Christian treasures in St. Peter’s Basilica, now part of Vatican City in Rome.

Still, Rome remained an influential cultural symbol. At its height, the Roman Empire stretched from the entire Mediterranean basin to the beaches of the North Sea in the north, to the shores of the Red and Caspian Seas in the East. “The City which had taken the whole world was itself taken,” wrote St. Jerome of the sacking in 412.

Hurricane Irene reaches land on the United States east coast, killing 47 and causing causing an estimated $15.6 billion in damage.

Hurricane Irene strikes land on the United States east coast. Forty seven are killed.

The Rainbow Bridge that connects Tokyo’s Shibaura and the island of Odaiba, is finished.