August 31
is the 243rd day of the year in the
Gregorian calendar (244th in leap years), with 122 days remaining.
*
1056 -
Byzantine Empress Theodora dies suddenly without children to succeed the
throne, ending the
Macedonian dynasty*
1864 -
American Civil War:
Union forces led by General
William T. Sherman launch an assault on
Atlanta, Georgia.
*
1876 -
Ottoman sultan Murat V is deposed and succeeded by his brother
Abd-ul-Hamid II.
*
1886 -
Earthquake kills 100 in
Charleston, South Carolina*
1888 - Mary Ann Nicholls is murdered. She is the first of
Jack the Ripper's known victims
*
1895 - John Brallier is paid
US$10 plus expenses to play football for the
Latrobe, Pennsylvania YMCA, making him the first professional
football player.
*
1897 -
Thomas Edison patents the
Kinetoscope, the first movie projector.
*
1907 -
England,
Russia and
France form the
Triple Entente alliance.
*
1914 -
Ecuador becomes a signatory to the
Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
*
1915 -
Brazil becomes a signatory to the
Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
*
1920 -
Polish-Bolshevik War: A decisive Polish victory in the
Battle of Komarów.
* 1920 - First
news radio program broadcast in
Detroit,
Michigan.
*
1939 -
Nazi Germany mounts a staged
attack on Gleiwitz radio station, giving them an excuse to attack
Poland the following day, starting
World War II in Europe.
*
1943 - The
USS Harmon, the first
U.S. Navy ship to be named for a black person, is commissioned.
*
1945 - The
Liberal Party of Australia is founded by
Robert Menzies.
*
1957 - The
Federation of Malaya gains its independence from the
United Kingdom.
*
1962 -
Trinidad and Tobago become independent.
*
1965 - The
Aero Spacelines Super Guppy Aircraft makes its first flight.
*
1978 -
William and
Emily Harris, founders of the
Symbionese Liberation Army, plead guilty to the
1974 kidnapping of newspaper heiress
Patricia Hearst.
*
1980 - The
Solidarity trade union is formed in Poland.
*
1986 - An
Aeroméxico Douglas DC-9 collides with a
Piper PA-28 over
Cerritos,
California, killing 67 in the air and 15 on the ground.
* 1986 - The
Soviet passenger liner
Admiral Nakhimov sinks in the Black Sea after colliding with the bulk carrier
Pyotr Vasev, killing 398.
*
1991 -
Kyrgyzstan declares its independence from the
Soviet Union.
*
1992 -
Pascal Lissouba is inaugurated as the
President of the
Republic of the Congo after a
multiparty presidential election, ending a long history of one-party oppressive rule under the
Congolese Workers Party.
*
1994 - The
Provisional Irish Republican Army declares a
ceasefire.
*
1997 -
Diana,
Princess of Wales, dies in a
car crash in
Paris.
*
1998 -
North Korea reportedly launchs
Kwangmyongsong, its first
satellite.
*
1999 - The first of a series of
Russian Apartment Bombings in
Moscow, killing one person and wounding 40 others.
*
2005 - A
stampede on
Al-Aaimmah bridge in
Baghdad kills 1,199 people.
*
12 - Gaius
Caligula,
Roman Emperor (d.
41)
*
161 -
Commodus,
Roman Emperor (d.
192)
*
1569 -
Jahangir, Mughal Emperor of India (d.
1627)
*
1663 -
Guillaume Amontons, French physicist and instrument maker (d.
1705)
*
1721 -
George Hervey, 2nd Earl of Bristol, British statesman (d.
1775)
*
1811 -
Theophile Gautier, French poet and novelist (d.
1872)
*
1821 -
Hermann von Helmholtz, German physician (d.
1894)
*
1834 -
Amilcare Ponchielli, Italian composer (d.
1886)
*
1843 -
Georg von Hertling,
Chancellor of Germany (d.
1919)
*
1870 -
Maria Montessori, Italian educator (d.
1952)
*
1871 -
James E. Ferguson, Texan governor
*
1878 -
Frank Jarvis, American athlete (d.
1933)
*
1879 -
Alma Mahler, wife of
Gustav Mahler,
Walter Gropius, and
Franz Werfel (d.
1964)
*
1880 - Queen
Wilhelmina I of the Netherlands (d.
1962)
*
1885 -
DuBose Heyward, American playwright (d.
1940)
*
1897 -
Fredric March, American actor (d.
1975)
*
1903 -
Arthur Godfrey, American television host (d.
1983)
*
1907 -
Ramon Magsaysay,
President of the Philippines (d.
1957)
* 1907 -
William Shawn, American editor (d.
1992)
*
1908 -
William Saroyan, American novelist and playwright (d.
1981)
*
1913 - Sir
Bernard Lovell, British radio astronomer
*
1914 -
Richard Basehart, American actor (d.
1984)
*
1916 -
Daniel Schorr, American journalist
*
1918 -
Alan Jay Lerner, American composer (d.
1986)
*
1924 -
Buddy Hackett, American actor and comedian (d.
2003)
*
1928 -
James Coburn, American actor (d.
2002)
*
1931 -
Noble Willingham, American actor (d.
2004)
*
1935 -
Frank Robinson, baseball player and manager
* 1935 -
Eldridge Cleaver, American political activist (d.
1998)
*
1938 -
Martin Bell, British journalist and politician
*
1944 -
Roger Dean, British contemporary artist and album cover designer
*
1945 -
Van Morrison, Irish musician
* 1945 -
Itzhak Perlman, Israeli violinist
*
1948 -
Lowell Ganz, American screenwriter
* 1948 -
Rudolf Schenker, German guitarist (
Scorpions)
*
1949 -
Richard Gere, American actor
* 1949 -
H. David Politzer, American physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate
*
1953 -
György Károly, Hungarian author
*
1955 -
Edwin Moses, American athlete
*
1956 -
Masashi Tashiro, Japanese television performer
*
1960 -
Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the
Hizballah Terrorist Organization.
*
1961 -
Anri, Japanese singer
*
1963 -
Reb Beach, American rock guitarist (
Winger,
Whitesnake)
*
1968 -
Todd Carty, British actor
*
1970 -
Deborah Gibson, American singer
* 1970 -
Queen Rania, Queen of Jordan and wife of King Abdullah II
*
1972 -
Chris Tucker, American actor
*
1977 -
Jeff Hardy, American professional wrestler
* 1977 -
Ian Harte, Irish Professional Footballer
* 1977 -
Craig Nicholls, Australian singer, songwriter, and guitarist (
The Vines)
*
1979 -
Clay Hensley, Professional baseball player
* 1979 -
Mickie James, American professonal wrestler
*
1980 -
Joe Budden, American rapper
*
1982 -
Jose Reina, Spanish footballer
*
1982 -
Ian Crocker, American swimmer
*
651 -
Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne, Irish bishop and missionary
*
1056 -
Theodora, Byzantine Empress (b.
981)
*
1234 -
Emperor Go-Horikawa of Japan (b.
1212)
*
1372 -
Ralph Stafford, 1st Earl of Stafford, English soldier (b.
1301)
*
1422 - King
Henry V of England (b.
1387)
*
1645 -
Francesco Bracciolini, Italian poet (b.
1566)
*
1654 -
Ole Worm, Danish physician (b.
1588)
*
1688 -
John Bunyan, English writer (b.
1628)
*
1730 -
Gottfried Finger, Czech composer (b.
1660?)
*
1741 -
Johann Gottlieb Heineccius, German jurist (b.
1681)
*
1772 -
William Borlase, English naturalist (b.
1695)
*
1782 -
George Croghan, American colonist
*
1795 -
François-André Danican Philidor, French chess player (b.
1726)
*
1799 -
Nicolas-Henri Jardin, French architect (b.
1720)
*
1814 -
Arthur Phillip, British admiral, first Governor of New South Wales (b.
1738)
*
1867 -
Charles Baudelaire, French poet (b.
1821)
*
1920 -
Wilhelm Wundt, German psychologist (b.
1832)
*
1941 -
Marina Tsvetaeva, Russian poet (b.
1892), hanged herself.
*
1963 -
Georges Braque, French painter (b.
1882)
*
1967 -
Ilya Ehrenburg, Russian writer (b.
1891)
*
1969 -
Rocky Marciano, American boxer (b.
1923)
*
1973 -
John Ford, American film director (b.
1894)
*
1978 -
John Wrathall,
President of Rhodesia (b.
1913)
*
1979 -
Sally Rand, American dancer and actress (b.
1904)
*
1985 -
Frank Macfarlane Burnet, Australian biologist, recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b.
1899)
*
1986 -
Henry Moore, English sculptor (b.
1898)
* 1986 -
Urho Kekkonen,
President of Finland (b.
1900)
*
1997 -
Diana, Princess of Wales (vehicular collision) (b.
1961)
* 1997 -
Dodi Fayed, Egyptian-born film producer (vehicular collision) (b.
1955)
*
2002 -
Lionel Hampton, American vibraphone player (b.
1908)
* 2002 -
George Porter, English chemist,
Nobel Prize laureate (b.
1920)
*
2004 -
Carl Wayne, English singer (b.
1943)
*
2005 -
Joseph Rotblat, Polish-British physicist, recipient of the
Nobel Peace Prize (b.
1908)
* 2005 -
Michael Sheard, British actor (b.
1940)
*
Roman Catholic Saints - Saint
Aidan of Lindisfarne, Saint
San Abbondio, Saint
Raymond Nonnatus*
Moldova: Day of Our Language (Limba Noastra)
*
Malaysia -
Hari Merdeka, a
National Day (
independence within the Commonwealth,
1957)
*
Kyrgyzstan -
Independence Day (from USSR,
1991)
*
Trinidad and Tobago -
Independence Day (from Great Britain,
1962)
*
BBC: On This Day-
August 30 -
September 1 -
July 31 -
September 30 --
listing of all days
