31 August
August 31 is the 243rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (244th in leap years), with 122 days remaining, as the final day of August.
Events
- 1056 - Byzantine Empress Theodora died suddenly without children to succeed the throne, ending the Macedonian dynasty
- 1864 - American Civil War: Union forces led by General William T. Sherman launched an assault on Atlanta, Georgia, defended by troops under Confederate General John Bell Hood.
- 1876 - Ottoman sultan Murat V was deposed and succeeded by his brother Abd-ul-Hamid II.
- 1886 - Earthquake kills 100 in Charleston, South Carolina
- 1888 - Mary Ann Nichols is murdered. She is perhaps the first of Jack the Ripper's victims
- 1897 - Thomas Edison patents the Kinetoscope, the first movie camera
- 1907 - England, Russia and France form the Triple Entente
- 1920 - First radio news programme broadcast in Detroit, Michigan
- 1939 - Attack on Sender Gleiwitz: an excuse used by Nazi Germany to attack Poland the following day, starting World War II.
- 1943 - Commissioning of USS Harmon, the first United States Navy ship to be named for an African American sailor.
- 1957 - Malaya gains independence from the United Kingdom
- 1962 - Trinidad and Tobago becomes independent
- 1978 - Symbionese Liberation Army founders William and Emily Harris plead guilty to 1974 kidnapping of newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst
- 1980 - Solidarity labor union formed in Poland
- 1985 - Richard Ramirez, the "Night Stalker" killer, is arrested in Los Angeles, California
- 1986 - An Aeroméxico Douglas DC-9 collides with a Piper PA-28 over Cerritos, California killing 82, including 15 on the ground
- 1989 - Buckingham Palace confirms that Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips are to be separated.
- 1991 - Kyrgyzstan declares independence from the USSR
- 1992 - Pascal Lissouba was inaugurated as the President of the Republic of the Congo after a multi-party presidential election, ending a long history of one-party Marxist rule.
- 1994 - Irish Republican Army declares a cease-fire
- 1997 - Diana, Princess of Wales dies in a car crash in Paris
- 1999 - The first of a series of Russian Apartment Bombings in Moscow, killed one person and wounded 40 others.
- 2004 - Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ is released on DVD and VHS in stores across the United States, selling approximately 4.1 million copies by the end of the day.
Births
- 12 - Gaius Caligula, Roman Emperor (d. 41)
- 161 - Commodus, Roman Emperor (d. 192)
- 1811 - Theophile Gautier, poet, novelist (d. 1872)
- 1834 - Amilcare Ponchielli, Italian composer
- 1870 - Maria Montessori, educator (d. 1952)
- 1878 - Frank Jarvis, American athlete (d. 1933)
- 1879 - Alma Mahler, composer (d. 1964)
- 1880 - Queen Wilhelmina I of the Netherlands (d. 1962)
- 1885 - DuBose Heyward, playwright (d. 1940)
- 1897 - Fredric March, actor (d. 1975)
- 1903 - Arthur Godfrey, television host (d. 1983)
- 1907 - William Shawn, editor
- 1907 - Ramon Magsaysay, Philippine president
- 1908 - William Saroyan, novelist, playwright (d. 1981)
- 1914 - Richard Basehart, actor (d. 1984)
- 1916 - Daniel Schorr, journalist
- 1918 - Alan Jay Lerner, composer
- 1924 - Buddy Hackett, actor, comedian
- 1928 - James Coburn, actor (d. 2002)
- 1935 - Frank Robinson, baseball player, manager
- 1935 - Eldridge Cleaver, political activist (d. 1998)
- 1938 - Martin Bell, British journalist and politician
- 1945 - Van Morrison, musician
- 1945 - Itzhak Perlman, musician
- 1948 - Lowell Ganz, screenwriter and TV sitcom creator/writer
- 1949 - Richard Gere, actor
- 1958 - Edwin Moses, Olympic Games gold medalist in track and field
- 1970 - Debbie Gibson, singer
- 1972 - Chris Tucker, actor
Deaths
- 651 - Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne, Irish bishop and missionary.
- 1422 - Henry V of England, king
- 1688 - John Bunyan, poet
- 1867 - Charles Baudelaire, writer
- 1888 - Mary Ann Nicholls, first confirmed victim of Jack the Ripper
- 1941 - Marina Tsvetaeva, poet
- 1969 - Rocky Marciano, boxer
- 1973 - John Ford, film director
- 1979 - Sally Rand, stripper
- 1985 - Frank Macfarlane Burnet, biologist
- 1986 - Henry Moore, sculptor
- 1986 - Urho Kekkonen, president of Finland
- 1997 - Diana, Princess of Wales
- 1997 - Dodi Fayed, film producer
- 2002 - Lionel Hampton, vibraphone virtuoso (b. 1908)
- 2004 - Carl Wayne, singer
Holidays and observances
August 30 - September 1 - July 31 - September 30 -- listing of all days
