August 31

Independence Day
Kyrgyzstan : August 31 1991
Malaysia : August 31 1957
Trinidad and Tobago : August 31 1962

Events August 31

1056 – After a sudden illness a few days previous, Byzantine Empress Theodora dies without children to succeed the throne, thus ending the Macedonian dynasty.
1218 – Al-Kamil becomes Sultan of Egypt, Syria and northern Mesopotamia on the death of his father Al-Adil.
1314 – King Håkon V Magnusson moves the capital of Norway from Bergen to Oslo.
1422 – King Henry V of England dies of dysentery while in France. His son, Henry VI becomes King of England at the age of 9 months.
1795 – War of the First Coalition: The British capture Trincomalee (present-day Sri Lanka) from the Dutch in order to keep it out of French hands.
1803 – Lewis and Clark start their expedition to the west by leaving Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at 11 in the morning.
1813 – At the final stage of the Peninsular War, British-Portuguese troops capture the town of Donostia (now San Sebastián), resulting in a rampage and eventual destruction of the town. Elsewhere, Spanish troops repel a French attack in the Battle of San Marcial.
1864 – During the 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 – An earthquake kills 100 in Charleston, South Carolina.
1888 – Mary Ann Nichols is murdered. She is the first of Jack the Ripper's confirmed victims.
1895 – German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin patents his Navigable Balloon.
1897 – Thomas Edison patents the Kinetoscope, the first movie projector.
1907 – Count Alexander Izvolsky and Sir Arthur Nicolson sign the St. Petersburg Convention, which results in the Triple Entente alliance.
1920 – Polish-Bolshevik War: a decisive Polish victory in the Battle of Komarów.
1920 – The first radio news program is broadcast by 8MK in Detroit, Michigan.
1936 – Radio Prague, now the official international broadcasting station of the Czech Republic, goes on the air.
1939 – Nazi Germany mounts a staged attack on the Gleiwitz radio station, creating an excuse to attack Poland the following day thus starting World War II in Europe.
1940 – Pennsylvania Central Airlines Trip 19 crashes near Lovettsville, Virginia. The CAB investigation of the accident is the first investigation to be conducted under the Bureau of Air Commerce act of 1938.
1941 – World War II: Serbian paramilitary forces defeat Germans in the Battle of Loznica.
1943 – The USS Harmon, the first U.S. Navy ship to be named after a black person, is commissioned.
1945 – The Liberal Party of Australia is founded by Robert Menzies.
1949 – The retreat of the Democratic Army of Greece in Albania after its defeat on Gramos mountain marks the end of the Greek Civil War.
1957 – The Federation of Malaya (now Malaysia) gains its independence from the United Kingdom.
1958 – A parcel bomb sent by Ngo Dinh Nhu, younger brother and chief adviser of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem, fails to kill King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia.
1962 – Trinidad and Tobago becomes independent.
1963 – Sarawak, North Borneo and Singapore achieve technical independence pending accession to the Federation of Malaysia
1965 – The Aero Spacelines Super Guppy aircraft makes its first flight.
1980 – After two weeks of nationwide strikes, the Polish government was forced to sign the Gdańsk Agreement, allowing for the creation of the trade union Solidarity.
1980 – Flood in Ibadan after 12 hours of heavy downpour killed over 300 people and properties worth million destroyed.
1982 – Anti-government demonstrations are held in 66 Polish cities to commemorate the second anniversary of the Gdańsk Agreement.
1986 – Aeroméxico Flight 498 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 423.
1987 – Thai Airways Flight 365 crashes into the ocean near Ko Phuket, Thailand, killing all 83 aboard.
1991 – Kyrgyzstan declares its independence from the Soviet Union.
1992 – Pascal Lissouba is inaugurated as the President of the Republic of the Congo.
1994 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army declares a ceasefire.
1996 – Saddam Hussein's troops seized Irbil after the Kurdish Masoud Barzani appealed for help to defeat his Kurdish rival PUK.
1997 – Diana, Princess of Wales, her companion Dodi Al-Fayed and driver Henri Paul die in a car crash in Paris.
1998 – North Korea reportedly launches Kwangmyŏngsŏng-1, its first satellite.
1999 – The first of a series of bombings in Moscow kills one person and wounds 40 others.
1999 – A LAPA Boeing 737-200 crashes during takeoff from Jorge Newbury Airport in Buenos Aires, killing 65, including two on the ground.
2005 – A stampede on Al-Aaimmah bridge in Baghdad kills 1,199 people.
2006 – Stolen on August 22, 2004, Edvard Munch's famous painting The Scream is recovered in a raid by Norwegian police.

Holidays and observances

Christian Feast Day:
Aidan of Lindisfarne
Raymond Nonnatus
August 31 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Day of Solidarity and Freedom (Poland)
Day of Our Language or Limba Noastra (Moldova)
Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Kyrgyzstan from the Soviet Union in 1991
Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Malaysia from the United Kingdom in 1957.
Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Trinidad and Tobago from the United Kingdom in 1962.

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