| 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.
For details, contact Datacentre
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