August 31 - Definition and Overview

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

1000-1899

• 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. [1] (http://www.ngeorgia.com/history/jonesboro.html)
• 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.

1900-1999

• 1907 - England, Russia and France form the Triple Entente alliance.
• 1920 - First news radio program broadcast in Detroit, Michigan.
• 1931 - Production of Ford Motor Company's Model A ends, with 4.3 million produced.
• 1939 - The staged attack on Gleiwitz radio station occurs, giving Nazi Germany an excuse to attack Poland the following day, starting World War II.
• 1943 - The USS Harmon, the first U.S. Navy ship to be named for a black person, is commissioned.
• 1957 - Malaya gains its independence from the United Kingdom.
• 1962 - Trinidad and Tobago becomes independent.
• 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.
• 1985 - Richard Ramirez, the "Night Stalker" serial killer, is arrested in Los Angeles, California.
• 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.
• 1989 - Buckingham Palace officials confirms that Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips are to be separated.
• 1991 - Kyrgyzstan declares its independence from the Soviet Union.
• 1992 - Pascal Lissouba was 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.

2000-2099

• 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

1-1899

• 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)

1900-1999

• 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, Israeli violinist
• 1948 - Lowell Ganz, screenwriter and TV sitcom creator/writer
• 1949 - Richard Gere, actor
• 1949 - H. David Politzer, physicist
• 1958 - Edwin Moses, Olympic Games gold medalist in track and field
• 1968 - Todd Carty, British actor
• 1970 - Debbie Gibson, singer
• 1972 - Chris Tucker, actor

Deaths

600-1899

• 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

1900-1999

• 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

2000-2099

• 2002 - Lionel Hampton, vibraphone virtuoso (b. 1908)
• 2004 - Carl Wayne, singer

Holidays and observances

• Malaysia: National Day
• Independence Day for Trinidad and Tobago (1962)
• Moldova: Day of Our Language (Limba Noastra)

August 30 - September 1 - July 31 - September 30 -- listing of all days