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