August 31 - Events

Events

• 1056 – Byzantine Empress Theodora becomes ill, dying suddenly a few days later 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.
• 1422 – Henry VI becomes King of England at the age of 9 months.
• 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.
• 1864 – During the American Civil War, Union forces led by General William T. Sherman launch an assaulton 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.
• 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.
• 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 was the first investigation to be conducted under the Bureau of Air Commerce act of 1938.
• 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.
• 1948 – Actor Robert Mitchum is arrested in a Hollywood drug raid. He would later be found guilty of criminal conspiracy to possessmarijuana and sentenced to 60 days in prison.
• 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.
• 1978 – William and Emily Harris, founders of the Symbionese Liberation Army, plead guilty to the 1974 kidnapping of newspaper heiressPatty Hearst.
• 1980 – Zimbabwe establishes diplomatic relations with Algeria.
• 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.
• 1991 – Kyrgyzstan declares its independence from the Soviet Union.
• 1992 – Pascal Lissouba is inaugurated as the President of the Republic of the Congo .
• 1993 – HMS Mercury closes after 52 years in commission.
• 1994 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army declares a ceasefire.
• 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, 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 2 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.