August 31: Day of the year

August 31 is the 243rd day of the year (244th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 122 days remaining until the end of the year.

It is the last day of the second third of the year.

Up to 1900

• 1056 – Byzantine Empress Theodora dies suddenly without children to succeed the throne, ending the Macedonian dynasty.
• 1314 – Norway's capital is moved from Bergen to Oslo.
• 1422 – King Henry V of England dies in France from dysentery. Henry VI of England becomes king of England at the age of just under nine months.
• 1798 – Irish Rebellion of 1798: Irish rebels, with French assistance, establish the short-lived Republic of Connacht.
• 1803 – Meriwether Lewis and William Clark start their expedition west by leaving Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at 11 in the morning.
• 1812 – Troop transporter Salvador runs aground on the Rio de la Plata, between Argentina and Uruguay, killing 470 people, of the 600 on board.
• 1813 – At the final stage of the Peninsular War, British and Portuguese forces capture Donostia, now known as San Sebastian, in the Basque Country, resulting in a rampage and eventual destruction of the town.
• 1848 – Costa Rica becomes independent from the Federal Republic of Central America.
• 1864 – 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 Nicholls is murdered. She is perhaps the first of Jack the Ripper's victims
• 1895 – John Brallier is paid US$10 plus expenses to play football for the Latrobe, Pennsylvania YMCA, making him the first professional football player.
• 1897 – Thomas Edison patents the Kinetoscope, the first movie projector.
• 1897 – Initiated by Theodor Herzl, the Zionist World Congress in Basel, Switzerland, calls for the creation of a Jewish state.

1901 – 2000

• 1907 – England, Russia and France form the Triple Entente alliance.
• 1914 – Ecuador becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires Convention.
• 1915 – Brazil becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires Convention.
• 1920 – Polish-Bolshevik War: A decisive Polish victory in the Battle of Komarów.
• 1920 – First news radio program broadcast in Detroit, Michigan.
• 1931 – Production of Ford Motor Company's Model A ends, with 4.3 million produced.
• 1936 – Radio Praha, now the official international broadcasting station of the Czech Republic, goes on the air.
• 1939 – Nazi Germany mounts a staged attack on Gleiwitz radio station, giving them an excuse to attack Poland the following day, starting World War II.
• 1940 – Pennsylvania Central Airlines Trip 19 crashes near Lovettsville, Virginia.
• 1941 – World War II: Serbian paramilitary forces defeat German forces in the Battle of Loznica.
• 1943 – The USS Harmon, the first U.S. Navy ship to be named for a black person, is commissioned.
• 1945 – The Liberal Party of Australia is formed by Robert Menzies.
• 1949 – The Greek Civil War ends.
• 1950 – East Germany bans Jehovah's Witnesses from practising their faith.
• 1951 – The Dominican Republic records its highest-ever temperature, at 43 degrees Celsius.
• 1953 – The city of Santander in Northern Spain opens its new airport.
• 1957 – The Federation of Malaya gains its independence from the United Kingdom.
• 1958 – An assassination attempt on King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia fails, when a parcel bomb sent by Ngo Dinh Nhu, brother and advisor to Ngo Dinh Diem, fails to detonate.
• 1962 – Trinidad and Tobago become independent.
• 1963 – Sarawak, North Borneo and Singapore achieve technical independence, pending accession to the Federation of Malaya.
• 1968 – An earthquake in Iran kills at least 12,000 people.
• 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.
• 1980 – Heavy rain causes flooding in Ibadan, Nigeria, killing over 300 people.
• 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.
• 1986 – The Soviet passenger liner Admiral Nakhimov sinks in the Black Sea after colliding with the bulk carrier Pyotr Vasev, killing 398.
• 1987 – Thai Airways Flight 365 crashes into the ocean near Ko Phuket, Thailand, killing all 83 people on board.
• 1989 – Buckingham Palace officials confirm that Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips are to be separated.
• 1990 – The plan for German unity is signed in Berlin.
• 1991 – Kyrgyzstan declares its independence from the Soviet Union.
• 1992 – Pascal Lissouba is 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.
• 1996 – Saddam Hussein's troops seize Irbil, Iraq, after Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani had asked for help to defeat the Kurdish PKK.
• 1997 – Diana, Princess of Wales, dies in a car crash in Paris.
• 1998 – North Korea reportedly launches Kwangmyongsong, its first satellite.
• 1999 – A LAPA Boeing 737-200 crashes during take-off from Jorge Newbury Airport, Buenos Aires, Argentina, killing 65 people, including 2 on the ground.
• 1999 – The first of a series of Russian Apartment Bombings in Moscow, killing one person and wounding 40 others.

From 2001

• 2001 – PBS airs the final episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood with host Fred Rogers retiring.
• 2004 – Mel Gibson's movie 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.
• 2005 – A stampede at the Al-Aimmah Bridge in Baghdad kills 1,199 people.
• 2005 – Football: An early-round FA Cup match in England sets the record for the most penalty kicks taken. It took 40 such kicks to separate Tunbridge Wells and Littlehampton Town.
• 2006 – Edvard Munch's painting The Scream is recovered in a police raid, more than two years after it was stolen.
• 2010 – Iraq War officially ends.
• 2016 – Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is impeached and removed from office; Michel Temer succeeds her as president.
• 2018 – A six-hour-long funeral takes place for American soul singer Aretha Franklin in Detroit, Michigan.
• 2023 – A fire in Johannesburg kills 77 people.

Up to 1900

• 12 – Gaius Caligula, Roman Emperor (d. 41)
• 161 – Commodus, Roman Emperor (d. 192)
• 1018 – Jeongjong II of Goryeo, Korean ruler (d. 1046)
• 1168 – Emperor Zhangzong of Jin (d. 1208)
• 1542 – Isabella de' Medici, Italian princess (d. 1576)
• 1569 – Jahangir, Indian Mughal Emperor (d. 1627)
• 1602 – Amalia of Solms-Braunfels, wife of Frederick, Prince of Orange (d. 1675)
• 1663 – Guillaume Amontons, French physicist and instrument maker (d. 1705)
• 1721 – George Hervey, 2nd Earl of Bristol, British statesman (d. 1775)
• 1741 – Jean Paul Egide Martini, French composer (d. 1816)
• 1741 – John Houstoun, American politician, Governor of Georgia (d. 1796)
• 1748 – Jean Etienne Despreaux, French dancer, choreographer, composer, singer and playwright (d. 1820)
• 1749 – Alexander Radishchev, Russian philosopher and writer (d. 1802)
• 1760 – Peter Joseph Triest, Belgian canon of the Roman Catholic Church (d. 1836)
• 1767 – Henry Joy McCracken, Irish activist (d. 1798)
• 1786 – Michel Eugène Chevreul, French chemist (d. 1889)
• 1797 – James Ferguson, Scottish astronomer and engineer (d. 1867)
• 1811 – Theophile Gautier, French poet and novelist (d. 1872)
• 1821 – Hermann von Helmholtz, German scientist (d. 1894)
• 1822 – Galusha M. Grow, 28th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (d. 1907)
• 1834 – Amilcare Ponchielli, Italian composer (d. 1886)
• 1837 – Frederick Walter Pikin, Governor of Colorado (d. 1886)
• 1842 – Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, American publisher, journalist and activist (d. 1924)
• 1843 – Georg von Hertling, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1919)
• 1853 – Alexei Alekseyevich Brusilov, Russian general (d. 1926)
• 1866 – Elizabeth von Arnim, Australian-English writer (d. 1941)
• 1870 – Maria Montessori, Italian physician and educator (d. 1952)
• 1871 – James E. Ferguson, 26th Governor of Texas (d. 1944)
• 1871 – Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg (d. 1955)
• 1874 – Edward Thorndike, American psychologist (d. 1949)
• 1878 – Frank Jarvis, American athlete (d. 1933)
• 1879 – Alma Mahler, wife of Gustav Mahler, Walter Gropius, and Franz Werfel (d. 1964)
• 1879 – Emperor Taisho, Emperor of Japan (d. 1926)
• 1880 – Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands (d. 1962)
• 1882 – Harry Porter, American high jumper (d. 1965)
• 1885 – DuBose Heyward, American playwright (d. 1940)
• 1891 – Martin Sennet Conner, 44th Governor of Mississippi (d. 1950)
• 1893 – Raymond E. Baldwin, Governor of Connecticut (d. 1986)
• 1897 – Fredric March, American actor (d. 1975)
• 1900 – Gino Lucetti, Italian anarchist, attempted assassin of Benito Mussolini (d. 1943)

1901 – 1950

• 1903 – Vladimir Jankelevitch, French philosopher and musicologist (d. 1985)
• 1903 – Arthur Godfrey, American television host (d. 1983)
• 1907 – William Shawn, American editor (d. 1992)
• 1907 – Ramon Magsaysay, President of the Philippines (d. 1957)
• 1907 – Altiero Spinelli, Italian politician (d. 1986)
• 1908 – William Saroyan, American novelist and playwright (d. 1981)
• 1909 – Ferenc Fejto, Hungarian-French journalist and political scientist (d. 2008)
• 1913 – Bernard Lovell, English radio astronomer and physicist (d. 2012)
• 1913 – Helen Levitt, American photographer (d. 2009)
• 1914 – Richard Basehart, American actor (d. 1984)
• 1916 – Robert Hanbury Brown, English astronomer and physicist (d. 2002)
• 1916 – Daniel Schorr, American journalist (d. 2010)
• 1918 – Alan Jay Lerner, American composer (d. 1986)
• 1924 – Buddy Hackett, American actor and comedian (d. 2003)
• 1925 – Katyna Ranieri, Italian actress and singer (d. 2018)
• 1928 – James Coburn, American actor (d. 2002)
• 1928 – Jaime Sin, Filipino cardinal (d. 2005)
• 1931 – Jean Beliveau, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2014)
• 1931 – Brita Koivunen, Finnish singer (d. 2014)
• 1931 – Noble Willingham, American actor (d. 2004)
• 1932 – Roy Castle, English actor, singer and dancer (d. 1994)
• 1935 – Frank Robinson, American baseball player and manager
• 1935 – Eldridge Cleaver, American political activist (d. 1998)
• 1936 – Vladimir Orlov, Russian author (d. 2014)
• 1937 – Gilles Latulippe, Canadian comedian, author and theatre manager (d. 2014)
• 1937 – Warren Berlinger, American actor
• 1937 – Bobby Parker, American guitarist
• 1938 – Martin Bell, British journalist and politician
• 1940 – Wilton Felder, American jazz saxophonist (d. 2015)
• 1940 – Alain Calmat, French figure skater
• 1942 – Isao Aoki, Japanese golfer
• 1944 – Roger Denn, English artist, designer, architect and publisher
• 1945 – Bob Welch, American musician (d. 2012)
• 1945 – Van Morrison, Northern Irish musician
• 1945 – Itzhak Perlman, Israeli violinist
• 1945 – Leonid Popov, Soviet-Ukrainian cosmonaut
• 1946 – Ann Coffey, Scottish politician
• 1947 – Somchai Wongsawat, former Prime Minister of Thailand
• 1947 – Mona Marshall, American voice actress
• 1948 – Holger Osieck, German football coach
• 1948 – Harald Ertl, Austrian racing driver (d. 1982)
• 1948 – Lowell Ganz, screenwriter
• 1948 – Rudolf Schenker, German musician (Scorpions)
• 1949 – Richard Gere, American actor
• 1949 – Hugh David Politzer, American physicist

1951 – 1975

• 1952 – Kim Kashkashian, Armenian-American violist
• 1953 – Pavel Vingradov, Russian cosmonaut
• 1954 – Robert Kocharian, former President of Armenia
• 1955 – Edwin Moses, American athlete
• 1956 – Tsai Ing-wen, President of the Republic of China
• 1956 – Mark Mangini, American sound editor
• 1956 – Masashi Tashiro, Japanese television performer
• 1959 – Ralph Krueger, Canadian ice hockey coach
• 1960 – Chris Whitley, American musician
• 1960 – Vali Ionescu, Romanian long jumper
• 1960 – Hassan Nasrallah, Lebanese leader of Hezbollah
• 1962 – Dee Bradley Baker, American actor
• 1963 – Todd Carty, Irish actor
• 1965 – Zsolt Borkai, Hungarian gymnast
• 1966 – Jan Einar Thorsen, Norwegian alpine skier
• 1967 – Anna Moen, Norwegian skier
• 1968 – Valdon Dowiyogo, Nauruan politician
• 1968 – Derek Whyte, Scottish footballer
• 1969 – Jonathan LaPaglia, Australian actor
• 1969 – Andrew Cunanan, American serial killer (d. 1997)
• 1970 – Debbie Gibson, American singer
• 1970 – Queen Rania of Jordan, Jordanian Queen
• 1970 – Nikola Gruevski, Macedonian politician
• 1970 – Arie van Lent, Dutch-German footballer
• 1971 – Padraig Harrington, Irish golfer
• 1971 – Junior Jack, Italian music producer and DJ
• 1972 – Chris Tucker, American actor

From 1976

• 1976 – Roque Junior, Brazilian footballer
• 1976 – Radek Martinek, Czech ice hockey player
• 1976 – Lucy Speed, British actress
• 1977 – Craig Nicholls, American singer, songwriter, and guitarist (The Vines)
• 1977 – Jeff Hardy, American professional wrestler
• 1979 – Simon Neil, Scottish singer and guitarist (Biffy Clyro)
• 1980 – Joe Budden, American rapper
• 1981 – Dwayne Peel, Welsh rugby player
• 1982 – Christopher Katongo, Zambian footballer
• 1982 – José Manuel Reina, Spanish footballer
• 1982 – Alexei Mikhnov, Ukrainian-Russian ice hockey player
• 1982 – Chris Duhon, American basketball player
• 1984 – Ted Ligety, American skier
• 1984 – Ryan Kesler, American ice hockey player
• 1985 – Rolando, Portuguese footballer
• 1985 – Ashley Hartman, American actress and model
• 1985 – Mohammad bin Salman, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia
• 1986 – Ryan Kelley, American actor
• 1987 – Ondrej Pavelec, Czech ice hockey player
• 1988 – David Ospina, Colombian footballer
• 1990 – Gary Mackay-Steven, Scottish footballer
• 1991 – Shi Tingmao, Chinese diver
• 1998 – Saya Kawamoto, Japanese idol and singer
• 2017 – Prince Gabriel, Duke of Dalarna, Swedish royal

Up to 1900

• 577 – John Scholasticus, Patriarch of Constantinople
• 651 – Aidan of Lindisfarne, Irish bishop and missionary
• 683 – Pacal II, Mayan ruler (b. 603)
• 1056 – Byzantine Empress Theodora (b. 981)
• 1158 – Sancho I of Castile (b. 1134)
• 1234 – Emperor Go-Horikawa of Japan (b. 1212)
• 1422 – King Henry V of England (b. 1387)
• 1654 – Ole Worm, Danish physician (b. 1588)
• 1688 – John Bunyan, English writer (b. 1628)
• 1724 – Louis I of Spain (b. 1707)
• 1741 – Johann Gottlieb Heineccius, German jurist (b. 1681)
• 1762 – Emperor Momozono of Japan (b. 1741)
• 1772 – William Borlase, English naturalist (b. 1695)
• 1799 – Nicolas-Henri Jardin, French architect (b. 1720)
• 1811 – Louis Antoine de Bougainville, French explorer (b. 1729)
• 1814 – Arthur Phillip, British admiral, first Governor of New South Wales (b. 1738)
• 1864 – Ferdinand Lassalle, German writer and politician (b. 1825)
• 1867 – Charles Baudelaire, French poet (b. 1821)
• 1888 – Mary Ann Nichols, victim of Jack the Ripper (b. 1845)

1901 – 2000

• 1920 – Wilhelm Wundt, German psychologist (b. 1832)
• 1920 – Jens Oliver Lisberg, Faroese law student (b. 1896)
• 1924 – Todor Aleksandrov, Bulgarian revolutionary (b. 1881)
• 1927 – William Frank Carver, American target shooter and showman (b. 1851)
• 1941 – Marina Tsvetaeva, Russian poet (b. 1892)
• 1948 – Billy Laughlin, American actor (b. 1932)
• 1948 – Andrei Zhdanov, Soviet politician (b. 1896)
• 1963 – Georges Braque, French painter (b. 1882)
• 1967 – Ilya Ehrenburg, Soviet writer, journalist and translator (b. 1891)
• 1969 – Rocky Marciano, American boxer (b. 1923)
• 1973 – John Ford, American movie director (b. 1894)
• 1974 – Norman Kirk, Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1923)
• 1978 – John Wrathall, Rhodesian politician (b. 1913)
• 1979 – Sally Rand, American dancer and actress (b. 1904)
• 1985 – Frank Macfarlane Burnet, Australian biologist (b. 1899)
• 1986 – Henry Moore, English sculptor (b. 1898)
• 1986 – Urho Kekkonen, President of Finland (b. 1900)
• 1986 – Jorge Alessandri, President of Chile (b. 1896)
• 1990 – Nathaniel Clifton, American basketball player (b. 1922)
• 1991 – Cliff Lumsden, Canadian marathon swimmer (b. 1931)
• 1997 – Diana, Princess of Wales (car accident) (b. 1961)
• 1997 – Dodi Fayed, Egyptian-born movie producer (car accident) (b. 1955)
• 1997 – Henri Paul, French security guard (car accident) (b. 1956)

From 2001

• 2002 – Lionel Hampton, American vibraphone player (b. 1908)
• 2002 – George Porter, English chemist (b. 1920)
• 2004 – Carl Wayne, English singer (b. 1943)
• 2005 – Joseph Rotblat, Polish-British physicist (b. 1908)
• 2006 – Mohamed Abdelwahab, Egyptian footballer (b. 1983)
• 2010 – Laurent Fignon, French cyclist (b. 1960)
• 2011 – Wade Belak, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1976)
• 2011 – Valery Rozhdestvensky, Russian cosmonaut (b. 1939)
• 2012 – Sergey Leonidovich Sokolov, Soviet-Russian military commander (b. 1911)
• 2012 – Carlo Maria Martini, Italian cardinal (b. 1927)
• 2012 – Max Bygraves, British entertainer (b. 1922)
• 2013 – David Frost, British broadcaster (b. 1939)
• 2014 – Stefan Andrei, Romanian Communist politician (b. 1931)
• 2014 – Stan Goldberg, American comic author (b. 1932)
• 2014 – Jimi Jamison, American rock music singer-songwriter (b. 1951)
• 2014 – Carol Vadnais, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1945)
• 2014 – Bapu, Indian movie director (b. 1933)
• 2014 – Yves Carcelle, French businessman (b. 1948)
• 2015 – Edward Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 3rd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu, English politician (b. 1926)
• 2017 – Richard Anderson, American actor (b. 1926)
• 2017 – Janne Carlsson, Swedish actor and musician (b. 1937)
• 2017 – Mike Cockerill, Australian soccer journalist (b. 1960)
• 2017 – Egon Günther, German film director and screenwriter (b. 1927)
• 2017 – Tamara Tchinarova, Romanian ballet dancer and writer (b. 1919)
• 2018 – Susan Brown, American actress (b. 1932)
• 2018 – Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza, Italian geneticist (b. 1922)
• 2018 – Alexander Zakharenko, Ukrainian separatist leader (b. 1976)

• Independence Day (Malaysia, Trinidad and Tobago, Kyrgyzstan)
• Day of Solidarity and Freedom (Poland)
• National Language Day (Moldova)
• Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne