On this day in History - Aug 31

0012 - Caius Cæsar Caligula was born (d. 0041). 3rd Roman Emperor (0037-0041).
0161 - Lucius Aelius Aurelius Commodus was born (d. 0192). Roman Emperor (0180-0192).
0651 - Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne dies. Irish bishop and missionary.
1056 - Byzantine Empress Theodora dies suddenly (b. 0981) without children to succeed the throne, ending the Macedonian dynasty.
1057 - Leofric dies. Count of Mercia and husband of Lady Godiva.
1158 - Sancho III dies. King of Castilia.
1218 - Al-Malik ab-Adil, Saphadin, Saif al-Din, brother of Saladin, dies.
1234 - Emperor Go-Horikawa of Japan dies (b. 1212).
1290 - Edward I, King of England, expels the Jews from England.
1346 - Edward III, King of England, lays siege to Calais.
1372 - Ralph Stafford, 1st Earl of Stafford dies (b. 1301). English soldier.
1422 - King Henry V of England dies (b. 1387) in Vincennes, near Paris.
1522 -Adrian VI (Netherlands) is crowned last non-Italian Pope until 1978.
1535 - Pope Paul II deposes and excommunicates England's King Henry VIII.
1569 - Jahangir was born (d. 1627). Mughal Emperor of India.
1602 – Amalia von Solms was born (d. 1675). Countess of Solms-Braunfels.
1615 - Etienne Pasquier dies. French jurist and historian.
1645 - Francesco Bracciolini dies (b. 1566). Italian poet.
1654 - Ole Worm dies (b. 1588). Danish physician.
1663 - Guillaume Amontons was born (d. 1705). French physicist and instrument maker.
1688 - John Bunyan dies (b. 1628). English writer (Pilgrim's Progress).
1721 - George Hervey, 2nd Earl of Bristol was born (d. 1775). British statesman.
1730 - Gottfried Finger dies. Czech composer.
1741 - Johann Gottlieb Heineccius dies (b. 1681). German jurist.
1772 - William Borlase dies (b. 1695). English naturalist and antiquary.
1786 - Eugène Chevreul was born (d. 1889). French chemist.
1795 - Philidor (François-André Danican) dies (b. 1726). French chess player.
1797 - Ramón Castilla was born. Peruvian President.
1799 - Nicolas-Henri Jardin dies (b. 1720). French architect.
1805 - Dr. James Currie dies. Biographer of Burns, 1805, Sidmouth.
1817 - Admiral Sir John Thomas Duckworth, 1817, Devonport.
1809 - Oswald Heer was born († 27 Sep 1883) . Swiss geologist and naturalist.
1811 - Theophile Gautier was born (d. 1872). French poet and novelist (“Art for Art's Sake”).
1811 - Louis Antoine de Bougainville dies (b. 1729). French explorer.
1814 - Arthur Phillip dies (b. 1738). British admiral, first Governor of New South Wales.
1821 - Hermann von Helmholtz was born (d. 1894). German physician.
1822 - Galusha A. Grow was birn (d. 1907). American politician.
1834 - Amilcare Ponchielli was born (d. 1886). Italian composer.
1834 - Karl Ludwig Harding dies (b. 1765). German astronomer.
1843 - Georg von Hertling was born (d. 1919). Chancellor of Germany.
1864 - American Civil War: Union forces led by General William T. Sherman launch an assault on Atlanta, Georgia.
1864 - Ferdinand Lasalle dies (b. 1825). German socialist political activist.
1867 - Charles Baudelaire dies (b. 1821). French poet.
1869 - Mary Ward dies (b. 1827). Irish scientist, first automobile accident victim.
1870 - Maria Montessori was born (d. 1952). Italian educator.
1871 - James E. Ferguson was born (d. 1944). American politician,Texan governor.
1875 - Jesse E. James «Tim» was born in Tennessee (d. 26 Mar 1951). American outlaw.
1876 - Ottoman sultan Murat V is deposed and succeeded by his brother Abd-ul-Hamid II.
1878 - Frank Jarvis was born (d. 1933). American athlete.
1879 - Alma Mahler was born (d. 1964). Wife of Gustav Mahler, Walter Gropius, and Franz Werfel.
1880 - Queen Wilhelmina I of the Netherlands was born (d. 28 Nov 1962). She reigned from 1890-1947.
1885 - DuBose Heyward was born (d. 1940). American playwright.
1886 - Earthquake kills 100 in Charleston, South Carolina.
1888 - Mary Ann Nichols is murdered. She is the first of Jack the Ripper's known victims.
1890 - Começo da Construção do Santuário do Sameiro, nos arredores de Braga.
1893 - Lily Laskine was born (d. 1988). French harpist.
1895 - John Brallier is paid US$10 plus expenses to play football for the Latrobe, Pennsylvania YMCA, making him the first professional football player.
1896 - Félix-Antoine Savard was born (d. 1982). French-Canadian priest and novelist.
1897 - Thomas Edison patents the Kinetoscope, the first movie projector.
1897 - Fredric March was born (d. 1975). American actor.
1899 - Lynn Riggs was born. American author and playwright. Her book “Green Grow the Lilacs” was adapted by Rodgers and Hammerstein to become “Oklahoma”.
1901 - Começam a circular os primeiros carros eléctricos em Lisboa.
1903 - Arthur Godfrey was born (d. 1983). American television host.
1903 - Vladimir Jankélévitch was born († 10 Apr 1985). French philosopher.
1905 - Sanford Meisner was born (d. 1997). American actor and teacher.
1907 - Count Alexander Izvolsky and Sir Arthur Nicolson sign the St. Petersburg Convention, which results in the Triple Entente alliance.
1907 - William Shawn was born (d. 1992). American editor.
1907 - Ramon Magsaysay was born (d. 1957). President of the Philippines.
1907 - England, Russia and France form the Triple Entente alliance.
1908 - William Saroyan was born in Fresco, California (d. 1981). American novelist and playwright (The Human Comedy; The Time of Your Life 1940 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
1913 - Sir Bernard Lovell was born. British radio astronomer.
1913 - Ambrós was born (d. 1992). Graphic creator (El Capitán Trueno).
1914 - Richard Basehart was born (d. 1984). American actor.
1914 - Ecuador becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
1915 - Brazil becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
1915 - Jimmy Lavender of the Chicago Cubs pitches a no hitter against the New York Giants.
1916 - Daniel Schorr was born. American journalist.
1918 - Alan Jay Lerner was born (d. 1986). American lyricist.
1919 - Amrita Preetam was born (d. 2005). Indian poetess and author.
1920 - First news radio program broadcast in Detroit, Michigan.
1920 - Polish-Bolshevik War: A decisive Polish victory in the Battle of Komarów.
1920 - Wilhelm Wundt dies (b. 1832). German philosopher and psycologist.
1921 - Emilinha Borba was born. Brazilian actress.
1924 - Buddy Hackett was born (d. 2003). American actor and comedian.
1927 - Bill Daily was born. American actor and comedian.
1928 - Turkey accepts to adopt latin alphabet instead arabic.
1928 - James Coburn was born ( † 18 Nov 2002). American actor.
1931 - Noble Willingham was born (d. 2004). American actor.
1931 - Production of Ford Motor Company's Model A ends, with 4.3 million produced.
1931 - Noble Willingham was born (d. 2004). American actor.
1931 - Jean Béliveau was born. Canadian hockey player.
1934 - Nikos Xanthopoulos was born. Greek actor.
1935 - Frank Robinson was born. Baseball player and manager.
1935 - Eldridge Cleaver was born (d. 1998). American political activist.
1936 - Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho was born in Lourenço Marques, now Maputo. Portuguese military officer who was the chief strategist of the 25 April Revolution, and politician.
1937 - Warren Berlinger was born. American actor.
1937 - Bobby Parker was born. American blues musician/guitarist.
1938 - Martin Bell was born. British journalist and politician.
1937 - Albert Heim was born. Swiss geologist.
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.
1939 - Jerry Allison was born. American drummer (The Crickets).
1940 - Georges Gauthier dies (b. 1871). French Canadian Roman Catholic archbishop of Montreal.
1941 - William DeWitt, Jr. was born. American businessman.
1941 - Marina Tsvetaeva dies (b. 1892). Russian poet.
1942 - In Ternopil, western Ukraine, at 4.30 am, German SS organise the first deportation of Jews from Ternopil ghetto to death camp in Belzec, about 5,000 Jews were deported to face death in Belzec. When the Germans captured Ternopil, about 18,000 Jews lived in the city.
1943 - The USS Harmon the first U.S. Navy ship to be named for a black person, is commissioned.
1943 - António de Vasconcelos Xavier was born. Portuguese biochemist.
1944 - Roger Dean was born. British artist.
1945 - The Liberal Party of Australia is founded by Robert Menzies.
1945 - Sérgio Godinho was born in Porto. Portuguese singer, composer and actor.
1945 - Van Morrison was born. Irish musician.
1945 - Itzhak Perlman was born. Israeli violinist.
1947 - Mona Marshall was born. American voice actress.
1947 - Carlos Gregório was born in Rio de Janeiro. Brazilian actor.
1948 - Actor Robert Mitchum was arrested in a Hollywood drug raid. He would later be found guilty of criminal conspiracy to possess marijuana and was sentenced to 60 days in prison.
1948 - Rudolf Schenker was born. German guitarist (Scorpions).
1948 - Harald Ertl was born (d. 1982). Austrian racing driver.
1948 - Lowell Ganz was born. American screenwriter.
1948 - Billy Laughlin dies (b. 1932). American actor.
1949 - Richard Gere was born. American actor (Breathless, Cotton Club).
1949 - H. David Politzer was born. American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate.
1952 - Henri Bourassa dies (b. 1868). French Canadian political leader.
1953 - György Károly was born. Hungarian author.
1953 - Miguel Ángel Guerra was born. Argentine racing driver.
1954 - Caroline Cossey was born. English model.
1955 - Edwin Moses was born. American athlete, gold medal in Olympics Montreal 76 and Los Ángeles 84.
1956 - Masashi Tashiro was born. Japanese television performer.
1956 - Percy MacKaye dies in Cornish, New Hampshire. American writer: The Scarecrow (1908), a historical play; Caliban (1916), This Fine Pretty World (1923), The Mystery of Hamlet: King of Denmark (1945).
1957 - The Federation of Malaya gains its independence from the United Kingdom.
1957 - Gina Schock was born. American drummer (The Go-Go's).
1957 - Glenn Tilbrook was born. British musician (Squeeze).
1958 - Serge Blanco was born. French International rugby player.
1960 - Hassan Nasrallah was born. Leader of Hizballah.
1960 - Chris Whitley was born (d. 2005), American musician.
1962 - Trinidad and Tobago become independent.
1962 - Dee Bradley Baker was born. American voice actor.
1963 - Walter Cronkite began his stint as anchor of the "CBS Evening News".
1963 - Reb Beach was born. American guitarist (Winger, Whitesnake).
1963 - Todd Carty was born. Irish actor.
1963 - Sonny Silooy was born. Dutch football player.
1963 - Georges Braque dies (b. 1882). French painter.
1964 - Raymond P. Hammond was born. American poet and editor.
1965 - The Aero Spacelines Super Guppy Aircraft makes its first flight.
1965 - Céline Bonnier was born. Quebec actress.
1967 - Ilya Ehrenburg dies (b. 1891). Russian writer.
1968 - Garfield Sobers becomes the first cricketer to hit 6 sixes in one over.
1968 - Todd Carty was born. British actor.
1968 - Hideo Nomo was born. Baseball pitcher.
1969 - Rocky Marciano dies (b. 1923). American boxer.
1970 - Deborah Gibson was born. American singer.
1970 - Zack Ward was born. Canadian actor.
1970 - Queen Rania was born. Queen of Jordan.
1971 - Padraig Harrington, Irish professional golfer.
1972 - Chris Tucker was born. American actor.
1972 - Bobby Fischer se corona campeón mundial de Ajedrez ante el sovietico Boris Spassky.
1972 - At the Munich Summer Olympics American swimmer Mark Spitz won his fourth and fifth gold medals, in the 100-meter butterfly and 800-meter freestyle relay.
1972 - Olga Korbut, USSR, won Olympic gold medal in floor exercises and the balance beam.
1973 - Mighty Taco was founded in Buffalo, NY.
1973 - Scott Niedermayer was born. Hockey player.
1973 - John Ford dies (b. 1894). American film director.
1974 - William Pershing Benedict dies. American pilot.
1974 - Norman Kirk dies (b. 1923). New Zealand prime minister.
1975 - Daniel Harding was born. British conductor.
1975 - Gabe Kapler was born. American baseball player and manager.
1975 - Sara Ramirez was born. American actress.
1975 - John Grahame was born. American-born Canadian hockey player.
1976 - Radek Martinek was born. Czechoslovakian ice hockey player.
1977 - Craig Nicholls was born. Australian singer, songwriter, and guitarist (The Vines).
1977 - Jeff Hardy was born. American professional wrestler.
1977 - Ian Harte was born. Irish footballer.
1978 -William and Emily Harris, founders of the Symbionese Liberation Army, plead guilty to the 1974 kidnapping of newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst.
1978 - Regiane Alves was born in Santo André, São Paulo. Brazilian actress.
1978 - Phina Oruche was born. British actress.
1978 - John Wrathall dies (b. 1913).President of Rhodesia.
1979 - Clay Hensley was born. Professional baseball player.
1979 - Mickie James was born. American professional wrestler.
1979 - Vanessa Gleason was born in San Diego, California, USA. Playboy Playmate of the Month September 1998.
1979 - Sally Rand dies (b. 1904). American dancer and actress.
1980 - The Solidarity trade union is formed in Poland.
1980 - Joe Budden was born. American rapper.
1981 - Joe Swanberg was born. American filmmaker.
1981 - 40 Cal was born. American rapper.
1981 - Dwayne Peel was born. Welsh International rugby player.
1982 - Ian Crocker was born. American swimmer.
1982 - Chris Duhon was born. American basketball player.
1982 - Josh Kroeger was born. American baseball player.
1982 - Alexei Mikhnov was born. Ukrainian-born ice hockey player.
1982 - Jose Reina was born. Spanish footballer.
1982 - Michele Rugolo was born. Italian racing driver.
1983 - Larry Fitzgerald was born. American football player.
1983 - Fernanda Nobre was born. Brazilian actress.
1983 - Maria Flor was born. Brazilian actress.
1985 - A atleta portuguesa Aurora Cunha ganha a meia maratona internacional de Oslo.
1985 - Richard Ramirez, the "Night Stalker" serial killer, is arrested in Los Angeles, California.
1985 - Frank Macfarlane Burnet dies (b. 1899). Australian biologist.
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 398.
1986 - Henry Moore dies (b. 1898). English sculptor.
1986 - Urho Kekkonen dies (b. 1900). President of Finland.
1987 - Petros Kravaritis was born. Greek footballer.
1989 - Buckingham Palace officials confirm that Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips are to be separated.
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.
1992 - Dr. Florencio Escardó morre em Buenos Aires. Decano da Faculdade de Medicina e Vice-reitor da Universidade de Buenos Aires.
1993 - Venezuela president Carlos Perez fled.
1994 - The Provisional Irish Republican Army declares a ceasefire.
1997 - Diana, Princess of Wales dies in a car crash in Paris (b. 1961)
1997 - Dodi Fayed dies (car accident) (b. 1955). Egyptian-born film producer.
1997 - Guillermo Brizuela Méndez dies. Argentinian TV and radio presenter.
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.
1999 - A LAPA Boeing 737-200 crashes during takeoff from Jorge Newbury Airport in Buenos Aires, killing 65, including 2 on the ground.
2002 - Lionel Hampton dies (b. 1908). American vibraphone player.
2002 - George Porter dies (b. 1920). English chemist, Nobel laureate.
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.
2004 - Carl Wayne dies (b. 1943). English singer.
2005 - A stampede on Al-Aaimmah bridge in Baghdad kills 1,199 people.
2005 - Joseph Rotblat dies (b. 1908). Polish-British physicist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. 2005 - Michael Sheard dies (b. 1940). British actor.
2006 - Stolen on August 22, 2004, Edvard Munch's famous painting The Scream was recovered from a raid by Norwegian police. The paintings were said to be in a better-than-expected condition.
Blog Day : International Day of Blogs and Bloggers.
Malaysia: Hari Merdeka, a National Day.
Independence Day for Trinidad and Tobago (1962).
Moldova: Day of Our Language (Limba Noastra).
Roman Catholic Saints - Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne, Saint Abundius, Saint Raymond Nonnatus
Poland, Europe - Day of Solidarity and Freedom, on the anniversary of August Agreement from 1980.
Kyrgyzstan - Independence Day (from USSR, 1991).