Historical Events on 31 Aug

Historical Events on 31 Aug

1056 - Byzantine Empress Theodora becomes ill, dying suddenly a few days later, without children to succeed the throne, ending the Macedonian dynasty.
1142 - With the aid of Hiawatha and Deganawidah, The Great Peacemaker, the Iroquois tribes establish the Confederation of the Haudenosaunee.
1422 - Henry VI, becomes King of England at the age of 9 months.
1803 - Lewis and Clark start their expedition from Pittsburgh at 11 o clock in the morning.
1864 - During the 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 - Earthquake kills 100 in Charleston, South Carolina.
1888 - Mary Ann Nichols is murdered. She is the first of Jack the Ripper's known 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.
1914 - Ecuador becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
1915 - Brazil becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
1920 - Polish-Bolshevik War: A decisive Polish victory in the Battle of Komarów.
1920 - First radio news program broadcast by station 8MK in Detroit, Michigan.
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 in Europe.
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
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 founded by Robert Menzies.
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.
1957 - The Federation of Malaya gains its independence from the United Kingdom.
1962 - Trinidad and Tobago become independent.
1963 - Walter Cronkite began his stint as anchor of the CBS Evening News.
1965 - The Aero Spacelines Super Guppy Aircraft makes its first flight.
1968 - Garfield Sobers becomes the first cricketer to hit 6 sixes in one over.
1978 - William and Emily Harris, founders of the Symbionese Liberation Army, plead guilty to the 1974 kidnapping of newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst.
1980 - The Gdańsk Agreement is signed.
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 and Dodi Al-Fayed die as a result of a car crash in Paris.
1998 - North Korea reportedly launches 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 - Morecambe FC experienced their highest away win in their history, 15-0 against Guisely.
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 was recovered from a raid by Norwegian police. The paintings were said to be in a better-than-expected condition.