The August 31 reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Jul-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

August 31

August 31 is the 243rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (244th in leap years), with 122 days remaining.

Jul - August - Sep
Su	Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr	Sa
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30	31
2004 day arrangement All days

Table of contents

1 Events 2 Births 3 Deaths 4 Holidays and observances

Events

• 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
• 1907 - England, Russia and France form the Triple Entente
• 1920 - First radio news programme broadcast in Detroit, Michigan
• 1957 - Malaya gains independence from the United Kingdom
• 1962 - Trinidad and Tobago becomes independent
• 1978 - Symbionese Liberation Army founders William and Emily Harris plead guilty to 1974 kidnapping of newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst
• 1980 - Solidarity labor union formed in Poland
• 1985 - Richard Ramirez, the "Night Stalker" killer, is arrested in Los Angeles, California
• 1986 - An Aeromexico Douglas DC-9 collides with a Piper PA-28 over Cerritos, California killing 82, including 15 on the ground
• 1991 - Kyrgyzstan declares independence from the USSR
• 1994 - Irish Republican Army declares a cease-fire
• 1997 - Diana, Princess of Wales dies in a car crash in Paris

Births

• 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. 1969)
• 1880 - Queen Wilhelmina I of the Netherlands (d. 1962)
• 1885 - DuBose Heyward, playwright (d. 1940)
• 1897 - Fredric March, actor (d. 1975)
• 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, musician
• 1949 - Richard Gere, actor
• 1958 - Edwin Moses, Olympic Games gold medalist in track and field
• 1970 - Debbie Gibson, singer
• 1972 - Chris Tucker, actor

Deaths

• 1688 - John Bunyan, poet
• 1867 - Charles Baudelaire, writer
• 1888 - Mary Ann Nicholls, first confirmed victim of Jack the Ripper
• 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
• 2002 - Lionel Hampton, vibraphone virtuoso (b. 1908)

Holidays and observances

• Malaysia: National Day

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

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