Some of the significant events which took place on August 31 taken from the leaf of History:

12 BCE – Caligula (Gaius Caesar), 3rd Roman emperor (37-41 AD), born.

161CE – Lucius Aelius Aurelius Commodus, emperor of Rome (180-92), was born.

1057 – Leofric, count of Mercia and husband of Lady Godiva, died. His wife, the Countess Godgifu (Godiva), had founded a Benedictine priory on a hill overlooking the River Sowe, and the town of Coventry grew up around it. The priory probably ran a market that would have formed the nucleus of the growing town. Such a market would bring fees and taxes to the priory and the Earl while flooding the district with goods and money. Godiva may well have ruled the settlement between Leofric’s death and her own in 1066.

1158 -Sancho III, King of Castilia, died.

1218 – Al-Malik ab-Adil, Saphadin, Saif al-Din, brother of Saladin, died.

1303 – The War of Vespers in Sicily ended with an agreement between Charles of Valois, who invaded the country, and Frederick, the ruler of Sicily.

1385 – English King Richard the Second invaded Scotland with a force estimated at 80-thousand men.

1422 – Henry V, King of England (1413-22) and France (1416-19), died.

1512 – Giuliano de Medici became the new governor of Florence.

1521 – Spanish conqueror Cortez (1485-1547), having captured the city of Tenochtitlan, Mexico, set it on fire. Nearly 100,000 people died in the siege and some 100,000 more died afterwards of smallpox. In 2008 Buddy levy authored “Conquistador: Hernan Cortes, King Montezuma, and the Last Stand of the Aztecs.”

1535 – Pope Paul II deposed & excommunicated King Henry VIII.

1667 – Johann Rist, composer, died at 60.

1707 – The Treaty or Convention of Altranstädt was signed between Charles XII of Sweden and Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor. It settled the rights of Protestants in Silesia and forced Augustus the Strong to yield the Polish throne to Stanisław Leszczyński (1677-1766).

1741 -Johann Paul Aegidius Martini, composer, was born.

1751 – English troops under Sir Robert Clive occupied Arcot, India.

1756 – The British at Fort William Henry, New England, surrendered to Louis Montcalm of France.

1778 – British killed 17 Stockbridge Indians in Bronx during Revolution.

1795 -Franxois-Andre Danican Philidor, composer, died at 68.

1802 – Captain Meriwether Lewis left Pittsburgh to meet up with Captain William Clark and begin their trek to the Pacific Ocean.

1804 – Lewis and Clark held a council with local Sioux Indian chiefs in what is now eastern North Dakota.

1811 – Théophile Gautier, French poet, novelist and author of “Art for Art’s Sake,” was born.

1819 – A naval battle took place between United States Revenue Cutter Service cutters and one of Jean Lafitte’s pirate ships off southern Florida.

1822 – Fitz John Porter (d.1901), Major General (Union volunteers), was born.

1823 – Ferdinand VII was restored to the throne of Spain when invited French forces entered Cadiz. The event is known as the Battle of Trocadero.

1829 – Gioacchino Rossini’s final opera “William Tell” was produced in Paris.

1852 – The first pre-stamped envelopes were created with legislation of the U.S. Congress.

1865 – The US Federal government estimated the American Civil War had cost about eight billion dollars. Human costs have been estimated at more than one-million killed or wounded.

1867 – [Pierre-] Charles Baudelaire (46), French poet (Journaux Intimes), died.

1870 – Maria Montessori (d.1952), educator and physician, was born in Chiaravalle, Italy. She opened her 1st Montessori school in San Lorenzo, Italy in 1907.

1876 – Abdul Hamid II succeeded Murad V as the 34th Sultan of the Ottoman House of Osman. His ruled continued to April 27, 1909.

1880 – Queen Wilhelmina of Netherlands (d. Nov 28, 1962 at 82) was born. She reigned from 1890-1947.

1881 – The first tennis championships in the U.S. were played.

1886 – South Carolina bore the brunt of the largest-ever earthquake on the East Coast, a 7.3 magnitude earth-shaker that killed at least 60 people in post-Civil War Charleston.

1887 – Inventor Thomas A. Edison received a patent for his Kinetoscope,” a device which produced moving pictures.

1888 – Mary Ann Nicholls, a 42-year-old prostitute, was found murdered in London’s East End. She is generally regarded as the first of at least five murder victims of “Jack the Ripper.”

1920 – The first news program to be broadcast on radio was aired. The station was 8MK in Detroit, MI.

1920 – John Lloyd Wright was issued a patent for “Toy-Cabin Construction,” which are known as Lincoln Logs. (U.S. patent 1,351,086).

1935 – The act of exporting U.S. arms to belligerents was prohibited by an act signed by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

1940 – Lawrence Olivier and Vivian Leigh were married.

1941 – The radio program “The Great Gildersleeve” made its debut on NBC.

1946 – Superman returned to radio on the Mutual Broadcasting System after being dropped earlier in the year.

1950 – Gil Hodges of the Brooklyn Dodgers hit four home runs in a single game off of four different pitchers.

1959 – Sandy Koufax set a National League record by striking out 18 batters.

1962 – The Caribbean nations Tobago and Trinidad became independent within the British Commonwealth.

1964 – California officially became the most populated state in America.

1965 – The Department of Housing and Urban Development was created by the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate.

1980 – Poland’s Solidarity labor movement was born with an agreement signed in Gdansk that ended a 17-day strike.

1981 – The 30-year contract between Milton Berle and NBC-TV expired.

1888 – UK Jack the Ripper: The first attributed to victim of Jack the Ripper “Mary Ann Nichols” a prostitute from London’s East End was found mutilated and murdered in London’s East End close to Whitechapel Rd because of this and other murders in the area the police file was called “the Whitechapel Murders.” Jack the Ripper is thought to have murdered 11 prostitutes from 1885 to 1891 but as he was never caught , it is possible some of the murders were committed by others. “Mary Ann Nichols” and four others were definitely identified as the work of a single serial killer.

1928 – U.S.A. New Service: A new service connecting Chicago and the twin cities of St Paul and Minneapolis will begin tomorrow with an integrated rail and Air service from Northwest Airways connecting with express trains to the cities, the new service will cut 8 hrs off the current travel time saving a whole day of travelling.

1934 – United Kingdom $5.00 to the Pound: The value of the pound sterling has dropped below the $5.00 mark for the first time since devaluation.

1945 – Japanese Prisoners of War: As Japanese prisoners of war are reaching rescue ships more and more stories of Japanese Brutality and many had spent months in solitary confinement, every single prisoner is suffering from malnutrition.

1954 – U.S.A. Hurricane Carol: Hurricane Carol makes landfall on Long Island and Connecticut, resulting in nearly 70 deaths and millions of dollars in damage.

1957 – Malaya Independence: The handover of power from Britain to the country of Malaya has now taken place making Malaya an independent nation but will continue to be a member of the British Commonwealth. In 1963, Malaya united several other regions to become Malaysia.

1959 – President Dwight Eisenhower Visits UK: The British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and the American President Dwight Eisenhower discuss the threat of Communism to the free world, world peace and global poverty during an historic live television broadcast from Downing Street.

1978 – Switzerland Climate Change: 400 of the world’s top climatologists are meeting in Geneva to discuss climate change and if changes in Climate is influenced by pollution.

1989 – England Princess Anne Separation: Princess Anne the only daughter of the Queen of England announced her separation from her husband Mark Phillips, but they have stated they do not intend to get divorced.

1989 – Great Britain’s Princess Anne and Mark Phillips announced that they were separating. The marriage was 16 years old.

1990 – U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar met with the Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz to try and negotiate a solution to the crisis in the Persian Gulf.

1990 – East and West Germany signed a treaty that meant the harmonizing of political and legal systems.

1991 – Uzbekistan and Kirghiziz declared their independence from the Soviet Union. They were the 9th and 10th republics to announce their plans to secede.

1991 – In a “Solidarity Day” protest hundreds of thousands of union members marched in Washington, DC.

1993 – Russia withdrew its last soldiers from Lithuania.

1994 – A cease-fire was declared by the Irish Republican Army after 25 years of bloodshed in Northern Ireland.

1994 – Russia officially ended its military presence in the former East Germany and the Baltics after a half-century.

1997 – France Princess Diana: Diana The Princess of Wales and her constant companion Dodi Fayed are killed in a car crash in Paris as was the driver Henri Paul who was drunk at the time, the driver was trying to escape from Paparazzi photographers. The Princess had divorced from Prince Charles in 1996. Diana was known affectionately as (The People’s Princess) because of her winning smile and caring attitude and her willingness to work for charities close to her heart including Aids and campaigning against the use of Land Mines.

1998 – A ballistic missile was fired over Japan by North Korea. The missile landed in stages in the waters around Japan. There was no known target.

1992 – Germany Anti-Immigrant Violence: A new unhealthy movement is gaining ground in Germany which seeks to blame Immigrants for the current economic downturn, this same movement is creating a surge of racist violence aimed at poor immigrant families.

1992 – U.S.A. Randy Weaver: After a standoff siege of Randy Weaver’s property in the mountains in Naples, Idaho, with several hundred federal agents surrounding the house for 11 days, during which his wife and one of his sons is killed. A deputy U.S. marshal is also killed during the standoff. Randy Weaver agrees to abandon the stand-off and surrender, He was then charged with murder and multiple firearms charges. He was acquitted of murder when his attorney argued successfully that Weaver’s actions were justifiable as self-defense. He was eventually sentenced to 18 months in prison for the failure to appear charge relating to the original firearms charges.

1998 – Dow Drops 512 Points: Dow Jones index drops 512 points in a single day, finishing at 7539.1. This brings the drop to close to 20% lower since highs on July 17^th when the Dow stood at 9337. The fall has been blamed on problems with the Russia financial markets and worry over the latest US economic figures which indicate a slowdown in the US economy.

1999 – Argentina Plane Crash: A Boeing 737 Flight 3142 belonging to Lineas Aereas Privadas Argentinas (Lapa) airlines crashes in Argentina’s capital, Buenos Aires shortly after takeoff killing 69 of the 90 passengers and crew.

2000 – In Mexico retired Gen. Francisco Hermosillo and Brig. Gen. Mario Arturo Acosta Chaparro were arrested for collaborating with the Juarez drug cartel.
2000 – In Ukraine Pres. Kuchma declared 4 villages near Mykolaiv an ecological disaster zone due to illnesses of some 400 residents since July 4. Chemical poisoning from Soviet era rocket fuel leaks was blamed.

2001 – Little League star Danny Almonte’s perfect game and his Bronx, N.Y., team’s third-place World Series finish were ruled invalid after officials in the Dominican Republic, where Danny was born, determined he was 14 years old, not 12.

2001 – It was reported that scientists at Lucent Tech. achieved superconductivity with carbon-60 (buckyballs) at minus 249 degrees by combining the carbon molecules with compounds of chloroform and broomcorn.

2001- In Montana a helicopter assigned to the 25,500-acre Fridley fire crashed and 3 crewmen were killed.

2001- The UN World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance began in Durban, South Africa. Yasser Arafat accused Israel of “racist practices” against the Palestinian people.

2002 – The Los Angeles Sparks beat the New York Liberty 69-66 to defend their WNBA championship.

2002 – The Burning Man was put to flames at Black Rock, Nev. Some 29,000 people attended the event, which featured a 78-foot Temple of Joy, created by David Best that was burned down Sep 1.

2002 – Lionel Hampton (94), American jazz icon, died in New York City. He pioneered and popularized the vibraphone as a jazz instrument in a musical career that spanned six decades beginning in the 1920s.

2002 – George Porter (81), who shared the 1967 Nobel Prize for chemistry for his work on light-driven chemical reactions, died in London. He had built a device to study gaseous free radicals and combustion. Among the practical results of his research was the development of ways to stop dyes from fading.

2005 – At least 25,000 of Hurricane Katrina’s refugees, a majority of them at the New Orleans Superdome, began traveling in a bus convoy to Houston and will be sheltered at the 40-year-old Astrodome, which hasn’t been used for professional sporting events in years. New Orleans Mayor Nagin called for a total evacuation. He said hundreds were dead and ordered police to stop looters.

2005 – Theodore Sarbin (b.1911), noted UC Berkeley psychology professor, died. In 1990 he co-wrote the report “Gays in Uniform: The Pentagon’s Secret Reports,” which prompted Pres. Clinton’s policy of “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

2005 – Indonesia released hundreds of Acehnese rebel prisoners, honoring a major concession in a recent peace deal and triggering tearful reunions as the former inmates returned to their tsunami-devastated homeland.

2005 – In Iraq panic engulfed thousands of Shiites marching across a bridge in a religious procession after rumors spread that a suicide bomber was about to attack, triggering a stampede that killed over 960 people. Hundreds of thousands of Shiites had been marching across the bridge, which links Baghdad’s Shiite Kazimiyah district with heavily Sunni Azamiyah. They were heading for the tomb of Imam Mousa al-Kadhim (d.799), an 8th century Shiite saint, about a mile from the span.

2005 – In Russia Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the billionaire oil tycoon who was sentenced to nine years’ imprisonment in a politically charged trial this year, said he will run for a seat in the national parliament.

2005 – Some 200 Somalis and Ethiopians left Somalia’s semiautonomous Puntland region in two boats. Smugglers making the illegal crossing from Somalia to Yemen forced passengers into the Red Sea at gunpoint 10 miles from the Yemeni coastline, leaving at least 57 dead and about 100 missing.

2007 – President Bush met privately at the Pentagon with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who conveyed their concern about a growing strain on troops and their families from long and repeated combat tours in Iraq. Bush also announced a set of modest proposals to deal with an alarming rise in mortgage defaults.

2008 – Pakistan said it will suspend its military operations against insurgents in a tribal region along the Afghan border in honor of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Pakistani Taliban said they will continue attacks during Ramadan. A missile fired from an unmanned aircraft hit a house in the North Waziristan tribal area, killing six people including a woman and a young girl.

2011 – Syrian troops backed by tanks raided houses looking for activists in two main districts of the city of Hama. Troops shot dead one villager, Hazem al-Shihadi, at a checkpoint overnight near the northwestern border town of Kfaruma. Dozens of people were arrested at Qadam and Qabun in the Damascus region, and at Zabadani. Other arrests occurred at Jizeh in the southern region of Daraa, at Hama and at Al-Jura and Quriyya. Hama province attorney general Adnan Bakkour appeared on video declaring his resignation to protest President Bashar Assad’s crackdown, saying security forces killed hundreds of people in the restive city of Hama and arrested thousands of “peaceful protesters.” Bakkour said security forces killed 72 prisoners on July 31 and another 420 people during a military siege on Hama, the main city in the province of the same name, in August.

2016 – Australia’s PM Malcolm Turnbull urged his political opponents to allow Australians to endorse gay marriage through a popular vote instead of insisting that the divisive issue be put into lawmakers’.

2017 – The US State Dept. ordered Russia to shutter its San Francisco consulate on Green St. in Pacific Heights and close trade offices at its missions in Washington and New York. It gave Moscow 48 hours to comply.

2018 – In Ukraine Alexander Zakharchenko (42), the chief of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, was killed in a bombing at a Donetsk cafe in broad daylight, becoming the four-year conflict’s most prominent victim from the Moscow-backed side. His bodyguard also died and 12 more people were injured.