This day in history
Every day is full of amazing anniversaries, ancient and modern! As well as today, you can also look at any other day of the year - click the arrows to select the month, then click a number to select the day.
31 August
Events
- 1057: The Byzantine emperor Michael VI the Aged abdicates in favour of the general Isaac Comnenus, whose troops have already proclaimed him as emperor.
- 1158: King Sancho III of Castile dies; he is succeeded by his infant son, Alfonso VIII. Civil war breaks out.
- 1422: On the death of King Henry V of England, he is succeeded by his infant son, Henry VI, with the lords establishing a council to rule in his minority.
- 1751: The English soldier and colonial administrator Robert Clive takes the Indian town of Arcot, capital of the Carnatic, defeating the territorial ambitions (on behalf of France) of the French governor general Joseph, Marquis de Dupleix.
- 1871: The French Liberal statesman Adolphe Thiers is elected the first president of the Third Republic in France.
- 1876: Sultan Murad V of the Ottoman Empire is deposed because of his insanity and is succeeded by Abdul Hamid II.
- 1900: Coca-Cola goes on sale in Britain.
- 1907: Britain and Russia sign a convention on Persia, Afghanistan, and Tibet, establishing zones of influence and removing obstacles towards an alignment of Russia with Britain and France against the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy).
- 1916: The German government accepts the Hindenburg Plan for militarization of the German war economy.
- 1957: The British protectorate over Malaya ends and the independent Malayan Federation comes into being.
- 1962: Trinidad and Tobago (previously members of the West Indies Federation) becomes an independent nation within the British Commonwealth.
- 1966: British Aerospace's Harrier, a vertical take off and landing (VTOL) jet, makes its first test flight.
- 1975: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) abandons the remaining role of gold in world monetary affairs.
- 1980: Lech Waesa, leader of the Gdask shipyard strikers, signs an agreement with the Polish government allowing the formation of independent trade unions and granting the release of political prisoners.
- 1984: Israel's Likud party leader Yitzhak Shamir and the Labour Party leader Shimon Peres agree to form a government of national unity and to alternate in the post of prime minister.
- 1994: The Irish Republican Army (IRA) in Northern Ireland announces its complete cessation of violence (the British government lifts its broadcasting ban on representatives of Sinn Fein on 16 September).
- 1998: Mourners commemorate the first anniversary of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, by laying flowers and messages at her home at Kensington Palace, London, at her burial site at Althorp, and at the site of the fatal car crash in Paris, France.
- 1998: On the final day of a one-off Test between England and Sri Lanka at the Oval, London, Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan takes 9-65 in England's second innings to help Sri Lanka achieve its first Test victory in England.
- 2005: About 1,000 Iraqi Shia pilgrims attending a religious commemoration are killed in a stampede across a bridge over the Tigris river in Baghdad, reportedly following rumours of an impending suicide bomb attack.
- 2006: Iran defies a United Nations Security Council ultimatum that it suspend uranium enrichment by the end of August to allay fears that it trying to develop nuclear weapons or face the possibility of punitive sanctions.
Births and Deaths
- Henry V
1422: Henry V, king of England 141322, son of Henry IV, dies in Bois de Vincennes, France (34). - John Bunyan
1688: John Bunyan, English Puritan minister and preacher, author of The Pilgrim's Progress (1678), dies in London, England (59). - Rocky Marciano
1969: Rocky Marciano (Rocco Francis Marchegiano), US world heavyweight boxer 195256, is killed in an aeroplane crash near Newton, Iowa (45). - John Ford
1973: John Ford (adopted name of Sean O'Feeney), US film director best known for his Westerns, dies in Palm Desert, California (78). - Diana Spencer
1997: Diana Spencer, princess of Wales, humanitarian, and charity worker, is killed in a car crash in the Place de l'Alma underpass in Paris, France, along with her companion Dodi Fayed, and their driver (36).
Data provided by Helicon Publishing
