On this day: August 31

Events on August 31

• 1056 After a sudden gastric illness, Byzantine Empress Theodora dies childless, thus ending the Macedonian dynasty. Wikipedia
• 1218 Al-Kamil became the fourth sultan of the Ayyubid dynasty of Egypt. Wikipedia
• 1302 Frederick III of Aragon and Charles, Count of Valois sign the Peace of Caltabellotta, which ends the War of the Sicilian Vespers and divides the old Kingdom of Sicily into an island portion and a peninsular portion. Wikipedia
• 1422 King Henry V of England dies of dysentery while in France and his son, Henry VI, becomes king at the age of nine months. Wikipedia
• 1814 War of 1812: American militia forces repelled a British force at the Battle of Caulk's Field, killing 41 people including Captain Peter Parker of the Royal Navy. Wikipedia
• 1864 American Civil War: The Battle of Jonesborough, the culmination of the Atlanta campaign, begins as Union forces under General William T. Sherman clash with Confederate troops under General William J. Hardee south of Atlanta. Wikipedia
• 1876 Sultan Murad V of the Ottoman Empire was deposed after a reign of 93 days on grounds of mental illness.* 1888 – The body of Mary Ann Nichols, the alleged first victim of an unidentified serial killer known as Jack the Ripper, was found in Buck's Row, London. Wikipedia
• 1886 The 7.0 Mw Charleston earthquake struck southeastern South Carolina with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme), killing 60 people and causing damage worth an estimated $5–6 million. Wikipedia
• 1888 Mary Ann Nichols, the first of Jack the Ripper's confirmed victims, is murdered. Wikipedia
• 1895 German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin patents his navigable balloon. Wikipedia
• 1897 Thomas Edison was granted a patent for the Kinetoscope, a precursor to the modern movie projector. Wikipedia
• 1939 Nazi forces, posing as Poles, staged an attack against the German radio station Sender Gleiwitz in Gleiwitz, Upper Silesia, Germany, creating an excuse to invade Poland the next day. Wikipedia
• 1940 Second World War: Two Royal navy destroyers were lost to mines and two other vessels damaged off Texel, Netherlands, killing around 300 men. Wikipedia
• 1941 World War II: A detachment of Chetniks captured the town of Loznica in German-occupied Serbia. Wikipedia
• 1942 The Matagorda hurricane, the most intense and costliest tropical cyclone of the 1942 Atlantic hurricane season, dissipated after causing $26.5 million in damages and eight deaths. Wikipedia
• 1959 A parcel bomb sent by Ngô Đình Nhu, younger brother and chief adviser of South Vietnamese president Ngô Đình Diệm, failed to kill Norodom Sihanouk, Prime Minister of Cambodia. Wikipedia
• 1969 On the final day of the Isle of Wight Festival 1969, attended by approximately 150,000 people over three days, Bob Dylan appeared in his first gig in three years. Wikipedia
• 1986 Aeroméxico Flight 498 collides with a Piper PA-28 Cherokee over Cerritos, California, killing 67 in the air and 15 on the ground. Wikipedia
• 1997 Diana, Princess of Wales, her partner Dodi Fayed, and their driver were killed in a car crash in Paris. Wikipedia
• 1999 The first of a series of bombings in Moscow kills one person and wounds 40 others. Wikipedia
• 2002 Typhoon Rusa made landfall in Goheung as the most powerful typhoon to hit South Korea in 43 years, killing at least 236 people. Wikipedia
• 2006 Edvard Munch's famous painting, The Scream, stolen on August 22, 2004, is recovered in a raid by Norwegian police. Wikipedia
• 2010 The last episode of The Bill, the longest-running police drama in British television history, was broadcast. Wikipedia
• 2016 Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff is impeached and removed from office. Wikipedia
• 2019 A sightseeing helicopter crashed in the mountains of Skoddevarre in Alta, Norway, killing all six people on board. Wikipedia
• 2025 An earthquake in eastern Afghanistan kills over 1400 people. Wikipedia

Born on August 31

• 12 Caligula, Roman emperor (died 41) Wikipedia
• 161 Commodus, Roman emperor (died 192) Wikipedia
• 1569 Jahangir, Mughal emperor (died 1627) Wikipedia
• 1811 Théophile Gautier, French poet and critic (died 1872) Wikipedia
• 1821 Hermann von Helmholtz, German physician and physicist (died 1894) Wikipedia
• 1870 Maria Montessori, Italian physician and educator (died 1952) Wikipedia
• 1879 Taishō, Emperor of Japan (died 1926) Wikipedia
• 1880 Wilhelmina, queen of the Netherlands (died 1962) Wikipedia
• 1897 Fredric March, American actor (died 1975) Wikipedia
• 1908 William Saroyan, American novelist, playwright, and short story writer (died 1981) Wikipedia
• 1919 Amrita Pritam, Indian poet and author (died 2005) Wikipedia
• 1928 James Coburn, American actor (died 2002) Wikipedia
• 1949 Richard Gere, American actor and producer Wikipedia
• 1949 Hugh David Politzer, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate Wikipedia
• 1956 Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwanese politician and the President of the Republic of China Wikipedia
• 1960 Hassan Nasrallah, Lebanese politician, 3rd Secretary-General of Hezbollah (died 2024) Wikipedia
• 1970 Queen Rania of Jordan Wikipedia
• 1970 Nikola Gruevski, Macedonian economist and politician, 6th Prime Minister of the Republic of Macedonia Wikipedia
• 1971 Chris Tucker, American comedian and actor Wikipedia
• 1982 Pepe Reina, Spanish footballer Wikipedia
• 1985 Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Wikipedia
• 1988 David Ospina, Colombian footballer Wikipedia

Died on August 31

• 1422 Henry V of England (born 1386) Wikipedia
• 1688 John Bunyan, English preacher, theologian, and author (born 1628) Wikipedia
• 1864 Ferdinand Lassalle, Prussian-German jurist and philosopher (born 1825) Wikipedia
• 1867 Charles Baudelaire, French poet and critic (born 1821) Wikipedia
• 1920 Wilhelm Wundt, German physician, psychologist, and philosopher (born 1832) Wikipedia
• 1941 Marina Tsvetaeva, Russian poet and author (born 1892) Wikipedia
• 1945 Stefan Banach, Polish mathematician (born 1892) Wikipedia
• 1963 Georges Braque, French painter and sculptor (born 1882) Wikipedia
• 1967 Ilya Ehrenburg, Russian journalist and author (born 1891) Wikipedia
• 1973 John Ford, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1894) Wikipedia
• 1986 Urho Kekkonen, Finnish journalist, lawyer, and politician, 8th President of Finland (born 1900) Wikipedia
• 1986 Henry Moore, English sculptor and illustrator (born 1898) Wikipedia
• 1997 Diana, Princess of Wales (born 1961) Wikipedia
• 2020 Pranab Mukherjee, Former President of India (born 1935) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Baloch-Pakhtun Unity Day (Balochs and Pashtuns, International observance) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Aidan of Lindisfarne Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Aristides of Athens Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Cuthburh Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Joseph of Arimathea Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Nicodemus Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Paulinus of Trier Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Raymond Nonnatus Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Wala of Corbie Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: August 31 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Day of Solidarity and Freedom (Poland) Wikipedia
• Departure Day, celebrates the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan Wikipedia
• Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Kyrgyzstan from the Soviet Union in 1991. Wikipedia
• Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Malaya from the United Kingdom in 1957. Wikipedia
• Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Trinidad and Tobago from the United Kingdom in 1962. Wikipedia
• Romanian Language Day (Romania, Moldova, Ukraine) Wikipedia
• Sabah Day (Sabah, Borneo) Wikipedia

Sources

• Wikipedia — “August 31” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/August 31” — the anniversaries editors chose for the date and the article each one is about (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikidata — in how many language editions each entry's own article exists, used to fill the lists (CC0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• vacanza/holidays (open-source holiday rules, MIT licence) — holiday rules used to build the lists (checked 2026-10-15)

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “August 31” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-15 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. Every anniversary that Wikipedia's editors selected for August 31 stays on the list; the remaining places, up to 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths, go to the entries whose own article — about the event itself, or else the person or thing it is about — appears in the most language editions (counted from Wikidata); an article about a person or thing, which covers far more than one day, counts half. An entry with no article of its own counts, also at half, by the least covered article it links, and one that links only places counts for nothing. Each list runs by year, and the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures, audio and video.