August 31
1886 - An earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.3 devastated Charleston, South Carolina, killing at least 60 people, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
1887 - Thomas Edison received a patent for his "Kinetoscope", and the era of moving pictures was born.
1888 - Mary Ann Nichols, considered to be the first victim of Jack the Ripper, was found murdered in London.
1935 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an act prohibiting the export of U.S. arms to belligerents.
1939 - The first issue of Marvel Comics, featuring "The Human Torch," was published by Timely Publications in New York.
1954 - Hurricane Carol hit the northeastern United States, resulting in nearly 70 deaths and millions of dollars in damage.
1962 - Trinidad and Tobago gained independence from Great Britain.
1980 - Poland's Solidarity labor movement had its beginnings when an agreement ending a 17-day strike was signed in Gdansk.
1985 - California's "Night Stalker" killer Richard Ramirez was captured by residents of an East Los Angeles neighborhood.
1986 - 82 people were killed when an Aeromexico jetliner and a small private plane collided over Cerritos, California.
1986 - The Soviet passenger ship Admiral Nakhimov collided with a merchant vessel in the Black Sea, causing both to sink; up to 448 people reportedly died.
1992 - White separatist Randy Weaver surrendered to authorities in Naples, Idaho, ending an 11-day siege by federal agents that claimed the lives of Weaver's wife and son and a deputy U.S. marshal. (Weaver was acquitted of murder and all other charges in connection with the confrontation; he was convicted of failing to appear for trial on firearms charges and was sentenced to 18 months in prison but given credit for 14 months he'd already served.)
1994 - The Irish Republican Army officially declared a cease-fire.
1994 - Russia officially ended its military presence in the former East Germany and the Baltic states.
1996 - Three adults and four children drowned when their vehicle rolled into John D. Long Lake in Union, South Carolina; they had gone to see the monument to the sons of Susan Smith, who had drowned the two boys in October 1994.
1997 - Princess Diana, age 36, and her companion Dodi al-Fayed, along with their driver, were killed in an automobile accident in Paris; Prince Charles escorted the body of his ex-wife back to a shocked and grief-stricken Great Britain.
2005 - New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin reported "a significant number of dead bodies in the water" following Hurricane Katrina; Nagin ordered virtually the entire police force to abandon search-and-rescue efforts and to instead stop increasingly hostile thieves.
2005 - Some 1,000 people were killed when a religious procession across a Baghdad bridge was engulfed in panic of rumors of a suicide bomber.
2006 - Iran defied a U.N. deadline to stop enriching uranium.
2009 - Walt Disney Co. announced it was acquiring comic book giant Marvel Entertainment in a $4 billion deal.
2010 - President Barack Obama ended the U.S. combat mission in Iraq, declaring no victory after seven years of bloodshed.
2011 - The Wartime Contracting Commission issued a report saying the U.S. had lost billions of dollars to waste and fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan and stood to repeat that in future wars without big changes in how the federal government awarded and managed contracts for battlefield support and reconstruction projects.
2012 - Armenia severed diplomatic relations with Hungary after the pardoning of Ramil Safarov. In 2004, Safarov was convicted of killing an Armenian solider.
2016 - On Mexican soil for the first time as the Republican presidential nominee, a firm but measured Donald Trump defended the right of the United States to build a massive border wall along its southern flank, standing up for the centerpiece of his immigration plan during a joint press conference with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.
2016 - The first commercial flight between the United States and Cuba in more than a half century, a JetBlue Airbus A320, landed in the central city of Santa Clara, re-establishing regular air service severed at the height of the Cold War.
2018 - Aretha Franklin, the "Queen of Soul," was laid to rest after an eight-hour funeral at a Detroit Church.
2019 - A gunman carried out a shooting rampage that stretched ten miles between the Texas communities of Midland and Odessa, leaving seven people dead before police killed the gunman outside a movie theater in Odessa.
2020 - At a rally in Pittsburgh, Democrat Joe Biden resoundingly condemned violent protesters and called for their prosecution; he accused President Donald Trump of causing the divisions that had ignited the violence. Trump reiterated that he blamed radical troublemakers who he said were stirred up and backed by Biden.
2020 - The Federal Aviation Administration said it had granted Amazon approval to deliver packages by drones; Amazon said it was still testing and flying the drones.
Birthdays
26 - Chloe Ferry (reality star)
33 - Ember Moon (professional wrestler)
38 - Larry Fitzgerald (football player)
42 - Mickie James (professional wrestler)
44 - Tamara (singer)
44 - Jeff Hardy (professional wrestler)
45 - Shar Jackson (actress)
46 - Sara Ramirez (actress)
49 - Chris Tucker (actor)
50 - Padraig Harrington (golfer)
51 - Zack Ward (actor)
51 - Deborah Gibson (singer)
56 - Jaime Gomez (actor)
66 - Edwin Moses (track & field athlete)
72 - Stephen Henderson (actor)
72 - Richard Gere (actor)
76 - Van Morrison (singer)
81 - Jack Thompson (actor)
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Today in Sports History - August 31
1881 - The first tennis championships in the U.S. were played.
1950 - Gil Hodges of the Brooklyn Dodgers hit four home runs in a single game off of four different pitchers.
1959 - Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers set a National League record by striking out 18 batters.
1969 - Boxer Rocky Marciano died in an airplane crash in Cockeye.
1987 - Curtis Strange sets a new record for highest golf earnings in one year at $697,385.
1990 - Outfielders Ken Griffey and Ken Griffey Jr. become the first father and son to play on the same team (Seattle Mariners). The pair hit back-to-back singles in the first inning and both scored.
1991 - University of Houston quarterback David Klinger set an NCAA record with six touchdown passes in the second quarter as the Cougars routed Louisiana Tech 73-3.
1995 - #2 Nebraska opens the season with a 64-21 win over Oklahoma State.
1997 - The New York Yankees retired Don Mattingly's #23.
1997 - Eddie George runs for 216 yards on 35 carries and scores as touchdowns as the Oilers, playing their first NFL game in Tennessee, defeat the Oakland Raiders 24-21 in overtime.
2002 - #9 Nebraska defeats Troy State 31-16.
2013 - #18 Nebraska opens the season with a 37-34 win over Wyoming.
2019 - The Minnesota Twins hit six home runs in a 10-7 loss to the Detroit Tigers, breaking the MLB record with 268 home runs on the season.
2019 - #24 Nebraska opens the season with a 35-21 win over South Alabama.
2020 - The U.S. Open, the first Grand Slam tennis event in nearly six months, began in New York with no fans in attendance because of the pandemic.
2020 - The family of John Thompson announced that the former Georgetown University basketball coach had died at the age of 78; he was the first Black coach to lead a team to the NCAA men's basketball national championship.
1886 - An earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.3 devastated Charleston, South Carolina, killing at least 60 people, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
1887 - Thomas Edison received a patent for his "Kinetoscope", and the era of moving pictures was born.
1888 - Mary Ann Nichols, considered to be the first victim of Jack the Ripper, was found murdered in London.
1935 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an act prohibiting the export of U.S. arms to belligerents.
1939 - The first issue of Marvel Comics, featuring "The Human Torch," was published by Timely Publications in New York.
1954 - Hurricane Carol hit the northeastern United States, resulting in nearly 70 deaths and millions of dollars in damage.
1962 - Trinidad and Tobago gained independence from Great Britain.
1980 - Poland's Solidarity labor movement had its beginnings when an agreement ending a 17-day strike was signed in Gdansk.
1985 - California's "Night Stalker" killer Richard Ramirez was captured by residents of an East Los Angeles neighborhood.
1986 - 82 people were killed when an Aeromexico jetliner and a small private plane collided over Cerritos, California.
1986 - The Soviet passenger ship Admiral Nakhimov collided with a merchant vessel in the Black Sea, causing both to sink; up to 448 people reportedly died.
1992 - White separatist Randy Weaver surrendered to authorities in Naples, Idaho, ending an 11-day siege by federal agents that claimed the lives of Weaver's wife and son and a deputy U.S. marshal. (Weaver was acquitted of murder and all other charges in connection with the confrontation; he was convicted of failing to appear for trial on firearms charges and was sentenced to 18 months in prison but given credit for 14 months he'd already served.)
1994 - The Irish Republican Army officially declared a cease-fire.
1994 - Russia officially ended its military presence in the former East Germany and the Baltic states.
1996 - Three adults and four children drowned when their vehicle rolled into John D. Long Lake in Union, South Carolina; they had gone to see the monument to the sons of Susan Smith, who had drowned the two boys in October 1994.
1997 - Princess Diana, age 36, and her companion Dodi al-Fayed, along with their driver, were killed in an automobile accident in Paris; Prince Charles escorted the body of his ex-wife back to a shocked and grief-stricken Great Britain.
2005 - New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin reported "a significant number of dead bodies in the water" following Hurricane Katrina; Nagin ordered virtually the entire police force to abandon search-and-rescue efforts and to instead stop increasingly hostile thieves.
2005 - Some 1,000 people were killed when a religious procession across a Baghdad bridge was engulfed in panic of rumors of a suicide bomber.
2006 - Iran defied a U.N. deadline to stop enriching uranium.
2009 - Walt Disney Co. announced it was acquiring comic book giant Marvel Entertainment in a $4 billion deal.
2010 - President Barack Obama ended the U.S. combat mission in Iraq, declaring no victory after seven years of bloodshed.
2011 - The Wartime Contracting Commission issued a report saying the U.S. had lost billions of dollars to waste and fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan and stood to repeat that in future wars without big changes in how the federal government awarded and managed contracts for battlefield support and reconstruction projects.
2012 - Armenia severed diplomatic relations with Hungary after the pardoning of Ramil Safarov. In 2004, Safarov was convicted of killing an Armenian solider.
2016 - On Mexican soil for the first time as the Republican presidential nominee, a firm but measured Donald Trump defended the right of the United States to build a massive border wall along its southern flank, standing up for the centerpiece of his immigration plan during a joint press conference with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.
2016 - The first commercial flight between the United States and Cuba in more than a half century, a JetBlue Airbus A320, landed in the central city of Santa Clara, re-establishing regular air service severed at the height of the Cold War.
2018 - Aretha Franklin, the "Queen of Soul," was laid to rest after an eight-hour funeral at a Detroit Church.
2019 - A gunman carried out a shooting rampage that stretched ten miles between the Texas communities of Midland and Odessa, leaving seven people dead before police killed the gunman outside a movie theater in Odessa.
2020 - At a rally in Pittsburgh, Democrat Joe Biden resoundingly condemned violent protesters and called for their prosecution; he accused President Donald Trump of causing the divisions that had ignited the violence. Trump reiterated that he blamed radical troublemakers who he said were stirred up and backed by Biden.
2020 - The Federal Aviation Administration said it had granted Amazon approval to deliver packages by drones; Amazon said it was still testing and flying the drones.
Birthdays
26 - Chloe Ferry (reality star)
33 - Ember Moon (professional wrestler)
38 - Larry Fitzgerald (football player)
42 - Mickie James (professional wrestler)
44 - Tamara (singer)
44 - Jeff Hardy (professional wrestler)
45 - Shar Jackson (actress)
46 - Sara Ramirez (actress)
49 - Chris Tucker (actor)
50 - Padraig Harrington (golfer)
51 - Zack Ward (actor)
51 - Deborah Gibson (singer)
56 - Jaime Gomez (actor)
66 - Edwin Moses (track & field athlete)
72 - Stephen Henderson (actor)
72 - Richard Gere (actor)
76 - Van Morrison (singer)
81 - Jack Thompson (actor)
===========================================
Today in Sports History - August 31
1881 - The first tennis championships in the U.S. were played.
1950 - Gil Hodges of the Brooklyn Dodgers hit four home runs in a single game off of four different pitchers.
1959 - Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers set a National League record by striking out 18 batters.
1969 - Boxer Rocky Marciano died in an airplane crash in Cockeye.
1987 - Curtis Strange sets a new record for highest golf earnings in one year at $697,385.
1990 - Outfielders Ken Griffey and Ken Griffey Jr. become the first father and son to play on the same team (Seattle Mariners). The pair hit back-to-back singles in the first inning and both scored.
1991 - University of Houston quarterback David Klinger set an NCAA record with six touchdown passes in the second quarter as the Cougars routed Louisiana Tech 73-3.
1995 - #2 Nebraska opens the season with a 64-21 win over Oklahoma State.
1997 - The New York Yankees retired Don Mattingly's #23.
1997 - Eddie George runs for 216 yards on 35 carries and scores as touchdowns as the Oilers, playing their first NFL game in Tennessee, defeat the Oakland Raiders 24-21 in overtime.
2002 - #9 Nebraska defeats Troy State 31-16.
2013 - #18 Nebraska opens the season with a 37-34 win over Wyoming.
2019 - The Minnesota Twins hit six home runs in a 10-7 loss to the Detroit Tigers, breaking the MLB record with 268 home runs on the season.
2019 - #24 Nebraska opens the season with a 35-21 win over South Alabama.
2020 - The U.S. Open, the first Grand Slam tennis event in nearly six months, began in New York with no fans in attendance because of the pandemic.
2020 - The family of John Thompson announced that the former Georgetown University basketball coach had died at the age of 78; he was the first Black coach to lead a team to the NCAA men's basketball national championship.
