On This Day — 31 August

2000s

2025

A landslide in the Darfur region of Sudan kills over 1000 people. 26

2025 Tarasin landslide

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2025

An earthquake in eastern Afghanistan kills over 1400 people. 25

2025 Kunar earthquake

2024

A helicopter crashes in Kamchatka Krai in the Russian Far East, killing all 22 occupants.

2024 Kamchatka Mil Mi-8 crash

2016

Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff is impeached and removed from office.

Dilma Rousseff

2006

Edvard Munch's famous painting, The Scream, stolen on August 22, 2004, is recovered in a raid by Norwegian police.

Edvard Munch

2005

The 2005 Al-Aaimmah bridge stampede in Baghdad kills 953 people.

2005 Al-Aimmah Bridge disaster

2002

Typhoon Rusa, the most powerful typhoon to hit South Korea in 43 years, made landfall, killing at least 236 people.

Typhoon Rusa

1900s

1999

The first of a series of bombings in Moscow kills one person and wounds 40 others.

1999 Russian apartment bombings

1999

A LAPA Boeing 737-200 crashes during takeoff from Jorge Newbury Airport in Buenos Aires, killing 65, including two on the ground.

Líneas Aéreas Privadas Argentinas

1997

Diana, Princess of Wales, her partner, Dodi Fayed, and driver Henri Paul die in a car crash in Paris.

Diana, Princess of Wales

1996

Saddam Hussein's troops seized Irbil after the Kurdish Masoud Barzani appealed for help to defeat his Kurdish rival PUK.

Saddam Hussein

1994

Russia completes removing its troops from Estonia.

Estonia

1993

Russia completes removing its troops from Lithuania.

Lithuania

1991

Kyrgyzstan declares its independence from the Soviet Union.

Kyrgyzstan

1988

Delta Air Lines Flight 1141 crashes during takeoff from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, killing 14.

Delta Air Lines Flight 1141

1988

CAAC Flight 301 overshoots the runway at Kai Tak Airport and crashes into Kowloon Bay, killing seven people.

CAAC Flight 301

1987

Thai Airways Flight 365 crashes into the ocean near Ko Phuket, Thailand, killing all 83 aboard.

Thai Airways Flight 365

1986

Aeroméxico Flight 498 collides with a Piper PA-28 Cherokee over Cerritos, California, killing 67 in the air and 15 on the ground.

Aeroméxico Flight 498

1986

The Soviet passenger liner Admiral Nakhimov sinks in the Black Sea after colliding with the bulk carrier Pyotr Vasev, killing 423.

Soviet Union

1972

Aeroflot Flight 558 crashes in the Abzelilovsky District in Bashkortostan, Russia (then the Soviet Union), killing all 102 people aboard.

Aeroflot Flight 558

1968

Start of the Congress of Carrara, one of the major 20th century anarchist congresses.

Congress of Carrara

1963

Crown Colony of North Borneo (now Sabah) achieves self governance.

Crown Colony of North Borneo

1962

Trinidad and Tobago becomes independent.

Trinidad and Tobago

1959

A parcel bomb sent by Ngô Đình Nhu, younger brother and chief adviser of South Vietnamese President Ngô Đình Diệm, fails to kill King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia.

Letter bomb

1957

The Federation of Malaya (now Malaysia) gains its independence from the United Kingdom.

Federation of Malaya

1950

TWA Flight 903 crashes near Itay El Barud, Egypt, killing all 55 aboard.

TWA Flight 903

1949

The retreat of the Democratic Army of Greece into Albania after its defeat on Gramos mountain marks the end of the Greek Civil War.

Democratic Army of Greece

1943

USS Harmon, the first U.S. Navy ship to be named after a black person, is commissioned.

USS Harmon (DE-678)

1941

World War II: Serbian paramilitary forces defeat Germans in the Battle of Loznica.

World War II

1940

Pennsylvania Central Airlines Trip 19 crashes near Lovettsville, Virginia. The CAB investigation of the accident is the first investigation to be conducted under the Bureau of Air Commerce act of 1938.

Lovettsville air disaster

1939

Nazi Germany mounts a false flag attack on the Gleiwitz radio station, creating an excuse to attack Poland the following day, thus starting World War II in Europe.

Nazi Germany

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1936

Radio Prague, now the official international broadcasting station of the Czech Republic, goes on the air.

Radio Prague

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1935

In an attempt to stay out of the growing tensions concerning Germany and Japan, the United States passes the first of its Neutrality Acts.

Neutrality Acts of the 1930s

1933

The Integral Nationalist Group wins the 1933 Andorran parliamentary election, the first election in Andorra held with universal male suffrage.

1933 Andorran parliamentary election

1920

Polish–Soviet War: A decisive Polish victory in the Battle of Komarów.

Polish–Soviet War

1918

World War I: Start of the Battle of Mont Saint-Quentin, a successful assault by the Australian Corps during the Hundred Days Offensive.

World War I

1907

Russia and the United Kingdom sign the Anglo-Russian Convention, by which the UK recognizes Russian preeminence in northern Persia, while Russia recognizes British preeminence in southeastern Persia and Afghanistan. Both powers pledge not to interfere in Tibet.

Anglo-Russian Convention

1800s

1895

German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin patents his navigable balloon.

Ferdinand von Zeppelin

1888

Mary Ann Nichols, the first of Jack the Ripper's confirmed victims, is murdered.

Mary Ann Nichols

1886

The 7.0 Mw  Charleston earthquake strikes southeastern South Carolina with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme), killing 60 people and causing damage worth an estimated at $5 to $6 million.

1886 Charleston earthquake

1876

Ottoman Sultan Murad V is deposed and succeeded by his brother, Abdul Hamid II.

List of sultans of the Ottoman Empire

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.

American Civil War

1813

Peninsular War: Spanish troops repel a French attack in the Battle of San Marcial.

Peninsular War

Before 1800

1798

Irish Rebellion: Irish rebels, with French assistance, establish the short-lived Republic of Connacht.

Irish Rebellion of 1798

1795

War of the First Coalition: The British capture Trincomalee (present-day Sri Lanka) from the Dutch in order to keep it out of French hands.

War of the First Coalition

1776

William Livingston, the first Governor of New Jersey, begins serving his first term.

William Livingston

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1483

Under the influence of the Ottoman government, patriarch Symeon I convenes a synod of the Eastern Orthodox Churches in Constantinople which defines the ritual for admitting Catholics to the Eastern Orthodox Churches and condemns the church union of Ferrara-Florence.

Symeon I of Constantinople