This is a list of selected August 31 anniversaries that appear in the "On this day" section of the Main Page. To suggest a new item, in most cases, you can be bold and edit this page. Please read the selected anniversaries guidelines before making your edit. However, if your addition might be controversial or on a day that is or will soon be on the Main Page, please post your suggestion on the talk page instead.
Please note that the events listed on the Main Page are chosen based more on relative article quality and to maintain a mix of topics, not based solely on how important or significant their subjects are. Only four to five events are posted at a time and thus not everything that is "most important and significant" can be listed. In addition, an event is generally not posted this year if it is also the subject of the scheduled featured article or picture of the day.
To report an error when this appears on the Main Page, see Main Page errors. Please remember that this list defers to the supporting articles, so it is best to achieve consensus and make any necessary changes there first.
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Images
Use only ONE image at a time
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Henry VI of England -
Sultan Abdul Hamid II -
Pont de l'Alma road tunnel -
Aerso Spacelines Super Guppy -
1925 photo of the Admiral Nakhimov sailing under her original name Berlin III -
An 1888 Punch cartoon depicting Jack the Ripper as a phantom stalking Whitechapel -
Dilma Rousseff -
Interior view of a Kinetoscope with peephole viewer
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Ineligible
| Blurb | Reason |
|---|---|
| Independence Day in Kyrgyzstan (1991) and Trinidad and Tobago (1962) | Kyrgyzstan: recentism, advertisement section and too many citations missing; T&T: unreferenced sections |
| National Heroes' Day in the Philippines (2020) | Link points to a one-paragraph section of another article. Not enough material to warrant main-page link. |
| 1056 – After a sudden illness a few days prior, Byzantine Empress Theodora Porphyrogenita died without children to succeed the throne, ending the Macedonian dynasty. | appears on January 11 |
| 1422 – As the only heir to the throne, Henry VI became King of England at the age of eight months following the death of his father Henry V. | unreferenced section |
| 1813 – Peninsular War: At the Battle of San Marcial, the Spanish Army of Galicia under Manuel Alberto Freire turned back Nicolas Soult's last major offensive against Arthur Wellesley's allied army. | lots of CN tags relative to length (4) |
| 1876 – Abdul Hamid II became Sultan of the Ottoman Empire when his brother Murad V was deposed. | refimprove section |
| 1920 – Polish–Soviet War: Polish forces, led by their cavalry, defeated the Bolshevik Red Army in the Battle of Komarów. | refimprove |
| 1935 – In an effort to stay out of the growing European conflict, the U.S. Congress passed the first of the Neutrality Acts. | Referencing issues |
| 1945 – The Liberal Party of Australia, one of the two major Australian political parties, was founded to replace the United Australia Party. | refimprove section |
| 1965 – The Aero Spacelines Super Guppy, a large, wide-bodied cargo aircraft used for ferrying outsized cargo components, made its first flight. | refimprove section |
| 1978 – Musa al-Sadr, the Iranian-born Shia cleric and then religious leader of Lebanon, disappeared during an official visit to Libya. | page numbers needed |
| 1982 – Anti-government demonstrations took place in 66 Polish cities to commemorate the second anniversary of the Gdańsk Agreement, which allowed the establishment of the Solidarity trade union. | unreferenced date |
| 1986 – After a collision with a freighter, the Soviet ocean liner Admiral Nakhimov sank in the Tsemes Bay area of the Black Sea within seven minutes, killing more than 400 people on board. | refimprove |
| 1986 – Aeroméxico Flight 498 collided with a privately owned Piper PA-28 Cherokee aircraft over Cerritos, California, killing 67 in the air and 15 on the ground. | external links |
| 1992 – The one-party Marxist rule in the Republic of the Congo officially ended when Pascal Lissouba was inaugurated as its president after a multi-party election. | date not in article, refimprove section |
| 1998 – North Korea claimed to have successfully launched its first satellite, Kwangmyŏngsŏng-1, although no objects were ever tracked in orbit from the launch. | referencing issues |
| 1999 – The first of a series of bombings in Moscow killed one person and wounded 40 others. | refimprove section |
| 2005 – Up to 1,000 people died following a stampede on the Al-Aaimmah bridge in Baghdad, the biggest loss of life in Iraq in one day since the 2003 invasion. | multiple issues |
| 2010 – The last episode of The Bill, the longest-running police drama in British television history, was broadcast. | already featured on October 16 |
| Ahmed Zayat |b|1962| | Birthday not cited |
| Queen Rania of Jordan |b|1970| | Fan POV tag |
Eligible
- 1876 – Sultan Murad V of the Ottoman Empire was deposed after a reign of 93 days on grounds of mental illness.
- 1897 – Thomas Edison was granted a patent for the Kinetoscope, a precursor to the modern movie projector.
- 1907 – Russia and the United Kingdom signed the Anglo-Russian Convention, defining their respective spheres of interest in Persia, Afghanistan, and Tibet.
- 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.
- 1940 – Second World War: Two Royal navy destroyers were lost to mines and two other vessels damaged off Texel, Netherlands, killing around 300 men.
- 1941 – World War II: A detachment of Chetniks captured the town of Loznica in German-occupied Serbia.
- 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.
- 1997 – Diana, Princess of Wales (pictured), her partner Dodi Fayed, and their driver were killed in a car crash in Paris.
- 2002 – Typhoon Rusa made landfall in Goheung as the most powerful typhoon to hit South Korea in 43 years, killing at least 236 people.
- 2016 – Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff was removed from office following her impeachment on charges of criminal administrative misconduct.
- Born/died this day: | Aidan of Lindisfarne |d|651|Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Ta'i |d|894| Agnes Bulmer |b|1775| Robert Calder |d|1818| Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin |b|1842| Alma Mahler |b|1879| Robert Bacher |b|1905| Paul Nobuo Tatsuguchi|b|1911| Frank Robinson |b|1935| Van Morrison |b|1945| Julie Maxton |b|1955| Norman Kirk |d|1974|Sara Ramirez |b|1975| Mickie James |b|1979| Manon Melis |b|1986
Notes
- Invasion of Poland appears on September 1, so Gleiwtiz incident should not appear in the same year
- History of Solidarity appears on September 17, so Gdańsk Agreement/1982 demonstrations in Poland should not appear in the same year
August 31: Independence Day in Malaysia (1957); Romanian Language Day in Moldova and Romania
Cartoon of Jack the Ripper as a phantom stalking Whitechapel
- 1218 – Al-Kamil became the fourth sultan of the Ayyubid dynasty of Egypt.
- 1888 – The body of Mary Ann Nichols, the alleged first victim of an unidentified serial killer known as Jack the Ripper (pictured), was found in Buck's Row, London.
- 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.
- 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.
- 2019 – A sightseeing helicopter crashed in the mountains of Skoddevarre in Alta, Norway, killing all six people on board.
- Aidan of Lindisfarne (d. 651)
- Alma Mahler (b. 1879)
- Feng Tianwei (b. 1986)
- William McAloney (d. 1995)
More anniversaries: