Unix Timestamp: 1093910400
Tuesday, August 31. 2004, 12:00:00 AM UTC


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Friday, August 31, 2012

Armenia suspends diplomatic relations with Hungary after Ramil Safarov's extradition to Azerbaijan. //www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19440661 (BBC)

Friday, August 31, 2007

A tank truck crashes into four minibuses in Kisii, Kenya, resulting in at least 29 deaths and 30 injuries. //www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/31/africa/AF-GEN-Kenya-Tanker-Crash.php (AP via IHT)
Canadian police arrest a man in Toronto found with three letter bombs in the boot of his car. //www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/09/01/2021353.htm (ABC News Australia)

Wednesday, August 31, 2005

A crowd crush on the Al-Aaimmah bridge in Baghdad kills several hundred civilians (see Baghdad bridge stede).

Sunday, August 31, 2003

Terrorist: Terrorism group Jemaah Islamiyah has schemes, revealed in a 40-page manifesto (the Pupji book or "General Guide to the Struggle of Jemaah Islamiyah"), for a suicide bombing caign designed to change Asia and the Pacific region into Islamic provinces. Jemaah Islamiyah is also shown to be a well-formed organization with a constitution, rules of operation, and leadership structure. //www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,7128251%255E401,00.html
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency declassifies carbon dioxide as a pollutant, a move seen as leading to the elimination of restrictions on industrial emissions of the controversial gas. Climate scientists have debated carbon dioxide's role in global warming for over a decade, with most voices (though notably fewer within the US) calling it the biggest factor, while others call it negligible. //news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=438719

Friday, August 31, 2001

Tuesday, August 31, 1999

A magnitude 5.9 earthquake hits Athens, killing 143 and injuring more than 2,000.
Apple Computer releases the Power Macintosh G4.
Viacom and CBS merge.

Sunday, August 31, 1997

Death of Diana, Princess of Wales: Diana, Princess of Wales is taken to hospital after a car accident shortly after midnight, in the Pont de l'Alma road tunnel in Paris. She is pronounced dead at 3:00 am.

Saturday, August 31, 1991

Dissolution of the Soviet Union: Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan declare independence from the Soviet Union.

Thursday, August 31, 1989

In the aftermath of the Chadian–Libyan conflict of 1978-87, representatives of Libya and Chad agreed to let the International Court of Justice determine ownership of the Aouzou Strip, which had been occupied by Libya since 1973.

Monday, August 31, 1987

Michael Jackson releases his hit album "Bad".

Saturday, August 31, 1985

Richard Ramirez, the serial killer known as the Night Stalker, is captured in Los Angeles.
The wreck of the RMS \\\\\\\'\\\\\\\'Titanic\\\\\\\'\\\\\\\' (1912) in the North Atlantic is located by a joint American-French expedition led by Dr. Robert Ballard (WHOI) and Jean-Louis Michel (Ifremer) using side-scan sonar from RV ''Knorr''.

Monday, August 31, 1981

A bomb explodes at the U.S. Air Force base in Ramstein, West Germany, injuring 20 people.

Sunday, August 31, 1980

Victory of the strike in Gdańsk Shipyard, Poland. Gdańsk Agreement is signed, opening a way to start the first in the communist block free organization not controlled by regime Solidarność i.e. Solidarity.

Tuesday, August 31, 1965

President Johnson signs a law penalizing the burning of draft cards with up to 5 years in prison and a $1,000 fine.

Friday, August 31, 1962

Trinidad and Tobago becomes independent.
A referendum in Singapore supports the Malayan Federation.
Typhoon Wanda strikes Hong Kong, killing at least 130 and wounding more than 600.

Thursday, August 31, 1961

Construction of the Berlin Wall is completed after just 18 days.

Saturday, August 31, 1957

The Federation of Malaya gains independence from the United Kingdom. Tuanku Abdul Rahman ibni Almarhum Tuanku Muhammad, Yang di-Pertuan Besar of Negeri Sembilan becomes the first Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaya.

Sunday, August 31, 1952

The Grenzlandring racetrack closes in Wegberg, Germany.

Wednesday, August 31, 1949

Howard Unruh, a World War II veteran, kills thirteen neighbors in Camden, New Jersey with a souvenir Luger to become America's first single-episode mass murderer.
The retreat of the Greek Democratic Army in Albania after its defeat at Mount Grammos marks the end of the Greek Civil War.
Allied military authorities relinquish control of former Nazi Germany assets back to Germany.

Sunday, August 31, 1947

The communists seize power in Hungary.

Friday, August 31, 1945

WWII: Allied troops arrest German field marshal Walther von Brauchitsch.
Japanese general Tomoyuki Yamashita surrenders to Filipino and American forces at Kiangan, Ifugao.
WWII ends: The final official surrender of Japan is accepted by the Supreme Allied Commander, General Douglas MacArthur, and Fleet AdmiralChester Nimitz for the United States, and delegates from Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, China, and others from a Japanese delegation led by Mamoru Shigemitsu, on board the American battleship USS "Missouri" in Tokyo Bay.

Thursday, August 31, 1944

The Mad Gasser of Mattoon resumes his mysterious attacks in Mattoon, Illinois.

Monday, August 31, 1942

A general strike is launched in Luxembourg to protest against forced conscription.

Sunday, August 31, 1941

"The Great Gildersleeve" debuts on "NBC" Radio.

Wednesday, August 31, 1938

September ndash The European crisis over German demands for annexation of the Sudeten borderland of Czechoslovakia heats up.
Winston Churchill, still believing France and Britain mean to honor their promises to defend Czechoslovakia against Nazi aggression, suggests in a personal note to Neville Chamberlain that His Majesty's Government may want to set up a broad international alliance including the United States (specifically mentioning U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt as possibly receptive to the idea) and the Soviet Union.

Saturday, August 31, 1929

The Young Plan, which set the total World War I reparations owed by Germany at US$26,350,000,000 to be paid over a period of 58½ years, is finalized.

Friday, August 31, 1928

Richard Byrd leaves New York for the Arctic.

Sunday, August 31, 1919

The American Communist Party is established.

Tuesday, August 31, 1915

Jimmy Lavender of the Chicago Cubs pitches a no hitter against the New York Giants.

Monday, August 31, 1914

St. Petersburg, Russia changes its name to "Petrograd".
Australia enters the First World War.
The last known passenger pigeon Martha dies in the CincinnatiZoo.

Saturday, August 31, 1907

Count Alexander Izvolsky and Sir Arthur Nicolson sign the St. Petersburg Convention, which results in the establishment of the Triple Entente.

Friday, August 31, 1888

Mary Ann Nichols is murdered. She is considered the first of Jack the Ripper's victims.

Tuesday, August 31, 1886

An earthquake of between 7.3 and 7.6 on the Richter Scale hits Charlestown, South Carolina, leaving 40,000 homeless.

Thursday, August 31, 1876

Murat V, sultan of the Ottoman Empire is deposed and succeeded by his brother Abdul Hamid II.

Thursday, August 31, 1871

Adolphe Thiers becomes the President of the French Republic.
September ndash Whaling Disaster of 1871: 1,219 people abandon 33 whaling ships caught in the ice pack off the northern coast of Alaska.

Tuesday, August 31, 1869

Irish scientist Mary Ward is killed in a steam car accident, probably the world's first victim of a mechanically-propelled road vehicle.

Wednesday, August 31, 1864

American Civil War: Union forces led by General William T. Sherman launch an assault on Atlanta, Georgia.

Thursday, August 31, 1854

September 8 ndash An epidemic of cholera in London kills 10,000. Dr John Snow traces the source of one outbreak (that killed 500) to a single water pump, validating his theory that cholera is water-borne, and forming the starting point for epidemiology.

Saturday, August 31, 1839

The First Carlist war (Spain) ends with the Convenio de Vergara, also known as the Abrazo de Vergara (the embrace in Vergara Bergara in Basque), between liberal general Baldomero Espartero, Count of Luchana and Carlist General Rafael Maroto.

Tuesday, August 31, 1830

Edwin Beard Budding is granted a patent for the invention of the lawnmower.

Friday, August 31, 1827

Tuesday, August 31, 1813

September ndash Robert Southey becomes Poet Laureate of Britain.
After besieging San Sebastian, allied troops of Spain rage, ransack and burn down the town almost entirely.

Saturday, August 31, 1715

Opening of Old Dock, Liverpool, England, the world's first enclosed commercial wet dock (Thomas Steers, engineer).
September ndash The first of the major Jacobite Rebellions in Scotland against the rule of King George I breaks out. The Earl of Mar raises the standard of James Edward Stuart and marches on Edinburgh. James, the son of the deposed King James VII, arrives from France.

Sunday, August 31, 1681

Titus Oates is told to leave his state apartments in the Whitehall his fame begins to wane and he is soon arrested and imprisoned for sedition.

Friday, August 22, 1432 (Julianian calendar)

Sigismund Kęstutaitis attempts a capture or murder of Švitrigaila, his rival for the throne of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Švitrigaila manages to escape.

Saturday, August 22, 1422 (Julianian calendar)

Henry VI becomes King of England aged nine months.

Friday, August 23, 1314 (Julianian calendar)

October ndash Louis IV elected Holy Roman Emperor.
King Håkon V Magnusson moves the capital of Norway from Bergen to Oslo, where he builds Akershus Fortress. Norway is ruled from this fortress the next 500 years.

Friday, August 24, 1218 (Julianian calendar)

Al-Kamil becomes the new Egyptian Sultan on the death of his father Al-Adil.

Thursday, August 24, 1217 (Julianian calendar)

Ferdinand becomes King of Castile on abdication of his mother Berengaria.

Friday, August 27, 784 (Julianian calendar)

Paul IV abdicates as Patriarch of Constantinople.
Source: Wikipedia