August 31

1776 – William Livingston, the first Governor of New Jersey, begins serving his first term.

1864 – Union forces led by General Sherman launch a final assault on besieged Atlanta.

1870 – Maria Montessori is born in Chiaravalle, Italy

1886 – A 7.0 Mw  power earthquake hits southeastern South Carolina killing 60 people and causing over $6 million in damage.

1888 – Jack the Ripper murders his first victim, Mary Ann Nichols

1895 – Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin patents his ‘Navigable Balloon’.

1897 – Thomas Edison patents the Kinetoscope, a type of movie projector

1935 – In an attempt to stay out of the growing tensions concerning Germany and Japan, the United States passes the first Neutrality Act.

1939 – Nazi Germany mounts a false flag attack on the Gleiwitz radio station, creating an excuse to attack Poland, precipitating the beginning of World War II.

1940 – Pennsylvania Central Airlines Trip 19, a Douglas DC-3, crashes near Lovettsville, Virginia. The investigation of the accident is the first to be conducted under the Bureau of Air Commerce act of 1938.

1945 – General Douglas MacArthur establishes the Supreme Allied Command occupation headquarters in Tokyo.

1950 – TWA Flight 903, a Lockheed Constellation, crashes near Itay El Barud, Egypt while attempting to return to Cairo due to an engine fire, killing all 55 passengers and crew aboard.

1969 – Rocco ‘Rocky’ Marciano along with pilot Glenn Belz and passenger Frankie Farrell, die in a small plane crash near Newton, Iowa

1986 – Aeroméxico Flight 498,  a McDonnell Douglas DC-9, collides with a Piper PA-28 Cherokee over Cerritos, California, killing all 67 passengers and crew aboard both planes, and 15 more people on the ground.

1988 – Delta Air Lines Flight 1141, a Boeing 727, crashes during takeoff from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, killing 2 crew members and 12 passengers of the 108 passengers and crew aboard.

1997 – Diana, Princess of Wales, her companion Dodi Fayed, and driver Henri Paul are killed in a car crash in Paris.

2016 – Brazil’s President, Dilma Rousseff is impeached and removed from office.