On this day in history

August 31

27 births · 25 deaths · 5 events

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Anniversary highlights

Event anniversary

Gleiwitz incident

87 years ago

Born this day

AD 12

Caligula

Died aged 28

Photo (modified): J. Paul Getty Museum · CC0

Oldest record

2014th

Caligula

birth anniversary

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Famous births27

AD 12 · 2014 yrs

Caligula

Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (31 August AD 12 – 24 January AD 41), also called Gaius or Caligula, was the third Roman emperor, ruling from AD 37 until his assassination in AD 41.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 28

View profile Photo (modified): J. Paul Getty Museum · CC0

AD 161 · 1865 yrs

Commodus

Commodus (Latin:; 31 August 161 – 31 December 192) was Roman emperor from 177 to 192, first serving as nominal co-emperor under his father Marcus Aurelius and then ruling alone from 180.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 31

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1821 · 205 yrs

Hermann von Helmholtz

Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz (31 August 1821 – 8 September 1894; "von" since 1883) was a German physicist and physician who made significant contributions in several scientific fields, particularly hydrodynamic stability.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 73

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1840 · 186 yrs

Giovanni Verga

Giovanni Carmelo Verga di Fontanabianca (Italian:; 2 September 1840 – 27 January 1922) was an Italian realist (verista) writer. His novels I Malavoglia (1881) and Mastro-don Gesualdo (1889) are widely recognized as masterpieces.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 81

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1870 · 156 yrs

Maria Montessori

Maria Tecla Artemisia Montessori ( MON-tiss-OR-ee; Italian:; 31 August 1870 – 6 May 1952) was an Italian physician and educator best known for her philosophy of education (the Montessori method) and her writing on scientific pedagogy.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 81

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1874 · 152 yrs

Edward Thorndike

Edward Lee Thorndike ((1874-08-31)August 31, 1874 – (1949-08-09)August 9, 1949) was an American psychologist who spent nearly his entire career at Teachers College, Columbia University.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Notable PeopleDied aged 74

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1879 · 147 yrs

Emperor Taishō

Emperor Taishō (31 August 1879 – 25 December 1926), personal name (imina) Yoshihito, was Emperor of Japan from 29 July 1912 until his death in 1926. His reign was marked by a domestic political shift toward liberal democracy, called Taishō Democracy.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyWould be 147

View profile Photo (modified): Ministry of the Imperial Household · Public domain

1880 · 146 yrs

Wilhelmina of the Netherlands

Wilhelmina (Dutch pronunciation:; Wilhelmina Helena Pauline Maria; 31 August 1880 – 28 November 1962) was Queen of the Netherlands from 1890 until her abdication in 1948. She reigned for nearly 58 years, making her the longest-reigning monarch in Dutch history.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyWould be 146

View profile Photo (modified): Studio of Jacob Merkelbach · Public domain

1897 · 129 yrs

Fredric March

Fredric March (born Ernest Frederick McIntyre Bickel; August 31, 1897 – April 14, 1975) was an American actor, regarded as one of Hollywood's most celebrated stars of the 1930s and 1940s. As a performer he was known for his versatility.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

FilmWould be 129

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown photographer · Public domain

1908 · 118 yrs

William Saroyan

William Saroyan (August 31, 1908 – May 18, 1981) was an American novelist, playwright, and short story writer of Armenian descent. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1940, and in 1943 won the Academy Award for Best Story for the film The Human Comedy.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureWould be 118

View profile Photo (modified): Tzolag Hovsepian · CC BY-SA 4.0

1919 · 107 yrs

Amrita Pritam

Amrita Pritam (31 August 1919 – 31 October 2005) was an Indian novelist, essayist and poet, who wrote in Punjabi and Hindi. A prominent figure in Punjabi literature, she is the recipient of the 1956 Sahitya Akademi Award.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureWould be 107

View profile Photo (modified): Amarjit Chandan Collection · Public domain

1928 · 98 yrs

James Coburn

James Harrison Coburn III (August 31, 1928 – November 18, 2002) was an American actor who featured in more than 70 films, largely action roles, and made 100 television appearances during a 45-year career. Coburn was in numerous leading roles in Westerns and action films.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

FilmWould be 98

View profile Photo (modified): NBC Television · Public domain

Showing 12 of 27

Famous deaths25

AD 870 · 1156 yrs

Muḥammad ibn Ismaeel al-Bukhārī

Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Ibrāhīm al-Juʿfī al-Bukhārī (Arabic: أبو عبد الله محمد بن إسماعيل بن إبرهيم الجعفي البخاري; 21 July 810 C.E – 1 September 870; AH 194–256), commonly known as al-Bukhārī, was a 9th-century Muslim muhaddith and one of the foremost authorities on hadith, widely regarded as the most…

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ReligionDied aged 60

View profile Photo (modified): ShafiNotes · CC0

1422 · 604 yrs

Henry V of England

Henry V (16 September 1386 – 31 August 1422), also called Henry of Monmouth, was King of England, Lord of Ireland, and Duke of Aquitaine from 1413 until his death in 1422.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 35

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1688 · 338 yrs

John Bunyan

John Bunyan (1628 – 31 August 1688) was an English writer and nonconformist preacher. He is best remembered as the author of the Christian allegory The Pilgrim's Progress, which also became an influential literary model.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 59

View profile Photo (modified): Thomas Sadler · Public domain

1724 · 302 yrs

Louis I of Spain

Louis I (Luis Felipe Fernando; Spanish: Luis I; 25 August 1707 – 31 August 1724) was King of Spain from 15 January 1724 until his death in August the same year. His reign is one of the shortest in history, lasting for just over seven months.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 17

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1811 · 215 yrs

Louis-Antoine de Bougainville

Louis-Antoine, Comte de Bougainville (French:; 12 November 1729 – 31 August 1811) was a French military officer and explorer.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ExplorationDied aged 81

View profile Photo (modified): Joseph Ducreux · Public domain

1864 · 162 yrs

Ferdinand Lassalle

Ferdinand Johann Gottlieb Lassalle (11 April 1825 – 31 August 1864) was a German jurist, philosopher, and socialist activist. Best remembered as an initiator of the social democratic movement in Germany, in 1863 he founded the General German Workers' Association (ADAV), the first independent German workers' party.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 39

View profile Photo (modified): Philipp Graff · Public domain

1920 · 106 yrs

Wilhelm Wundt

Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt (German:; 16 August 1832 – 31 August 1920) was a German physiologist, philosopher, professor, and one of the fathers of modern psychology. Wundt, who distinguished psychology as a science from philosophy and biology, was the first person to call himself a psychologist.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 88

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1941 · 85 yrs

Marina Tsvetaeva

Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva (Russian: Марина Ивановна Цветаева, IPA:; 8 October 1892 – 31 August 1941) was a Russian poet. Her work is some of the best known in twentieth-century Russian literature.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureWould be 134

View profile Photo (modified): Pierre Choumoff · Public domain

1945 · 81 yrs

Stefan Banach

Stefan Banach (Polish:; 30 March 1892 – 31 August 1945) was a Polish mathematician who is generally considered one of the 20th century's most important and influential mathematicians. He was one of the founders of modern functional analysis, and an original member of the Lwów School of Mathematics.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 134

View profile Photo (modified): nieznany/unknown · Public domain

1948 · 78 yrs

Andrei Zhdanov

Andrei Aleksandrovich Zhdanov (Russian: Андрей Александрович Жданов, IPA:; 26 February 1896 – 31 August 1948) was a Soviet politician.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 130

View profile Photo (modified): ТАСС · Public domain

1963 · 63 yrs

Georges Braque

Georges Braque ( BRA(H)K; French:; 13 May 1882 – 31 August 1963) was a major 20th-century French painter, collagist, draughtsman, printmaker and sculptor. His most notable contributions were in his alliance with Fauvism from 1905, and the role he played in the development of Cubism.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ArtWould be 144

View profile Photo (modified): Photographer non-identified, anonymous · Public domain

1967 · 59 yrs

Ilya Ehrenburg

Ilya Grigoryevich Ehrenburg (Russian: Илья Григорьевич Эренбург, pronounced; 26 January 1891 – 31 August 1967) was a Soviet writer, poet, revolutionary, journalist, translator, and cultural figure. Ehrenburg was among the most prolific and notable authors of the Soviet Union; he published around one hundred titles.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureWould be 135

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Showing 12 of 25

Events5

1939 · 87 yrs

Gleiwitz incident

The Gleiwitz incident, or Gliwice incident (German: Überfall auf den Sender Gleiwitz; Polish: prowokacja gliwicka), was a false flag attack on the radio station Sender Gleiwitz in Gleiwitz (then Germany and now Gliwice, Poland) staged by Nazi Germany on the night of 31 August 1939.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

2007 · 19 yrs

Hurricane Felix

Hurricane Felix was an extremely powerful and destructive tropical cyclone which became the southernmost-landfalling Category 5 storm on record. It was the sixth named storm, second hurricane, and second Category 5 hurricane of the 2007 Atlantic hurricane season.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Disaster

2023 · 3 yrs

80 Albert Street Fire

On 31 August 2023 at around 01:30 SAST, a fire engulfed an illegally occupied government-owned building in Johannesburg, South Africa; 77 people were killed and 88 others were injured. It was one of the deadliest fires in South African history.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Disaster

2024 · 2 yrs

Typhoon Yagi

Typhoon Yagi was a powerful tropical cyclone that caused extensive damage in Southeast Asia and South China in early September 2024. Known in the Philippines as Severe Tropical Storm Enteng and in Vietnam as Typhoon No.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Disaster

2025 · 1 yrs

August 2025 Afghanistan earthquake

On 31 August 2025, at 23:47 AFT (19:17 UTC), an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.0 on the moment magnitude scale (Mw) struck eastern Afghanistan, near the border with Pakistan. The epicenter of the quake was located in Nurgal District, Kunar Province.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Disaster

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