Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/August 31

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.

← August 30	September 1 →

Staging area

Images

Use only ONE image at a time

• 
  Henry VI of England
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  Sultan Abdul Hamid II
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  Pont de l'Alma road tunnel
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  Aerso Spacelines Super Guppy
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  1925 photo of the Admiral Nakhimov sailing under her original name Berlin III
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  An 1888 Punch cartoon depicting Jack the Ripper as a phantom stalking Whitechapel

Ineligible

Blurb	Reason
Independence Day in Kyrgyzstan (1991), Malaysia (1957) and Trinidad and Tobago (1962)	Kyrgyzstan: recentism; Hari Merdeka: unreferenced section; T&T: unreferenced section
1056 – After a sudden illness a few days prior, Byzantine Empress Theodora 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.	refimprove sections
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)
1876 – Abdul Hamid II became Sultan of the Ottoman Empire when his brother Murad V was deposed.	refimprove section
1907 – The Great Game: Russia and the United Kingdom signed the Anglo-Russian Convention, defining their respective spheres of interest in Persia, Afghanistan, and Tibet.	no footnotes, inappropriate tone
1920 – Polish–Soviet War: Polish forces, led by their cavalry, defeated the Bolshevik Red Army in the Battle of Komarów.	refimprove
1941 – A detachment of Chetniks captured the town of Loznica in German-occupied Serbia.	Inadequate lead
1945 – The Liberal Party of Australia, one of the two major Australian political parties, was founded to replace the United Australia Party.	refimprove	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 of Cambodia.	{{fact}} tags and unreferenced content
1965 – The Aero Spacelines Super Guppy, a large, wide-bodied cargo aircraft used for ferrying outsized cargo components, made its first flight.	refimprove section
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
1999 – The first of a series of bombings in Moscow killed one person and wounded 40 others.	multiple issues
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

Eligible

• 1888 – Mary Ann Nichols' body was found on the ground in front of a gated stable entrance in Buck's Row, London, allegedly the first victim of the unidentified serial killer known as Jack the Ripper.
• 1935 – In an effort to stay out of the growing European conflict, the United States passed the first of its Neutrality Acts.
• 1978 – Musa al-Sadr, the Iranian-born Shia cleric and then religious leader of Lebanon, disappeared in Libya while on an official visit.
• 1998 – North Korea claimed to have successfully launched Kwangmyŏngsŏng-1, its first satellite, although no objects were ever tracked in orbit from the launch.
• 2016 – Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff was impeached and removed from office.
• Born/died this day:

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

Interior view of Kinetoscope with peephole viewer

• 1897 – Thomas Edison was granted a patent for the Kinetoscope (pictured), a precursor to the movie projector.
• 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.
• 1969 – Approximately 150,000 people attended the Isle of Wight Festival, which featured Bob Dylan in his first gig since 1966.
• 1982 – Anti-government demonstrations were held in 66 Polish cities to commemorate the second anniversary of the Gdańsk Agreement, which allowed the Solidarity trade union to be established.
• 1997 – Diana, Princess of Wales, her companion Dodi Fayed, and their driver Henri Paul were killed in a high speed car accident in the Pont de l'Alma road tunnel in Paris.

Aidan of Lindisfarne (d. 651) · Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin (b. 1842) · Sara Ramirez (b. 1975)

More anniversaries:

• August 30
• August 31
• September 1