Also on this day
Lead Story
1980
On this day in 1980, representatives of the communist government of Poland agree to the demands of striking shipyard workers in the city of Gdansk. Former electrician Lech Walesa led the striking workers, who went on to form Solidarity, the first independent labor union to develop in a Soviet bloc...
American Revolution
1777
Samuel Mason, a Patriot captain in command of Fort Henry on the Ohio frontier, survives a devastating Indian attack on this day in 1777.
The son of a distinguished Virginia family, Samuel Mason became a militia officer and was assigned to the western frontier post of Fort Henry in present-day West...
Automotive
1955
On this day in 1955, William G. Cobb of the General Motors Corp. (GM) demonstrates his 15-inch-long “Sunmobile,” the world’s first solar-powered automobile, at the General Motors Powerama auto show held in Chicago, Illinois.
Cobb’s Sunmobile introduced, however briefly, the field of photovoltaics–the process by which the sun’s rays are...
Civil War
1864
On this day in 1864, at the Battle of Jonesboro, Georgia, General William T. Sherman launches the attack that finally secures Atlanta, Georgia, for the Union, and seals the fate of Confederate General John Bell Hood’s army, which is forced to evacuate the area.
The Battle of Jonesboro was the culmination...
Cold War
1951
Following a hiking and mountain climbing trip through Asia, Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas issues a statement calling for the recognition of the communist People’s Republic of China. His comments touched off an angry partisan debate in the U.S. Senate. Douglas spent much of the summer of 1951 hiking...
Crime
1985
Richard Ramirez, the notorious “Night Stalker,” is captured and nearly killed by a mob in East Los Angeles, California, after being recognized from a photograph shown both on television and in newspapers. Recently identified as the serial killer, Ramirez was pulled from the enraged mob by police officers.
During the summer...
Disaster
1886
An earthquake near Charleston, South Carolina, on this day in 1886 leaves more than 100 people dead and hundreds of buildings destroyed. This was the largest recorded earthquake in the history of the southeastern United States.
The earthquake was preceded by foreshocks felt in Summerville, South Carolina, on August 27 and...
General Interest
1888
Prostitute Mary Ann Nichols, the first known victim of London serial killer “Jack the Ripper,” is found murdered and mutilated in the city’s Whitechapel district. London saw four more victims of the murderer during the next few months, but no suspect was ever found.In Victorian England, London’s East End was...
1897
Thomas Edison receives a patent for his movie camera, the Kinetograph. Edison had developed the camera and its viewer in the early 1890s and staged several demonstrations.
The camera was based on photographic principles discovered by still-photograph pioneers Joseph Nicephone Niepce and Louis Daguerre of France. In 1877, inventor Edward Muybridge...
1939
At noon, despite threats of British and French intervention, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler signs an order to attack Poland, and German forces move to the frontier. That evening, Nazi S.S. troops wearing Polish uniforms staged a phony invasion of Germany, damaging several minor installations on the German side of the...
Hollywood
1949
On this day in 1949, Richard Gere, the star of such hit films as An Officer and a Gentleman, Pretty Woman and Chicago, is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Gere was raised in the Syracuse, New York area and attended the University of Massachusetts at Amherst on a gymnastics scholarship. He left...
Literary
1908
William Saroyan, the son of an Armenian immigrant, is born in Fresno on this day in 1908.
Saroyan’s father died when the boy was only three, and he was raised in an orphanage. His mother later reunited the family. To earn extra money for the family, Saroyan started selling newspapers on...
Music
1928
Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera) receives its world premiere in Berlin on August 31, 1928.
“I think I’ve written a good piece and that several numbers in it, at least musically, have the best prospects for becoming popular very quickly.” This was the assessment offered by the German composer Kurt Weill...
Old West
1777
Samuel Mason, a captain in command of Fort Henry on the Ohio frontier, survives a devastating Indian attack only to become one of the young nation’s first western desperados.
The son of a distinguished Virginia family, Samuel Mason became a militia officer and was assigned to the western frontier post of...
Presidential
1935
On this day in 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Neutrality Act, or Senate Joint Resolution No. 173, which he calls an “expression of the desire…to avoid any action which might involve [the U.S.] in war.” The signing came at a time when newly installed fascist governments in Europe...
Sports
1959
On August 31, 1959, Brooklyn Dodgers left-hander Sandy Koufax strikes out 18 batters, setting a new National League record for most strikeouts in a single game.
Sandy Koufax was a talented all-around athlete from Borough Park in Brooklyn, New York. His first love was basketball, and he attended the University of...
Vietnam War
1955
Secretary of State John Foster Dulles supports South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem’s position regarding his refusal to hold “national and general elections” to reunify the two Vietnam states. Although these elections were called for by the Geneva Accords of July 1954, Diem and his supporters in the United...
1965
Premier Nguyen Cao Ky announces that South Vietnam would not negotiate with the Communists without guarantees that North Vietnamese troops would be withdrawn from the South. He also said that his government would institute major reforms to correct economic and social injustices. Also on this day: In the...
1967
Senate Preparedness Investigating Committee issues a call to step up bombing against the North, declaring that McNamara had “shackled” the air war against Hanoi, and calling for “closure, neutralization, or isolation of Haiphong.” President Johnson, attempting to placate Congressional “hawks” and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, expanded the approved...
1970
In South Vietnam, antigovernment Buddhist candidates appear to win 10 of 30 Senate seats contested in the previous day’s election. However, the Senate as a whole remained in the firm control of conservative, pro-government supporters. Catholics still held 50 percent of the Senate seats, even though they constituted only...
1972
U.S. weekly casualty figures of five dead and three wounded are the lowest recorded since record keeping began in January 1965. These numbers reflected the fact that there were less than 40,000 American troops left in South Vietnam by this time and very few of these were involved in...
World War I
1916
On this day in 1916, Harry Butters, an American soldier serving in the British army during World War I, is killed by a German shell during the Battle of the Somme, while fighting to secure the town of Guillemont, France.
The son of a prominent San Francisco industrialist, Butters was raised...
