What happened on August 31 ?

651 - Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne, Irish bishop and missionary

1056 - Theodora, Byzantine Empress (b. 981)

1234 - Emperor Go-Horikawa of Japan (b. 1212)

1372 - Ralph Stafford, 1st Earl of Stafford, English soldier (b. 1301)

1422 - King Henry V of England (b. 1387)

1645 - Francesco Bracciolini, Italian poet (b. 1566)

1654 - Ole Worm, Danish physician (b. 1588)

1688 - John Bunyan, English writer (b. 1628)

1730 - Gottfried Finger, Czech composer (b. 1660?)

1741 - Johann Gottlieb Heineccius, German jurist (b. 1681)

1772 - William Borlase, English naturalist (b. 1695)

1782 - George Croghan, American colonist

1795 - François-André Danican Philidor, French chess player (b. 1726)

1799 - Nicolas-Henri Jardin, French architect (b. 1720)

1814 - Arthur Phillip, British admiral, first Governor of New South Wales (b. 1738)

1867 - Charles Baudelaire, French poet (b. 1821)

1920 - Wilhelm Wundt, German psychologist (b. 1832)

1941 - Marina Tsvetaeva, Russian poet (b. 1892), hanged herself.

1963 - Georges Braque, French painter (b. 1882)

1967 - Ilya Ehrenburg, Russian writer (b. 1891)

1969 - Rocky Marciano, American boxer (b. 1923)

1973 - John Ford, American film director (b. 1894)

1978 - John Wrathall, President of Rhodesia (b. 1913)

1979 - Sally Rand, American dancer and actress (b. 1904)

1985 - Frank Macfarlane Burnet, Australian biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1899)

1986 - Henry Moore, English sculptor (b. 1898)

1986 - Urho Kekkonen, President of Finland (b. 1900)

1997 - Diana, Princess of Wales (vehicular collision) (b. 1961)

1997 - Dodi Fayed, Egyptian-born film producer (vehicular collision) (b. 1955)

2002 - Lionel Hampton, American vibraphone player (b. 1908)

2002 - George Porter, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1920)

2004 - Carl Wayne, English singer (b. 1943)

2005 - Joseph Rotblat, Polish-British physicist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1908)

2005 - Michael Sheard, British actor (b. 1940)