Today In History - August 31

1535 Pope Paul II deposed & excommunicated King Henry VIII
1778 British kill 17 Stockbridge American Indians in the Bronx during the Revolution
1842 The US Naval Observatory is authorized by an act of Congress
1850 The California pioneers organized at Montgomery & Clay Streets
1864 Atlanta Campaign, Civil War Battle of Jonesborough
1881 First US tennis championships are played
1886 First major earthquake recorded in the eastern US at Charleston, SC
1887 Thomas A Edison patents the Kinetoscope, for producing 'moving pictures'
1894 The Phillies' Billy Hamilton steals 7 bases
1895 First professional football game played
1919 The Communist Labor Party of America was formed in Chicago
1919 Petlyura's Ukranian Army kills 35 members of a Jewish defense group
1934 The first football all star game is played
1935 first national skeet championship is held in Indianapolis
1935 FDR signs an act prohibiting the export of US arms to 'belligerents'
1954 The Census Bureau established
1954 Hurricane Carol, the first major named storm, hits New England killing 70
1955 The first microwave TV station is operated in Lufkin, Texas
1955 The first sun-powered automobile is demonstrated in Chicago, Illinois
1957 Malaysia gains independence from Britain
1959 Australia defeats the US tennis' Davis Cup
1960 Agricultural Hall of Fame established
1962 Trinidad & Tobago gain independence from Britain (National Day)
1965 House of Representatives joins the Senate to establish the Dept. of Housing & Urban Development
1968 6,000 die in a 7.8 earthquake that destroys 60,000 buildings in Iran
1970 Lonnie McLucas, a Black Panther activist, is convicted
1971 Astronaut Dave Scott becomes the first person to drive a car on the Moon
1972 Olga Korbut, USSR, wins the Olympic gold medal in gymnastics
1973 The first heavyweight championship fight in Japan (Foreman beats Roman)
1978 Symbionese Liberation Army founders William and Emily Harris plead guilty to the 1974 kidnapping of newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst.
1979 Comet Howard-Koomur-Michels collides with the Sun
1983 Edwin Moses sets the 400m hurdle record in Koblenz
1985 The Night Stalker suspect that terrorized southern California is captured in East Los Angeles
1986 Aeromexico jet & small plane collide in midair killing 82 people
1988 5-day power blackout of downtown Seattle begins

12 Caligula (Gaius Caesar), the infamously immoral 3rd Roman emperor: 37-41 AD
1834 Amilcare Ponchielli
1870 Maria Montessori Italy, educator
1880 Queen Mother Wilhelmina
1885 DuBose Heyward novelist
1889 A Provost Idell 'father' of volleyball
1897 Frederic March
1903 Arthur Godfrey (Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scout)
1903 Sir Bernard Lovell
1914 Richard Basehart (Voyage to Bottom of Sea)
1916 Daniel Schorr
1918 Alan Jay Lerner (My Fair Lady)
1924 Buddy Hackett
1928 James Coburn
1931 Dan Rather
1931 Jean Beliveau
1935 Eldridge Cleaver (Black Panther/Republican)
1935 Frank Robinson
1945 Itzhak Perlman
1945 Leonid I Popov, cosmonaut
1945 Van Morrison
1949 Richard Gere
1958 Edwin C Moses (Olympic gold medal 1984)
1959 Rachel Dennison
1970 Debbie Gibson