August 31 birthdays & history

Famous people born on August 31

• 1956Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwanese politician and the President of the Republic of China
• 1870Maria Montessori, Italian physician and educator
• 1811Théophile Gautier, French poet and critic
• 1949Richard Gere, American actor and producer
• 1821Hermann von Helmholtz, German physician and physicist
• 1982Pepe Reina, Spanish footballer
• 1908William Saroyan, American novelist, playwright, and short story writer
• 1971Chris Tucker, American comedian and actor
• 1928James Coburn, American actor
• 1949Hugh David Politzer, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate

What happened on August 31

• 1218Al-Kamil became the fourth sultan of the Ayyubid dynasty of Egypt.
• 1895German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin patents his navigable balloon.
• 1897Thomas Edison was granted a patent for the Kinetoscope, a precursor to the modern movie projector.
• 1907Russia and the United Kingdom sign the Anglo-Russian Convention, by which the UK recognizes Russian preeminence in northern Persia, while Russia recognizes British preeminence in southeastern Persia and Afghanistan. Both powers pledge not to interfere in Tibet.
• 1933The Integral Nationalist Group wins the 1933 Andorran parliamentary election, the first election in Andorra held with universal male suffrage.
• 1936Radio Prague, now the official international broadcasting station of the Czech Republic, goes on the air.
• 1957The Federation of Malaya (now Malaysia) gains its independence from the United Kingdom.
• 1962Trinidad and Tobago becomes independent.
• 1963Crown Colony of North Borneo (now Sabah) achieves self-governance.
• 1968Start of the Congress of Carrara, one of the major 20th century anarchist congresses.
• 1969On the final day of the Isle of Wight Festival 1969, attended by approximately 150,000 people over three days, Bob Dylan appeared in his first gig in three years.
• 2010The last episode of The Bill, the longest-running police drama in British television history, was broadcast.

Also observed on August 31

• Baloch-Pakhtun Unity Day (Balochs and Pashtuns, International observance)
• Day of Solidarity and Freedom (Poland)
• Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Kyrgyzstan from the Soviet Union in 1991.
• Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Malaya from the United Kingdom in 1957.
• Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Trinidad and Tobago from the United Kingdom in 1962.
• Romanian Language Day (Romania, Moldova, Ukraine)