1939 87 years ago Selected Events August 31 3 sources

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.

On August 31, in the year 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. This event is recorded as a Selected Events event in the history of August 31, one of 456 recorded events on this date across all of history.

The Gleiwitz incident, or Gliwice incident, was a false flag attack on the radio station Sender Gleiwitz in Gleiwitz staged by Nazi Germany on the night of 31 August 1939. Along with some two dozen similar incidents, the attack was manufactured by Germany as a casus belli to justify the invasion of Poland. Despite the German government using the attack as a justification to go to war with Poland, the Gleiwitz assailants were not Polish but were German SS officers wearing Polish uniforms.

Key Facts

  • This event took place on August 31, 1939 (AD era).
  • It is categorised as a Selected Events event in recorded history.
  • Referenced in 3 Wikipedia articles.
  • The event is associated with a specific geographical location (see map below).
  • Wikipedia source last updated on 8 August 2026.

On This Date in History 456

Type Year Date Event
Historical Events 2025 Aug 31 A landslide in the Darfur region of Sudan kills over 1000 people.
Historical Events 2025 Aug 31 An earthquake in eastern Afghanistan kills over 1400 people.
Historical Events 2024 Aug 31 A helicopter crashes in Kamchatka Krai in the Russian Far East, killing all 22 occupants.
Notable Deaths 2024 Aug 31 Sol Bamba, Ivorian-French footballer (born 1985)
Notable Deaths 2021 Aug 31 Mahal, Filipino comedian and actress (born 1974)
Notable Deaths 2021 Aug 31 Francesco Morini, Italian footballer (born 1944)
Notable Deaths 2021 Aug 31 Michael Constantine, Greek-American actor (born 1927)
Notable Deaths 2021 Aug 31 Geronimo, British alpaca (born 2013)
Notable Deaths 2020 Aug 31 Pranab Mukherjee, Former President of India (born 1935)
Notable Deaths 2020 Aug 31 Tom Seaver, American baseball player (born 1944)
Notable Deaths 2019 Aug 31 Anthoine Hubert, French race car driver (born 1996)
Notable Deaths 2019 Aug 31 Alec Holowka, Canadian game developer (born 1983)
Selected Events 2019 Aug 31 A sightseeing helicopter crashed in the mountains of Skoddevarre in Alta, Norway, killing all six people on board.
Notable Deaths 2018 Aug 31 Carole Shelley, British-American actress (born 1939)
Historical Events 2016 Aug 31 Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff is impeached and removed from office.
Notable Deaths 2015 Aug 31 Edward Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 3rd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu, English politician, founded the National Motor Museum…
Notable Deaths 2015 Aug 31 Tom Scott, American football player (born 1930)
Notable Deaths 2014 Aug 31 Bapu, Indian director and screenwriter (born 1933)
Notable Deaths 2014 Aug 31 Ștefan Andrei, Romanian politician, 87th Romanian Minister of Foreign Affairs (born 1931)
Notable Deaths 2014 Aug 31 Stan Goldberg, American illustrator (born 1932)
Notable Deaths 2014 Aug 31 Carol Vadnais, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (born 1945)
Notable Deaths 2013 Aug 31 Alan Carrington, English chemist and academic (born 1934)
Notable Deaths 2013 Aug 31 David Frost, English journalist and game show host (born 1939)
Notable Deaths 2013 Aug 31 Jimmy Greenhalgh, English footballer and manager (born 1923)
Notable Deaths 2013 Aug 31 Jan Camiel Willems, Belgian mathematician and theorist (born 1939)
Notable Deaths 2012 Aug 31 Max Bygraves, English actor (born 1922)
Notable Deaths 2012 Aug 31 Joe Lewis, American martial artist and actor (born 1944)
Notable Deaths 2012 Aug 31 Carlo Maria Martini, Italian cardinal (born 1927)
Notable Deaths 2012 Aug 31 Kashiram Rana, Indian lawyer and politician (born 1938)
Notable Deaths 2012 Aug 31 John C. Shabaz, American judge and politician (born 1931)
Notable Deaths 2012 Aug 31 Sergey Sokolov, Russian commander and politician, 6th Minister of Defence for The Soviet Union (born 1911)
Notable Deaths 2011 Aug 31 Wade Belak, Canadian ice hockey player (born 1976)
Notable Deaths 2010 Aug 31 Laurent Fignon, French cyclist (born 1960)
Selected Events 2010 Aug 31 The last episode of The Bill, the longest-running police drama in British television history, was broadcast.
Notable Deaths 2009 Aug 31 Eraño Manalo, Filipino religious minister and Executive Minister of the Iglesia ni Cristo (born 1925)
Notable Deaths 2008 Aug 31 Ken Campbell, English actor and screenwriter (born 1941)
Notable Deaths 2008 Aug 31 Ike Pappas, American journalist (born 1933)
Notable Deaths 2008 Aug 31 Victor Yates, New Zealand rugby player (born 1939)
Notable Deaths 2007 Aug 31 Gay Brewer, American golfer (born 1932)
Notable Deaths 2007 Aug 31 Jean Jacques Paradis, Canadian general (born 1928)
Notable Deaths 2007 Aug 31 Sulev Vahtre, Estonian historian and academic (born 1926)
Historical Events 2006 Aug 31 Edvard Munch's famous painting, The Scream, stolen on August 22, 2004, is recovered in a raid by Norwegian police.
Notable Deaths 2006 Aug 31 Mohamed Abdelwahab, Egyptian footballer (born 1983)
Notable Deaths 2006 Aug 31 Tom Delaney, English race car driver and businessman (born 1911)
Historical Events 2005 Aug 31 The 2005 Al-Aaimmah bridge stampede in Baghdad kills 953 people.
Notable Deaths 2005 Aug 31 Joseph Rotblat, Polish-English physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1908)
Notable Births 2004 Aug 31 Jang Won-young, South Korean singer and model
Historical Events 2002 Aug 31 Typhoon Rusa, the most powerful typhoon to hit South Korea in 43 years, makes landfall, killing at least 236 people.
Notable Deaths 2002 Aug 31 Lionel Hampton, American pianist, composer, and bandleader (born 1908)
Notable Deaths 2002 Aug 31 Farhad Mehrad, Persian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and pianist (born 1944)

This article draws on content from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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