Browse events, births, deaths and holidays on August 31 throughout history.
On 31 August 2025, a landslide destroyed the village of Tarasin in the Marrah Mountains in Central Darfur, western Sudan, killing between 375 and 1,500 people.
A landslide in the Darfur region of Sudan kills over 1000 people.
On 31 August 2025, at 23:47 AFT, an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.0 on the moment magnitude scale (Mw) struck eastern Afghanistan, near the border with Pakistan. The epicenter …
An earthquake in eastern Afghanistan kills over 1400 people.
On 31 August 2024, a Mil Mi-8 helicopter operating a scheduled charter flight crashed in Kamchatka Krai, Russia, killing all 22 people on board. The aircraft, which was operated b…
A helicopter crashes in Kamchatka Krai in the Russian Far East, killing all 22 occupants.
Dilma Vana Rousseff, known mononymously as Dilma, is a Brazilian economist and politician who served as the 36th president of Brazil from 2011 until her impeachment and removal fr…
Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff is impeached and removed from office.
Edvard Munch was a Norwegian painter. His 1893 work The Scream has become one of the most iconic and acclaimed images in all of Western art.
Edvard Munch's famous painting, The Scream, stolen on August 22, 2004, is recovered in a raid by Norwegian police.
The Al-Aimmah Bridge disaster occurred on August 31, 2005 when 965 people died following a panic, and subsequent crowd crush, on the Al-Aaimmah Bridge, which crosses the Tigris ri…
The 2005 Al-Aaimmah bridge stampede in Baghdad kills 953 people.
Typhoon Rusa was a deadly and destructive typhoon that severely affected South Korea in 2002. The twenty-first tropical depression, the fifteenth named storm, and the tenth typhoo…
Typhoon Rusa, the most powerful typhoon to hit South Korea in 43 years, makes landfall, killing at least 236 people.
In September 1999, a series of explosions hit four apartment blocks in the Russian cities of Buynaksk, Moscow, and Volgodonsk, killing more than 300, injuring more than 1,000, and…
The first of a series of bombings in Moscow kills one person and wounds 40 others.
Líneas Aéreas Privadas Argentinas, more commonly known by the acronym LAPA, was an airline based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. At its heyday, the carrier operated international serv…
A LAPA Boeing 737-200 crashes during takeoff from Jorge Newbury Airport in Buenos Aires, killing 65, including two on…
Diana, Princess of Wales, was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of Charles III and mother of Princes William and Harry. Her activism and glamour made he…
Diana, Princess of Wales, her partner, Dodi Fayed, and driver Henri Paul die in a car crash in Paris.
Saddam Hussein was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 until his overthrow in 2003 during the Iraq war. He previously served …
Saddam Hussein's troops seize Irbil after the Kurdish Masoud Barzani appealed for help to defeat his Kurdish rival PUK.
Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the w…
Russia completes removing its troops from Estonia.
Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bor…
Russia completes removing its troops from Lithuania.
Kyrgyzstan, officially the Kyrgyz Republic, formerly known as Kirghizia, is a landlocked country located in Central Asia, lying in the Tian Shan and Pamir mountain ranges. It is b…
Kyrgyzstan declares its independence from the Soviet Union.
Delta Air Lines Flight 1141 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight between Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, Texas, and Salt Lake City International Airport, Utah. On Au…
Delta Air Lines Flight 1141 crashes during takeoff from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, killing 14.
CAAC Flight 301, a Hawker Siddeley Trident operated by CAAC Guangzhou Regional Administration from Guangzhou Baiyun to Hong Kong Kai Tak, ran off the runway in Hong Kong on 31 Aug…
CAAC Flight 301 overshoots the runway at Kai Tak Airport and crashes into Kowloon Bay, killing seven people.
Thai Airways Flight 365 was a Thai Airways Company Boeing 737-200 with the registration number HS-TBC. On 31 August 1987, the plane crashed during a scheduled flight from Hat Yai …
Thai Airways Flight 365 crashes into the ocean near Ko Phuket, Thailand, killing all 83 aboard.
Aeroméxico Flight 498 was a scheduled commercial flight from Mexico City, Mexico, to Los Angeles, California, United States, with several intermediate stops. On Sunday, August 31,…
Aeroméxico Flight 498 collides with a Piper PA-28 Cherokee over Cerritos, California, killing 67 in the air and 15 on…
The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from its formation in 1922 until its disso…
The Soviet passenger liner Admiral Nakhimov sinks in the Black Sea after colliding with the bulk carrier Pyotr Vasev,…
Aeroflot Flight 558 was a scheduled Ilyushin Il-18V domestic passenger flight from Karaganda to Moscow that crashed into a field in the Abzelilovsky District on August 31st 1972 a…
Aeroflot Flight 558 crashes in the Abzelilovsky District in Bashkortostan, Russia (then the Soviet Union), killing all…