August 31, Princess Diana dies in Paris crash

Today is Saturday, Aug. 31, the 244th day of 2024. There are 122 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Aug. 31, 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales, was killed as the car she was riding in crashed on the Pont de l’Alma bridge in Paris; her partner Dodi Fayed and driver Henri Paul (who was found to have been intoxicated at the time of the accident) also died.

Also on this date:

In 1881, the first U.S. tennis championships (for men only) began in Newport, Rhode Island.

In 1886, an earthquake with an estimated magnitude of up to 7.3 devastated Charleston, South Carolina, killing at least 60 people.

In 1962, the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago became independent of British colonial rule.

In 1980, Poland’s Solidarity labor movement was born with an agreement signed in Gdansk (guh-DANSK’) that ended a 17-day-old strike.

In 1992, white separatist Randy Weaver surrendered to authorities in Naples, Idaho, ending an 11-day siege by federal agents that had claimed the lives of Weaver’s wife, son and a deputy U.S. marshal.

In 1994, Russia officially ended its military presence in the former East Germany and the Baltics after half a century.

In 2006, Edvard Munch’s painting “The Scream” was recovered by Norwegian authorities after being stolen nine days earlier.

In 2010, President Barack Obama announced the end of the U.S. combat mission in Iraq, declaring no victory after seven years of bloodshed and telling those divided over the war in his country and around the world: “it’s time to turn the page.”

In 2019, a gunman carried out a shooting rampage that stretched ten miles between the Texas communities of Midland and Odessa, leaving seven people dead before police killed the gunman outside a movie theater in Odessa.