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HISTORY & TIMELINE
31 August

A journey through
31 August in history

The story of 31 August runs from the death of the Byzantine empress Theodora, the last of the Macedonian dynasty, in 1056 to Kyrgyzstan’s declaration of independence in 1991. In between come the Peace of Caltabellotta, the Republic of Connacht in the Irish rising of 1798, the Charleston earthquake, Roald Amundsen’s arrival at Nome after the first voyage through the Northwest Passage, the Anglo-Russian Convention, Edison’s patent for his motion-picture camera, the premiere of The Threepenny Opera, the independence of Malaya and of Trinidad and Tobago, Garfield Sobers’s six sixes in an over and the Gdańsk Agreement.

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JUMP THROUGH TIME
II
THE MIDDLE AGES

Medieval History

Kingdoms, conflict, faith, power and the changing medieval world.

1056
A gold seal of the Empress Theodora, showing her crowned and in imperial robes, from the collection of Dumbarton OaksA gold seal of the Empress Theodora, showing her crowned and in imperial robes, from the collection of Dumbarton OaksImage: Dumbarton Oaks · Public domain
politics · Europe

The death of Empress Theodora ends Byzantium’s Macedonian dynasty

Theodora was a daughter of the emperor Constantine VIII and a niece of Basil II, and the last of the Macedonian dynasty that had ruled the Byzantine Empire since 867. She had shared the throne briefly with her sister Zoe in 1042 and took power alone in 1055, in her seventies, ruling with energy through her own officials. She died in Constantinople on 31 August 1056, having named the elderly official Michael VI as her successor, and the dynasty died with her.

Source: Britannica: Theodora, Byzantine empress (981-1056) ↗
1302
The church of the Madrice at Caltabellotta in Sicily, the hill town where the peace was madeThe church of the Madrice at Caltabellotta in Sicily, the hill town where the peace was madeImage: LuckyLisp · CC BY-SA 3.0
world · Europe

The Peace of Caltabellotta leaves Sicily to Frederick III

Since the uprising of the Sicilian Vespers in 1282, the island of Sicily had been fought over by the French house of Anjou, which ruled Naples, and the royal house of Aragon. On 31 August 1302, at Caltabellotta in the south-west of the island, Frederick III and the Angevins agreed a peace: Frederick would keep Sicily, styled king of Trinacria, for his lifetime, after which the island was to return to Anjou. The return never happened, and Sicily stayed in the hands of the Aragonese and later Spanish crowns.

Source: Britannica: Peace of Caltabellotta ↗
III
A CHANGING WORLD

Early Modern Era

Exploration, political change, scientific development and expanding global connections.

1798
The Humbert Monument in Ballina, County Mayo, which commemorates the French landing of 1798The Humbert Monument in Ballina, County Mayo, which commemorates the French landing of 1798Image: Milesoneill · Public domain
politics · Europe

General Humbert sets up the short-lived Republic of Connacht

In August 1798, after the main Irish rising had been crushed, about 1,000 French soldiers under General Jean Humbert landed at Killala in County Mayo and routed a larger British force at Castlebar. Mayo County Council dates the setting up of the Republic of Connacht, with the young Mayo Catholic gentleman John Moore as its president, to 31 August; the Dictionary of Irish Biography says Humbert chose Moore after meeting him at Castlebar on 27 August. The republic lasted only days: Humbert surrendered at Ballinamuck on 8 September.

Source: Mayo County Council: The Republic of Connaught ↗
IV
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

The 1800s

Industry, empire, invention, reform and a century of enormous transformation.

1886
A fissure and a wrecked brick house on Tradd Street, Charleston, after the earthquake of 31 August 1886, photographed by John K. HillersA fissure and a wrecked brick house on Tradd Street, Charleston, after the earthquake of 31 August 1886, photographed by John K. HillersImage: John Karl Hillers · Public domain
science · Americas

An earthquake shakes Charleston, South Carolina

At about 9.50 in the evening of 31 August 1886 a powerful earthquake struck near Charleston, South Carolina, damaging or destroying most of the city’s buildings and killing about 60 people. It was felt across much of the eastern United States. Estimated today at around magnitude 7, it remains the largest earthquake recorded in the south-eastern US. The new US Geological Survey sent scientists to study it, and their report, with its maps of shaking, was one of the first systematic studies of an American earthquake.

Source: US Geological Survey: The 1886 Charleston, South Carolina, earthquake, a 1986 perspective (Circular 985) ↗
1897
Charles Kayser of Edison's laboratory with an early version of the Kinetograph camera, about 1891Charles Kayser of Edison’s laboratory with an early version of the Kinetograph camera, about 1891Image: National park Service · Public domain
science · Americas

Edison is granted his patent for a motion-picture camera

In 1888 Thomas Edison set out to do for the eye what his phonograph had done for the ear. The work fell largely to his assistant William Kennedy Laurie Dickson, who by 1891 had built the Kinetograph, a camera that drew a strip of celluloid film, perforated along its edges, past the lens in rapid jerks, and the Kinetoscope, a cabinet in which one person at a time could watch the result through a peephole. Edison applied for a patent on the camera on 24 August 1891, but it was granted only on 31 August 1897, as US patent 589,168 for a ‘kinetographic camera’. By then films were being projected on screens in Paris, London and New York. Edison used the patent to sue rival film-makers for years, until in 1908 the leading companies pooled their patents in the Motion Picture Patents Company. The 35 millimetre film that Dickson chose, with its rows of sprocket holes, remained the standard of cinema for more than a century.

Source: US patent 589,168: Kinetographic camera (Google Patents record) ↗
V
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

The 1900s

War and peace, technological leaps, social change, politics, sport and popular culture.

1906
Amundsen's ship, the Gjøa, at Nome, Alaska, in 1906, from the Frank H. Nowell photograph collectionAmundsen’s ship, the Gjøa, at Nome, Alaska, in 1906, from the Frank H. Nowell photograph collectionImage: Frank H. Nowell · Public domain
world · Americas

Roald Amundsen reaches Nome after sailing the Northwest Passage

In June 1903 the Norwegian Roald Amundsen and six companions left Norway in the Gjøa, a small herring boat, to find a way by sea north of the American continent. They spent two winters at a harbour on King William Island, learning from the Netsilik Inuit, and a third in the ice off the Yukon coast. On 31 August 1906 the Gjøa reached Nome, Alaska, to a noisy welcome from the town’s gold miners: it was the first ship to pass through the Northwest Passage in one voyage.

Source: Fram Museum: The Gjøa expedition 1903-1906 ↗
1907
A map from Edward Granville Browne's history of the Persian revolution showing the Russian and British spheres in Persia under the 1907 conventionA map from Edward Granville Browne’s history of the Persian revolution showing the Russian and British spheres in Persia under the 1907 conventionImage: Edward Granville Browne / William Morgan Shuster · Public domain
politics · Asia

Britain and Russia divide Persia into spheres of influence

For most of the 19th century Britain and Russia had competed for influence across Asia in the rivalry known as the Great Game. Worried by a rising Germany and weakened by defeat against Japan, they settled their differences in a convention signed at St Petersburg on 31 August 1907. Persia was split into a Russian zone in the north, a British zone in the south-east and a neutral zone between; Russia accepted Afghanistan as outside its sphere; and both promised to deal with Tibet only through China. The Persians were not consulted.

Source: Encyclopaedia Iranica: Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907 ↗
1928
The playbill for the first production of Die Dreigroschenoper at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm, Berlin, 1928The playbill for the first production of Die Dreigroschenoper at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm, Berlin, 1928Image: Unknown · Public domain
culture · Europe

The Threepenny Opera opens in Berlin

In 1928 the young playwright Bertolt Brecht and the composer Kurt Weill reworked John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera of 1728, a ballad opera about thieves and beggars in London, from a German translation by Elisabeth Hauptmann. They kept the London underworld but sharpened it into a satire of bourgeois society, in which the gangster Macheath, Mack the Knife, is hardly worse than the businessmen and police chief around him. Weill wrote the music in a few weeks, mixing jazz, cabaret and dance tunes for a small band. The first night, at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm in Berlin on 31 August 1928, came after chaotic rehearsals, but the audience soon began calling for encores. Die Dreigroschenoper became one of the great theatrical hits of the Weimar Republic and was soon playing across Europe; the Nazis later banned it. Its opening number, ‘The Ballad of Mack the Knife’, became a jazz and pop standard in English, recorded by Louis Armstrong and Bobby Darin.

Source: Kurt Weill Foundation for Music: Die Dreigroschenoper ↗
1957
Tunku Abdul Rahman proclaims the independence of the Federation of Malaya at Merdeka Stadium in Kuala Lumpur on 31 August 1957Tunku Abdul Rahman proclaims the independence of the Federation of Malaya at Merdeka Stadium in Kuala Lumpur on 31 August 1957Image: Kerajaan Tanah Melayu · Public domain
politics · Asia

Tunku Abdul Rahman proclaims the independence of Malaya

Britain had ruled the Malay states, Penang and Malacca in various forms since the late 18th century, and after the Second World War it faced both a communist insurgency in the jungle, the Malayan Emergency, and a growing demand for self-rule. The Alliance, a partnership of Malay, Chinese and Indian parties led by Tunku Abdul Rahman, swept the 1955 election, and early in 1956 the Tunku led a mission to London that won British agreement to full independence, with the date set for 31 August 1957. On the morning of 31 August 1957, before more than 20,000 people at the newly built Merdeka Stadium in Kuala Lumpur, the Tunku read the proclamation of independence of the Federation of Malaya, then raised his arm and cried ‘Merdeka!’ (freedom) seven times, the crowd shouting it back to him. He became the country’s first prime minister. In 1963 Malaya joined with Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore to form Malaysia, and 31 August is still celebrated as the national day, Hari Merdeka.

Source: National Archives of Malaysia: Menjejaki 31 Ogos 1957 (Tracing 31 August 1957) ↗
1962
A 5-cent stamp from Trinidad and Tobago's 1962 independence issue, showing fish on Buccoo Reef off TobagoA 5-cent stamp from Trinidad and Tobago’s 1962 independence issue, showing fish on Buccoo Reef off TobagoImage: Trinidad and Tobago post · Public domain
politics · Americas

Trinidad and Tobago becomes an independent nation

Trinidad was Spanish until the British seized it in 1797, and Tobago changed hands between European powers many times before both became British; they were joined as a single colony in 1889. Their people were descended from enslaved Africans, indentured labourers from India, Europeans, Chinese and others. In 1956 the historian Eric Williams founded the People’s National Movement and won the colony’s first elections under a new constitution, and when the short-lived West Indies Federation broke up in 1962 he chose to lead Trinidad and Tobago to independence on its own. At midnight on 30 August 1962 the Union Flag was lowered and the new red, white and black flag raised, with bells and sirens ringing across Port of Spain, and on 31 August Trinidad and Tobago became an independent state within the Commonwealth. Williams became its first prime minister and Sir Solomon Hochoy its first governor-general. He led the country until his death in 1981; in 1976 it became a republic, and 31 August remains Independence Day.

Source: NALIS (National Library of Trinidad and Tobago): Independence Day ↗
1968
St Helen's Rugby and Cricket Ground in Swansea, where Garfield Sobers hit six sixes in an over in 1968St Helen’s Rugby and Cricket Ground in Swansea, where Garfield Sobers hit six sixes in an over in 1968Image: Alan Hughes · CC BY-SA 2.0
sport · Europe

Garfield Sobers hits six sixes in a single over

The Barbadian Garfield Sobers was the outstanding all-round cricketer of his age, a left-handed batsman who also bowled fast-medium or spin and captained the West Indies. In 1968 English county cricket began allowing each county to sign one overseas player straight away, and Sobers joined Nottinghamshire as captain. On 31 August 1968, playing Glamorgan at St Helen’s in Swansea and looking for quick runs before a declaration, Sobers faced the left-armer Malcolm Nash, who was trying out slow bowling. He hit all six balls of the over for six, the first time it had been done in first-class cricket; the fifth was caught, but the fielder stumbled over the boundary rope. A BBC Wales crew that happened to be filming caught the over on camera. Nash, a fine bowler, bore the record with good humour for the rest of his life.

Source: International Cricket Council: 50th anniversary of Sir Garfield Sobers’ six sixes ↗
1980
A street mural in Gdańsk showing the signing of the August Agreements in the shipyard's health and safety hall in 1980A street mural in Gdańsk showing the signing of the August Agreements in the shipyard’s health and safety hall in 1980Image: Artur Andrzej · CC0
world · Europe

Polish strikers win the right to a free trade union in Gdańsk

In the summer of 1980 sudden rises in food prices set off strikes across communist Poland. On 14 August workers at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk stopped work to demand the reinstatement of the crane operator Anna Walentynowicz and the electrician Lech Wałęsa, and within days an inter-factory strike committee led by Wałęsa was speaking for hundreds of workplaces along the Baltic coast. Its 21 demands, written on plywood boards and hung on the shipyard gate, began with the right to form free trade unions independent of the Communist Party. After two weeks of talks broadcast to the shipyard over loudspeakers, the government gave way. On 31 August 1980 the deputy prime minister Mieczysław Jagielski and Wałęsa signed the Gdańsk Agreement, Wałęsa using a large souvenir pen bearing a picture of Pope John Paul II. It allowed the first independent trade union in the Soviet bloc. Solidarity grew to about ten million members within a year; it was crushed under martial law in December 1981, but it survived underground and in 1989 negotiated the end of communist rule in Poland.

Source: European Solidarity Centre: How did Solidarność (Solidarity) come to be? ↗
1991
Soldiers guard the national flagpole on Ala-Too Square in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan's capital, in 2019Soldiers guard the national flagpole on Ala-Too Square in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan’s capital, in 2019Image: Oystercard · CC BY-SA 4.0
politics · Asia

Kyrgyzstan declares its independence from the Soviet Union

The mountainous land of the Kyrgyz in Central Asia was taken by the Russian Empire in the 19th century and became a Soviet republic in 1936. In 1990, as the Soviet system weakened, the republic’s parliament chose a physicist, Askar Akayev, as its president instead of the Communist Party leader. When hardliners attempted a coup in Moscow in August 1991, local party bosses tried to unseat Akayev, but he held on and condemned the coup. After the coup collapsed, Akayev left the Communist Party, and on 31 August 1991 the Supreme Soviet of Kyrgyzstan voted to declare the republic independent. In October Akayev, running unopposed, was elected president by popular vote, and when the Soviet Union was dissolved at the end of 1991 Kyrgyzstan became a fully sovereign state, joining the United Nations in 1992. 31 August is its Independence Day.

Source: US Department of State: Background note, Kyrgyzstan ↗
RESEARCH

Sources & Further Reading

Selected authoritative references supporting the events on this page.

Britannica: Theodora, Byzantine empress (981-1056)↗Dumbarton Oaks: Theodora (1055-1056), Rulers of Byzantium↗Britannica: Peace of Caltabellotta↗Britannica: Frederick III (or II), king of Sicily↗Mayo County Council: The Republic of Connaught↗Dictionary of Irish Biography: Moore, John↗US Geological Survey: The 1886 Charleston, South Carolina, earthquake, a 1986 perspective (Circular 985)↗South Carolina Encyclopedia (University of South Carolina): Earthquakes↗US patent 589,168: Kinetographic camera (Google Patents record)↗Britannica: Kinetograph↗Fram Museum: The Gjøa expedition 1903-1906↗Britannica: Gjoa↗Encyclopaedia Iranica: Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907↗Britannica: Anglo-Russian Entente↗Kurt Weill Foundation for Music: Die Dreigroschenoper↗Britannica: The Threepenny Opera↗Berliner Ensemble: Die Dreigroschenoper↗National Archives of Malaysia: Menjejaki 31 Ogos 1957 (Tracing 31 August 1957)↗Government of Malaysia: Malaysian history↗Britannica: History of Malaysia↗NALIS (National Library of Trinidad and Tobago): Independence Day↗National Archives of Trinidad and Tobago: Independence↗Britannica: Eric Williams↗International Cricket Council: 50th anniversary of Sir Garfield Sobers’ six sixes↗ESPNcricinfo: Malcolm Nash, Glamorgan hero who Garry Sobers hit for six sixes in an over, dead at 74↗European Solidarity Centre: How did Solidarność (Solidarity) come to be?↗The Nobel Prize: Lech Wałęsa, biographical↗US Department of State: Background note, Kyrgyzstan↗Britannica: Kyrgyzstan↗
WHY THESE MOMENTS?

Significance before volume

This page is not the longest possible list of events. It is a chronological journey through 31 August, where each entry is chosen for historical significance, human interest and reliability.

Facts are checked against authoritative museums, archives, universities and reference works. Where sources disagree, the page says so.

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