On this day: August 31
Jack the Ripper claims his first victim, Coca-Cola makes its European debut, Jimi Hendrix rocks in the early morning hours at THE Isle of Wright, and the "People's Princess" dies in a car crash, all on this day.
2009: Disney Entertainment reaches an agreement to purchase Marvel Comics and its parent company, Marvel Entertainment, for $4.24 billion.
2009: Disney Entertainment reaches an agreement to purchase Marvel Comics and its parent company, Marvel Entertainment, for $4.24 billion.
1422: King Henry V of England dies of dysentery while in France. His son, Henry VI, becomes king of England at the age of 9 months.
1803: Meriwether Lewis starts his expedition to the west by leaving Pittsburgh, Pa., at 11 in the morning. He sails down the Ohio River to meet up with William Clark and other members of the expedition in St. Louis.
1842: The U.S. Naval Observatory is authorized by an act of Congress. Its primary task was to care for the Navy's charts, navigational instruments and chronometers, which were calibrated by timing the transit of stars across the meridian.
1886: An earthquake strikes Charleston, S.C., causing severe damage and killing at least 60 people. The earthquake damages 2,000 buildings and causes $6 million worth of damage at a time when all of the buildings in the city were valued at around $24 million.
1888: Mary Ann Nichols is murdered in the Whitechapel district of London. She is the first of Jack the Ripper's confirmed victims.
1895: German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin patents his navigable balloon, described as an "airship-train." Construction of the first Zeppelin airship began in 1899 and Count Zeppelin later founds the Zeppelin Airship company.
1897: Thomas Edison patents the Kinetoscope, the first movie projector. Viewing was done through the machine's peep hole on its top.
1900: Coca-Cola is first sold in Britain in the basement restaurant of Spence's department store, a silk merchant and general goods store in London. It later goes on regular sale through soda fountain outlets.
1909: Benjamin Shibe receives a U.S. patent on the cork center baseball (No. 932,911). A partner in the A.J. Reach sporting goods company, Shibe invented the machinery that made possible the manufacture of standard baseballs. Shibe was also president of the Philadelphia Athletics and their new ballpark was named Shibe Park in his honor when it opened in 1909.
1924: Actor and comedian Buddy Hackett ("The Music Man," The Love Bug," "The Little Mermaid") is born in Brooklyn, N.Y.
1928: Actor James Coburn ("The Great Escape," "The Magnificent Seven," "Our Man Flint") is born in Laurel, Neb.
1935: Baseball Hall of Famer Frank Robinson, who won two World Series with the Baltimore Orioles and was the first African-American hired to serve as manager in major-league history, is born in Beaumont, Texas.
1939: Nazi forces posing as Poles seize the Gleiwitz radio station tower in Germany and broadcast a short anti-German message in Polish. The incident, part of a project called Operation Himmler, was intended to give the appearance of Polish aggression against Germany and create an excuse to attack Poland.
1940: Actors Lawrence Olivier and Vivian Leigh are married in Santa Barbara, Calif., in a ceremony attended only by their witnesses, Katharine Hepburn and Garson Kanin. The couple is seen here in a promotional photo for a 1940 theatrical production of "Romeo and Juliet."
1943: The USS Harmon, the first U.S. Navy ship to be named after a black person, is commissioned. The ship is named after Mess Attendant 1st Class Leonard Roy Harmon, who was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross for his actions on the USS San Francisco during the Battle of Guadalcanal. Harmon deliberately exposed himself to enemy gunfire in order to protect a shipmate and was killed on Nov. 13, 1942.
1945: Singer-songwriter Van Morrison, who has won six Grammys is best known for songs such as "Brown Eyed Girl" and "Wild Night," is born in Bloomfield, East Belfast, Northern Ireland.
1949: Actor Richard Gere ("Pretty Woman," "An Officer and a Gentleman") is born in Philadelphia.
1954: Hurricane Carol makes landfall in Long Island, N.Y., and Old Saybrook, Conn. The storm would kill 65 people and destroy nearly 4,000 homes, 3,500 automobiles and more than 3,000 boats in southern New England.
1965: The Aero Spacelines Super Guppy aircraft, a large, wide-bodied cargo aircraft used for ferrying outsized cargo components, makes its first flight.
1968: Dr. Michael E. DeBakey leads the first simultaneous multi-organ transplant from one donor to four recipients. Two kidneys, one lobe of a lung and the heart were removed from a 20-year-old woman who died from a gunshot. The organs were transplanted into four men at Methodist Hospital in Houston by five teams totaling more than 60 physicians, nurses and support persons.
1969: Boxer Rocky Marciano, the only champion to hold the heavyweight title and go untied and undefeated throughout his career, dies at the age of 45 in a plane crash outside Newton, Iowa.
1970: In the early morning hours, Jimi Hendrix performs at the Isle of Wright Pop Festival in England.
1970: Pop singer Debbie Gibson, the youngest female artist to write, record, and perform a No. 1 single (1988's "Foolish Beat"), is born in Brooklyn, N.Y.
1972: Actor Chris Tucker ("Friday," "Rush Hour") is born in Atlanta, Ga.
1973: Film director John Ford ("The Searchers," "Stagecoach," "The Grapes of Wrath") dies from stomach cancer at the age of 79 in Palm Desert, Calif. He's seen here in 1973.
1974: The Rolling Stones release the album "Goat's Head Soup." The album features the song "Angie," which would quickly rise to No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and reach No. 5 on the UK singles chart.
1976: A judge rules that George Harrison is guilty of "subconscious plagiarism" while writing his song "My Sweet Lord" due to its similarities with "He's So Fine" by the Chiffons. However, before the court could assign damages, Harrison's former manager Allen Klein would purchase the copyright to "He's So Fine" in 1978. A judge later rules that Klein acted improperly and orders Harrison to pay him $587,000, the amount Klein paid for the rights, so that he would gain nothing from the deal and Harrison would own the rights to both songs.
1985: California's "Night Stalker" serial killer Richard Ramirez is captured by residents of an East Los Angeles neighborhood as he was trying to steal a car. Police had to break up the mob to prevent them from killing Ramirez. Ramirez was eventually found guilty of 13 counts of murder, five attempted murders, 11 sexual assaults and 14 burglaries and sentenced to death.
1986: Aeroméxico Flight 498 collides with a Piper PA-28 over Cerritos, Calif., killing 67 in the air and 15 on the ground. Pictured is a National Transportation Safety Board aerial picture of the crash site.
1987: Michael Jacskon releases his "Bad" album. The album would go on to sell between 30 and 45 million copies worldwide and produce five Hot 100 No. 1 hits, the first album to do so. To promote the album, CBS aired a documentary entitled "The Magic Returns," which ended with the 18-minute video for the single "Bad," directed by Martin Scorsese and featuring a then up-and-coming Wesley Snipes.
1990: When they suit up for the Seattle Mariners, Ken Griffey and Ken Griffey, Jr., become the first father and son to play on same team in MLB history. Both single in the game's first inning.
1991: Metallica's self-titled album, often known as "The Black Album" due to its cover, debuts at No. 1 on Billboard's pop album chart. The album would end up producing five hit singles that are considered today among the band's best-known songs: "Enter Sandman," "The Unforgiven," "Nothing Else Matters," "Wherever I May Roam" and "Sad but True."
1992: White separatist Randy Weaver surrenders to authorities in Naples, Idaho, ending the Ruby Ridge Standoff, an 11-day siege by federal agents that claimed the lives of Weaver's wife and son and a deputy U.S. marshal. Weaver was ultimately acquitted of all charges except missing his original court date on an illegal weapon charge and violating his bail conditions, for which he was sentenced to 18 months and fined $10,000. Credited with time served, Weaver spent an additional four months in prison.
1997: Diana, Princess of Wales, her companion Dodi Al-Fayed and driver Henri Paul die in a car crash in Paris.
2004: Stolen at gunpoint from a museum in Oslo, Norway, two years earlier, a version of The Scream and Madonna, two paintings by Edvard Munch, are recovered in a raid by Norwegian police.
