TODAY in HISTORY

Today is Friday, August 31, the 243rd day of 2018. There are 122 days left in the year.

1056 After a sudden illness a few days previously, Byzantine Empress Theodora dies childless, thus ending the Macedonian dynasty. 1057 Abdication of Byzantine Emperor Michael VI Bringas after just one year. 1314 King Haakon V of Norway moves the capital from Bergen to Oslo.

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. 1776 William Livingston, the first Governor of New Jersey, begins serving his first term. 1798 Irish Rebellion of 1798: Irish rebels, with French assistance, establish the shortlived Republic of Connacht. 1864 During the American Civil War, Union forces led by General William T. Sherman launch an assault on Atlanta. 1876 Ottoman Sultan Murad V is deposed and succeeded by his brother Abdul Hamid II.

1888 Mary Ann Nichols is murdered. She is the first of Jack the Ripper’s confirmed victims. 1895 German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin patents his navigable balloon. 1897 Thomas Edison patents the Kinetoscope, the first movie projector. 1920 Polish– Soviet War: A decisive Polish victory in the Battle of Komarów.

1935 In an attempt to stay out of the growing tensions concerning Germany and Japan, the United States passes the first of its Neutrality Acts. 1936 Radio Prague, now the official international broadcasting station of the Czech Republic, goes on the air. 1943 USS Harmon, the first U. S. Navy ship to be named after a black person, is commissioned.

1949 The retreat of the Democratic Army of Greece in Albania after its defeat on Gramos mountain marks the end of the Greek Civil War. 1957 The Federation of Malaya ( now Malaysia) gains its independence from the United Kingdom. 1963 Crown Colony of North Borneo ( now Sabah) achieves self governance. 1991 Kyrgyzstan declares its independence from the Soviet Union. 1993 Russia completes removing its troops from Lithuania. 1996 Saddam Hussein’s troops seized Irbil after the Kurdish Masoud Barzani appealed for help to defeat his Kurdish rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. 1997 Diana, Princess of Wales, her companion Dodi Fayed and driver Henri Paul die in a car crash in Paris. 2016 Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff is impeached and removed from office.