TODAY IN HISTORY Also on this date
On Aug. 31, 1997, Prince Charles brought Princess Diana home for the last time, escorting the body of his former wife to a Britain that was grief-stricken by her death in a Paris car accident earlier that day.
In 1881, the first U.S. tennis championships (for men only) began in Newport, Rhode Island.
In 1888, Mary Ann Nichols, believed to be the first victim of “Jack the Ripper,” was found slain in London’s East End.
In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an act prohibiting the export of U.S. arms to belligerents.
In 1980, Poland’s Solidarity labor movement was born with an agreement signed in Gdansk that ended a 17-day-old strike.
In 1989, Britain’s Princess Anne and her husband, Capt. Mark Phillips, announced they were separating after 15 years of marriage.
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. (Weaver was acquitted of murder and all other charges in connection with the confrontation; he was convicted of failing to appear for trial on firearms charges and was sentenced to 18 months in prison but given credit for 14 months he’d already served.)
In 1994, the Irish Republican Army declared a cease-fire.
In 1994, Russia officially ended its military presence in the former East Germany and the Baltics after half a century.
In 2005, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin reported “a significant number of dead bodies in the water” following Hurricane Katrina; Nagin ordered virtually the entire police force to abandon search-and-rescue efforts and to instead stop increasingly hostile thieves.
Ten years ago: President Barack Obama ended 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 is time to turn the page.”
Five years ago: The State Department released roughly 7,000 pages of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s emails, including about 150 emails that were censored because they contained information deemed classified.
One year ago: A gunman carried out a shooting rampage that stretched 10 miles between the Texas communities of Midland and Odessa, leaving seven people dead before police killed the gunman outside a movie theater in Odessa.