TODAY IN HISTORY

On Aug. 31, 2010, 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.”

Also on this date In 1886,

an earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.3 devastated Charleston, South Carolina, killing at least 60 people, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

In 1939,

the first issue of Marvel Comics, featuring the Human Torch, was published by Timely Publications in New York.

In 1980,

Poland’s Solidarity labor movement was born with an agreement signed in Gdansk that ended a 17-day-old strike.

In 1992,

white separatist Randy Weaver surrendered to authorities in 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 other charges in connection with the confrontation; he was convicted of failing to appear for trial on firearms charges and was sentenced to 18 months in prison but given credit for 14 months already served.)

In 1994,

the Irish Republican Army declared a cease-fire.

In 1997,

Prince Charles brought Princess Diana home for the last time, escorting the body of his former wife to a Britain that was shocked, grief-stricken and angered by her death in a Paris traffic accident earlier that day.

In 2018,

Aretha Franklin, the “Queen of Soul,” was laid to rest after an eight-hour funeral at a Detroit church.

In 2019,

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.

Ten years ago:

The Wartime Contracting Commission issued a report saying the U.S. had lost billions of dollars to waste and fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Five years ago:

The first commercial flight between the United States and Cuba in more than a half century landed in the central city of Santa Clara, re-establishing regular air service severed at the height of the Cold War.

One year ago:

The Federal Aviation Administration said it had granted Amazon approval to deliver packages by drones.

Associated Press

AP Pallbearers carry the coffin holding the remains of Diana, Princess of Wales, from the Salpetriere Hospital in Paris, en route to London, on Aug. 31, 1997.