Today in history

On Aug. 31, 1886, an earthquake rocked Charleston, S.C., killing up to 110 people.

In 1887 Thomas A. Edison received a patent for his Kinetoscope, a device that produced moving pictures.

In 1888 Mary Ann Nicholls was found murdered in London’s East End in what generally is regarded as the first killing by “Jack the Ripper.”

In 1954 Hurricane Carol hit the northeastern Atlantic states, killing nearly 70.

In 1962 the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago became independent within the British Commonwealth.

In 1980 Poland’s Solidarity labor movement was born with an agreement that ended a 17-day-old strike.

In 1985 Richard Ramirez, later convicted of California’s “Night Stalker” killings, was captured by residents of an East Los Angeles neighborhood.

In 1988 14 people were killed when a Delta Boeing 727 crashed during takeoff from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.

In 1991 Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan declared their independence, raising to 10 the number of republics seceding from the Soviet Union.

In 1992 white separatist Randy Weaver surrendered to authorities in Naples, Idaho, ending an 11-day siege by federal agents that claimed the lives of Weaver’s wife, son and a deputy U.S. marshal.

In 1994 the Irish Republican Army declared a cease-fire. Also in 1994, Russia officially ended its military presence in the former East Germany and the Baltics after a halfcentury.

In 2015 President Barack Obama officially redesignated Alaska’s Mount McKinley as Denali, the original native Koyukon Athabascan name for North America’s highest peak.