DAILY ALMANAC
Today is Tuesday, Aug. 31, the 243rd day of 2021. There are 122 days left in the year. On this date:
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.
1939: The first issue of Marvel Comics, featuring the Human Torch, was published by Timely Publications in New York.
1972: At the Munich Summer Olympics, American swimmer Mark Spitz won his fourth and fifth gold medals in the 100-meter butterfly and 800-meter freestyle relay; Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut won gold medals in floor exercise and the balance beam.
1980: Poland’s Solidarity labor movement was born with an agreement signed in Gdansk that ended a 17-dayold strike.
1986: 82 people were killed when an Aeromexico jetliner and a small private plane collided over Cerritos, California. The Soviet passenger ship Admiral Nakhimov collided with a merchant vessel in the Black Sea, causing both to sink; up to 448 people reportedly died.
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.)
1994: The Irish Republican Army declared a cease-fire. Russia officially ended its military presence in the former East Germany and the Baltics after half a century.
1996: Three adults and four children drowned when their vehicle rolled into John D. Long Lake in Union, South Carolina; they had gone to see a monument to the sons of Susan Smith, who had drowned the two boys in Oct. 1994.
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.
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.
Drummer Jerry Allison of Buddy Holly and the Crickets is 82. Singer Van Morrison is 76. Violinist Itzhak Perlman is 76. Guitarist Rudolf Schenker of Scorpions is 73. Actor Richard Gere is 72. Actor Stephen Henderson (“Fences,” “Manchester By The Sea”) is 72. Singer Glenn Tilbrook of Squeeze is 64. Drummer Gina Schock
of The Go-go’s is 64. Singer Tony Defranco of The Defranco Family is 62. Keyboardist Larry Waddell of Mint Condition is 58. Actor Jaime P. Gomez
(“Nash Bridges”) is 56. Guitarist Jeff Russo of Tonic is 52. Singer Deborah Gibson is 51. Bassist Greg Richling of The Wallflowers is 51. Actor Zack Ward
(“A Christmas Story,” “Titus”) is 51. Actor Chris Tucker (“Rush Hour”) is 49.