31 August 1871

A sightseeing helicopter crashed in the mountains of Skoddevarre in Alta, Norway, killing all six people on board.

The last episode of The Bill, the longest-running police drama in British television history, was broadcast.

Typhoon Rusa made landfall in Goheung as the most powerful typhoon to hit South Korea in 43 years, killing at least 236 people.

Diana, Princess of Wales (pictured), her partner Dodi Fayed, and their driver were killed in a car crash in Paris.

On the final day of the Isle of Wight Festival 1969, attended by approximately 150,000 people over three days, Bob Dylan appeared in his first gig in three years.

A parcel bomb sent by Ngô Đình Nhu (pictured), younger brother and chief adviser of South Vietnamese president Ngô Đình Diệm, failed to kill Norodom Sihanouk, Prime Minister of Cambodia.

The Matagorda hurricane, the most intense and costliest tropical cyclone of the 1942 Atlantic hurricane season, dissipated after causing $26.5 million in damages and eight deaths.

World War II: A detachment of Chetniks captured the town of Loznica in German-occupied Serbia.

Second World War: Two Royal navy destroyers were lost to mines and two other vessels damaged off Texel, Netherlands, killing around 300 men.

Nazi forces, posing as Poles, staged an attack against the German radio station Sender Gleiwitz in Gleiwitz, Upper Silesia, Germany, creating an excuse to invade Poland the next day.

Thomas Edison was granted a patent for the Kinetoscope, a precursor to the modern movie projector.

The body of Mary Ann Nichols, the alleged first victim of an unidentified serial killer known as Jack the Ripper (pictured), was found in Buck's Row, London.

Sultan Murad V of the Ottoman Empire was deposed after a reign of 93 days on grounds of mental illness.

War of 1812: American militia forces repelled a British force at the Battle of Caulk's Field, killing 41 people including Captain Peter Parker of the Royal Navy.

Al-Kamil became the fourth sultan of the Ayyubid dynasty of Egypt.

A landslide in the Darfur region of Sudan kills over 1000 people. 26

A helicopter crashes in Kamchatka Krai in the Russian Far East, killing all 22 occupants.

Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff is impeached and removed from office.

Edvard Munch's famous painting, The Scream, stolen on August 22, 2004, is recovered in a raid by Norwegian police.

The 2005 Al-Aaimmah bridge stampede in Baghdad kills 953 people.

Typhoon Rusa, the most powerful typhoon to hit South Korea in 43 years, made landfall, killing at least 236 people.

The first of a series of bombings in Moscow kills one person and wounds 40 others.

A LAPA Boeing 737-200 crashes during takeoff from Jorge Newbury Airport in Buenos Aires, killing 65, including two on the ground.

Diana, Princess of Wales, her partner, Dodi Fayed, and driver Henri Paul die in a car crash in Paris.