{"id":8060,"date":"2026-08-31T08:05:45","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T08:05:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=8060"},"modified":"2026-08-31T08:05:45","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T08:05:45","slug":"today-in-history-august-31-princess-diana-dies-in-paris-tunnel-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=8060","title":{"rendered":"Today in History: August 31, Princess Diana dies in Paris tunnel crash"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Today is Monday, Aug. 31, the 243rd day of 2026. There are 122 days left in the year.<\/p>\n

Read more Three-story data center proposed for San Jose industrial site<\/a><\/p>\n

Today in history:<\/h4>\n

On Aug. 31, 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales, was killed after the car she was riding in crashed in Paris; her partner Dodi Fayed and driver Henri Paul (who was found to have been intoxicated at the time of the accident) also died.<\/p>\n

Also on this date:<\/h4>\n

In 1881, the first U.S. tennis championships (for men only) began in Newport, Rhode Island.<\/p>\n

In 1886, an earthquake with an estimated magnitude of up to 7.3 devastated Charleston, South Carolina, killing at least 60 people.<\/p>\n

In 1962, the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago became independent of British colonial rule.<\/p>\n

In 1972, the charismatic Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut, 17, won individual gold medals on the balance beam and floor exercise at the Summer Olympics in Munich; she also won gold for the team all-around competition and a silver in the uneven parallel bars.<\/p>\n

In 1980, Poland\u2019s Solidarity labor movement was born with an agreement signed in Gdansk (guh-DANSK\u2019) that ended a 17-day-old strike.<\/p>\n

Read more Bay Area high school football roundup 2026: Best of Week 1 action<\/a><\/p>\n

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\u2019s wife, son and a deputy U.S. marshal.<\/p>\n

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In 1994, Russia officially ended its military presence in the former East Germany and the Baltics after half a century.<\/p>\n

In 2006, Edvard Munch\u2019s painting \u201cThe Scream\u201d was recovered by Norwegian authorities after being stolen nine days earlier.<\/p>\n

In 2010, President Barack Obama announced the end of 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: \u201cit\u2019s time to turn the page.\u201d<\/p>\n

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 shooter outside a movie theater in Odessa.<\/p>\n

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In 2025, a landslide wiped out an entire village in Sudan\u2019s western region of Darfur, killing an estimated 1,000 people in one of the deadliest natural disasters in the African country\u2019s recent history.<\/p>\n

Read more Photos: Bay Area high school football, Week 1<\/a><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s Birthdays:<\/h4>\n
    \n
  • World Golf Hall of Famer Isao Aoki is 84.<\/li>\n
  • Violinist Itzhak Perlman is 81.<\/li>\n
  • Singer Van Morrison is 81.<\/li>\n
  • Rock musician Rudolf Schenker (The Scorpions) is 78.<\/li>\n
  • Actor Richard Gere is 77.<\/li>\n
  • Actor Stephen McKinley Henderson is 77.<\/li>\n
  • Attorney and author Marcia Clark is 73.<\/li>\n
  • Olympic gold medal hurdler Edwin Moses is 71.<\/li>\n
  • Rock singer Glenn Tilbrook (Squeeze) is 69.<\/li>\n
  • Rock musician Gina Schock (The Go-Go\u2019s) is 69.<\/li>\n
  • Singer-composer Deborah Gibson is 56.<\/li>\n
  • Queen Rania of Jordan is 56.<\/li>\n
  • Golfer Padraig (PAH\u2019-drig) Harrington is 55.<\/li>\n
  • Actor Chris Tucker is 55.<\/li>\n
  • Actor Sara Ramirez is 51.<\/li>\n
  • Former NFL wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald is 43.<\/li>\n
  • NBA All-Star Jalen Brunson is 30.<\/li>\n
  • Actor Jaylen Barron is 29.<\/li>\n
  • Actor Jason Maybaum is 19.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Diana, Princess of Wales, was killed after the car she was riding in crashed in Paris; her partner Dodi Fayed and driver Henri Paul (who was found to have been intoxicated at the time of the accident) also died.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8059,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nToday in History: August 31, Princess Diana dies in Paris tunnel crash - Next City Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=8060\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Today in History: August 31, Princess Diana dies in Paris tunnel crash - 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