Born on this day
Friday, August 31, 0012. : Gaius Caesar (Caligula), third Roman Emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, is born
Gaius Julius Caesar Germanicus was born in Antium on 31 August AD 12. As the third Roman Emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, he ruled from AD 37 to 41. Gaius Caesar gained his nickname of Caligula when, as a young child, he became the mascot of his father’s army. His father, Agrippina, would put a miniature soldier costume on young Gaius, and he was soon given his nickname of “Caligula”, meaning “Little Boots” in Latin, after the small boots he wore as part of his costume.
Caligula gained favour with the Emperor Tiberius so he was a natural successor upon the latter’s death in AD 37. Tiberius had made his grandson, Tiberius Gemellus, joint heir, but the Roman Senate annulled Tiberius’ will and proclaimed Caligula emperor. Gemellus was very young and therefore no obstacle to Caligula’s ambitions, and Caligula had him killed soon after becoming Emperor.
Caligula was a shrewd and popular leader early in his reign, but sickness (possibly encephalitis) changed the direction of his reign to one of insanity and delusional actions. Finally, in AD 41, he was assassinated by several members of his own Praetorian Guard.
Australian History
Thursday, August 31, 1882. : Cricket’s legend of The Ashes is born with the first of two mock obituaries lamenting England’s loss to Australia.
Cricket in Australia has a history that goes back to the nation’s early colonial days. Although Australia has no official sport, cricket is regarded as the country’s unofficial sport. The first reported cricket game took place in Hyde Park, Sydney in January 1804. Inter-colonial games began when a team from Victoria travelled to Launceston, Tasmania for a game in February 1851. The first visit by an English cricket team to Australia occurred during Australia’s summer of 1861-62. Australia reciprocated with a team to England, made up of indigenous players, in 1868. Thus began a tradition of the “Mother Country” versing the colonial underdog.
The Ashes refers to a Test series played between Australia and England, made up of five Tests, hosted alternately by Australia and England. The legend of the Ashes began after Australia won its first Test cricket match on English soil. Victory was achieved by just seven runs. The English media mourned its loss with a satirical obituary first published on 31 August 1882 in the magazine ‘Cricket: A Weekly Record of the Game’. The obituary read:
SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF
ENGLAND’S SUPREMACY IN THE CRICKET-FIELD
WHICH EXPIRED ON THE 29TH DAY OF AUGUST, AT THE OVAL
“ITS END WAS PEATE”
This was followed by another mock obituary in British newspaper ‘The Sporting Times’ on 2 September 1882, and is the basis upon which the Ashes developed. Written by Reginald Shirley Brooks, it read:
In Affectionate Remembrance of
ENGLISH CRICKET,
which died at the Oval on
29 August 1882
Deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowing friends and acquaintances
R.I.P.
N.B.—The body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia.
After the Australian cricket team returned to Australia in December 1882, the Sydney ‘Bulletin’ wrote about ‘the revered ashes of English cricket which had been lain on the shelf of the Australian Eleven’. As the next test was to be hosted by Australia, the English media began to report on ‘the quest to regain the Ashes’. Thus was the legend of the Ashes consolidated.
Australian History
Thursday, August 31, 1933. : The township of Stuart in the Northern Territory is renamed Alice Springs.
The city of Alice Springs is located 1524 km from Darwin and 293 km north of the South Australian border. It is the second largest city in the Northern Territory, with a population of over 25 000.
In 1862, explorer John McDougall Stuart’s fifth expedition succeeded in finding a route through the Centre of Australia to the north coast and back, navigating and mapping the country for white settlement. The construction of the Overland Telegraph Line from Adelaide to Darwin was completed in 1872, making it viable for pastoralists to take up leases in the Red Centre. The springs after which the town was named were discovered on 11 March 1871 by the team building the Overland Telegraph Line. They lie to the north-east of the town and were named after the wife of Charles Todd, the man instrumental in securing the construction of the Overland Telegraph Line for South Australia. Surveyors William Whitfield Mills and John Ross both claim credit for the discovery of the springs.
Alice Springs was the name given to the telegraph repeater station which operated from 1872 to 1932. The actual town, originally surveyed in 1888, was 3km south of the telegraph station. Until the early 1930s, the official name of the town was Stuart. However, this created confusion for administrators in Adelaide, so on 31 August 1933 the township of Stuart was officially gazetted Alice Springs.
World History
Thursday, August 31, 1939. : Germany prepares to invade Poland.
As tensions escalated in the lead-up to WWII, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler refused to bow to pressure from Britain and France. At midday on 31 August, 1939, Hitler signed an order to attack Poland, and German forces moved to the frontier. They staged an attack by Poland, dressing Nazi S.S. troops in Polish uniforms and leaving behind dead German prisoners in Polish uniforms as evidence of the ‘Polish attack’. Using this as propaganda served to pave the way for Germany to invade Poland the next day. Within a few days, Britain declared war on Germany.
World History
Sunday, August 31, 1997. : Diana, Princess of Wales, is killed in a car crash in Paris.
On 31 August 1997, Britain lost a much-loved public figure when Diana, Princess of Wales, was killed in a car crash in Paris. Diana Spencer came from an aristocratic family with royal Stuart ancestry. Born on 1 July 1961, she was a descendant of King Charles II of England through two of his illegitimate sons: Henry Fitzroy, 1st Duke of Grafton, son by Barbara Villiers, 1st Duchess of Cleveland and Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond and Lennox, son by Louise de Kérouaille, 1st Duchess of Portsmouth. Diana married heir to the throne, Prince Charles, on 29 July 1981, and produced two sons, William and Harry.
Diana was actively involved in a variety of charity work. Among her most notable achievements were her assistance in the campaign against landmines, a cause which won the Nobel Prize in 1997 in tribute, and helping to decrease discrimination against victims of AIDS.
Diana divorced Prince Charles, on 28 August 1996. She and her male companion, Dodi Al Fayed, son of Harrods owner, Mohammed Al Fayed, had just departed the Ritz Hotel in Paris. It appeared that Diana’s car was being pursued at high speed by photographers on motorbikes when it hit a pillar and smashed into a wall in a tunnel under the Place de l’Alma in the centre of the city.
While Dodi Al Fayed and the chauffeur were killed immediately, the princess and her bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones, were cut from the wreckage and taken to hospital. The Princess died at 0300 BST, after surgeons worked for several hours to try to save her life. Mr Rees-Jones, the only one wearing his seatbelt, was the sole survivor. Blood tests on the driver, Henri Paul, showed that he had a large amount of drugs and alcohol in his system at the time of the crash.
Diana’s funeral was held on 6 September 1997. She was buried with a set of rosary beads, a gift she received from Mother Teresa, who died the week after Diana. Her grave is on an island in the grounds of Althorp Park, her family home.