August 31 Birthday
On August 31, 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales, was killed in a car crash in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel in Paris. The car, a Mercedes S280, was being pursued by paparazzi at high speed. The driver, Henri Paul, had a blood alcohol level three times the legal limit. Diana's companion Dodi Fayed and Paul were killed instantly. Diana survived the initial impact but died at the hospital. The only survivor was bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones, who was wearing a seatbelt. The public mourning was unprecedented — an estimated one million people lined the funeral route, and 2.5 billion watched on television. Jack the Ripper's first recognized victim, Mary Ann Nichols, was found on August 31, 1888, in Whitechapel, London. The Ripper killed at least five women over ten weeks, then stopped. He was never caught. Over 100 suspects have been proposed, including Prince Albert Victor, the artist Walter Sickert, and a Polish barber named Aaron Kosminski, whose DNA was reportedly found on a shawl in 2014 — though the methodology has been questioned. The Ripper's identity remains the most famous unsolved crime in history. Maria Montessori, born this day in 1870, was the first woman in Italy to earn a medical degree. She developed her educational method while working with children in Rome's slums. The Montessori method emphasizes self-directed learning, mixed-age classrooms, and specially designed materials. There are now over 20,000 Montessori schools worldwide. People born on August 31 fall under the zodiac sign of Virgo. The birthstone is Peridot and the birth flower is Gladiolus. Historical events on August 31 include 1997: Princess Diana killed in car crash in Paris, 1888: Mary Ann Nichols killed — first recognized victim of Jack the Ripper, 1939: Germany stages Gleiwitz incident as pretext for invading Poland. Famous people born on August 31 include Maria Montessori (1870), Van Morrison (1945), Richard Gere (1949).