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Jack the Ripper / Princess Diana / Sunmobile

On This Day (August 31): Your quick daily trip back in time.

Author

Fatih Taskiran
August 31, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes

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🌟 Editor's Note

Good morning. It's Sunday, August 31, and we're exploring the worst outbreak of cholera, Jack the Ripper's first victim, Princess Diana's death, and much more.

Oh, you can't miss today's Strange Times story about a cat, legendary—literally.

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🚀 Time Machine

-1142

Possible date for the establishment of the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) League. (Date disputed - research places the date between 1142 and 1660)

-1854

In Soho, London, there's a major outbreak of cholera; physician John Snow calls it "the worst outbreak of cholera in the history of this kingdom".

-1888

Mary Ann Nichols, Jack the Ripper's first victim, was found dead in Whitechapel.

-1897

Thomas Edison patents the Kinetoscope (kinetographic camera), a device that produces moving pictures.

-1917

Sun Yat-sen and his supporters' rump parliament established a military government in China and elected Sun Yat-sen as Generalissimo.

-1928

Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera) receives its world premiere in Berlin.

-1935

The First Neutrality Act was signed by Franklin D. Roosevelt, who called it an "expression of our desire to avoid war."

-1945

-1955

General Motors demonstrates its "Sunmobile," the world's first solar-powered automobile, at the General Motors Powerama auto show.

-1957

The Federation of Malaya (now Malaysia) gained independence from the United Kingdom.

-1994

Northern Ireland's Provisional Irish Republican Army (Sinn Féin) declares a ceasefire.

-1997

The Princess of Wales, Diana, died in a car crash in a Paris tunnel.

-2005

The World Music Awards named Destiny's Child the best-selling female group of all time, with over 50 million records sold worldwide.

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💬 Final Words

❝

"All my life I have carried myself gracefully."

Rodrigo Calderón, Count of Oliva

🤯 Strange Times

Meet Unsinkable Sam: The Cat Who Refused to Sink

"Unsinkable Sam," a black-and-white ship's cat with an inconvenient habit of surviving. Having been rescued from a plank after Bismarck sank in 1941, he was adopted by HMS Cossack and survived its torpedoing weeks later. Transferred to HMS Ark Royal (the carrier that helped sink Bismarck) and on Nov. 14, 1941, survived yet another torpedo strike, reportedly "angry but quite unharmed."

He retired ashore (in Gibraltar, then a seamen's home in Belfast) and reportedly lived until 1955. The paper trail back to Bismarck/Cossack is patchy, but the wartime clippings and a pastel portrait in Greenwich keep the legend afloat. I call it a sea story with nine lives—it's a perfect little tale about luck, grit, and grabbing the nearest plank.

🏆 FlashQuiz

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