A tragedy that sparks mass public grief around the world. Britain’s Princess Diana is killed in a car crash in Paris. She was 36 years old. Also killed in the crash, Dodi Al Fayed, Diana’s boyfriend and the car’s driver Henri Paul, bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones badly injured in the crash is the only survivor.

1980In Poland the Solidarity Labor Movement is born under an agreement ending a shipyards strike. Co-founded by Lech Walesa, it’s the first free-trade union behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War. During the next decade, Solidarity plays a key part in bringing down Communism in Eastern Europe. 1888Mary Ann Nicholls considered the first victim of "Jack the Ripper" is found murdered in London's East End. At least 5 women, all of them prostitutes are brutally slain by the Ripper. The murders and the killer’s true identity remain unsolved to this day.

1969Rocky Marciano, the retired heavyweight boxing champ dies in a light plane crash in Iowa a day before what would've been his 46th birthday.

And 1945Virtuoso violinist Itzhak Perlman is born in Tel Aviv in what is now Israel.

Also that same year. My brown eyed girl, You my brown eyed girlSinger and songwriter Van Morrison is born in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Today in History, August 31st.Camille Bohannon, the Associated Press.