It feels like a while since we’ve looked at a little This Day In History. Let’s take a gander back at the noteworthy occurrences of August 31st…
Births
1924 Buddy (Leonard) Hackett
1931 Dan Rather news anchor (CBS-TV)
1935 Frank Robinson
1968 Hideo Nomo
Deaths
1688 John Bunyan
1964 Rocky Marciano
1997 Princess Diana
Events
1886 The first major earthquake was recorded in the eastern US, at Charleston, SC. 110 people lost their lives. 
1887 Thomas Edison patented the Kinetoscope, a motion picture exhibition device.
1888 Mary Ann “Polly” Nicholls was found murdered in London. The murder is generally accepted as the first “Jack the Ripper” crime.
1894 The Phillies’ Billy Hamilton stole 7 bases.
1900 The Dodgers’ Brickyard Kennedy walked 6 straight Phillies.
1950 Gil Hodges hit 4 HRs off of 4 different pitchers versus Braves.
1959 Sandy Koufax struck out 18 batters, an NL record at the time (this record was, of course, broken on May 6, 1998.)
I love me some Koufax (and the band too).
P.S. Although it was only for a few months, I miss me some Kerry Wood shutting down people out of the bullpen.
Ahh, a game I won’t forget…Kerry Wood’s 20 strike outs…so lovely. I guess I didn’t realize that it was Sandy Koufax’s NL record that he broke.