► Today is Monday, Aug. 31, the 243d day of 2009. There are 122 days left in the year.
► Today’s birthdays: Broadcast journalist Daniel Schorr is 93. Baseball Hall of Famer Frank Robinson is 74. Actor Warren Berlinger is 72. Rock musician Jerry Allison (Buddy Holly and the Crickets) is 70. Actor Jack Thompson is 69. Violinist Itzhak Perlman is 64. Singer Van Morrison is 64. Rock musician Rudolf Schenker (the Scorpions) is 61. Actor Richard Gere is 60. Olympic gold medal track and field athlete Edwin Moses is 54. Rock singer Glenn Tilbrook (Squeeze) is 52. Rock musician Gina Schock (the Go-Go’s) is 52. Singer Tony DeFranco (the DeFranco Family) is 50. Rhythm & blues musician Larry Waddell (Mint Condition) is 46. Actor Jaime P. Gomez is 44. Baseball pitcher Hideo Nomo is 41. Rock musician Jeff Russo (Tonic) is 40. Singer-composer Deborah Gibson is 39. Rock musician Greg Richling (Wallflowers) is 39. Actor Zack Ward is 39. Golfer Padraig Harrington is 38. Actor Chris Tucker is 37. Actress Sara Ramirez is 34. Rhythm-and-blues singer Tamara (Trina & Tamara) is 32. NFL player Larry Fitzgerald is 26.
► In 1803, explorer Meriwether Lewis departed Pittsburgh, sailing down the Ohio River; he joined up with William Clark in Louisville, Ky., the following October. (The next year, Lewis and Clark began their famous expedition toward the Pacific coast.)
► In 1886, an earthquake rocked Charleston, S.C., killing 60 people.
► In 1888, Mary Ann Nichols, the apparent first victim of “Jack the Ripper,’’ was found slain in London’s East End.
► In 1954, Hurricane Carol hit the northeastern Atlantic states. Connecticut, Rhode Island, and part of Massachusetts bore the brunt of the storm, which resulted in nearly 70 deaths.
► In 1969, boxer Rocky Marciano died in a light airplane crash in Iowa, a day before his 46th birthday.
► In 1980, Poland’s Solidarity labor movement was born with an agreement signed in Gdansk that ended a 17-day-old strike.
► In 1986, the Soviet passenger ship Admiral Nakhimov collided with a merchant vessel in the Black Sea, causing both to sink; up to 448 people reportedly died.
► In 1988, 14 people were killed when a Delta
► In 1989, Britain’s Princess Anne and husband Mark Phillips announced they were separating.
► In 1999, Detroit’s teachers went on strike, wiping out the first day of class for 172,000 students in one of the largest teachers’ strikes in years. (The walkout lasted nine days.)
► In 2004, Palestinian suicide bombers blew up two buses in Beersheba, Israel, killing 16 passengers. A woman strapped with explosives blew herself up outside a busy Moscow subway station, killing 10 people.
► In 2008, with Hurricane Gustav approaching New Orleans, Mayor Ray Nagin pleaded with the last of its residents to get out and imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew.
