1. On August 31, 1939, Alabama Governor Frank M. Dixon inaugurated the new Alabama State Capitol building. The building had been under construction for more than a decade and replaced the old capitol building that had burned down in 1926.

2. On August 31, 1955, a Category 5 hurricane named Hurricane Diane made landfall in Alabama causing widespread destruction and flooding. The hurricane killed 184 people and caused more than $250 million in damage.

3. On August 31, 1965, the Alabama State Board of Education voted to expel more than 100 African American students from the public schools in Tuskegee, Alabama, in response to their participation in civil rights demonstrations.

4. On August 31, 1970, a group of four Vietnamese refugees arrived in Mobile, Alabama as part of the first wave of refugees to be resettled in the United States following the fall of Saigon.

5. On August 31, 1986, Alabama native Mia Hamm scored her first international goal as a member of the United States national soccer team during a match against Italy. Hamm would go on to become one of the greatest soccer players of all time, leading the United States to two World Cup championships and two Olympic gold medals.