About the day » Monday August 31, 1981Calender converter

• Ewoud Rijk († 1981)
• Astrid Kouseband
• Marianna Costa Pereira, São Luis de Montes Belos, GO, Brazilië

• Bert Charles Federspiel (21), Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
• Bertus Kossen (95), Den Helder
• Aaltje Gezina Groote (49), Schoonoord
• Abraham Simon Ramakers van Praag (68), 's-Hertogenbosch, 's-Hertogenbosch, North Brabant, The Netherlands
• Benjamin Koudijs (66)
• Ane Katstra
• Adriana Petronella Geldermans, Ermelo (GL)
• Antonius Josephus Marie Kerssemakers (77), Utrecht, Utrecht, Nederland
• Anne Jans Sietsma (80), Drachten
• Bendina Remda Kannegieter (79), Aplington (Butler County) (Iowa)

• 1980 » Joe Budden, American rapper
• 1981 » Ahmad Al Harthy, Omani race car driver
• 1981 » Dwayne Peel, Welsh rugby player
• 1981 » Steve Saviano, American ice hockey player
• 1982 » Alexei Mikhnov, Ukrainian-Russian ice hockey player
• 1982 » Chris Duhon, American basketball player
• 1982 » Christopher Katongo, Zambian footballer
• 1982 » Ian Crocker, American swimmer
• 1982 » Josh Kroeger, American baseball player
• 1982 » Lien Huyghebaert, Belgian sprinter

• 1974 » Norman Kirk, New Zealand engineer and politician, 29th Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1923)
• 1974 » William Pershing Benedict, American soldier and pilot (b. 1918)
• 1978 » John Wrathall, Rhodesian accountant and politician, 2nd President of Rhodesia (b. 1913)
• 1979 » Sally Rand, American actress and dancer (b. 1904)
• 1979 » Tiger Smith, English cricketer and coach (b. 1886)
• 1984 » Audrey Wagner, American baseball player, obstetrician, and gynecologist (b. 1927)
• 1985 » Frank Macfarlane Burnet, Australian virologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1899)
• 1986 » Elizabeth Coatsworth, American author and poet (b. 1893)
• 1986 » Henry Moore, English sculptor and illustrator (b. 1898)
• 1986 » Urho Kekkonen, Finnish journalist, lawyer, and politician, 8th President of Finland (b. 1900)

• Koningin Beatrix (Huis van Oranje-Nassau) was from April 30, 1980 till April 30, 2013 sovereign of the Netherlands (also known as Koninkrijk der Nederlanden)
• In The Netherlands , there was from Monday, December 19, 1977 to Friday, September 11, 1981 the cabinet Van Agt I, with Mr. A.A.M. van Agt (CDA/KVP) as prime minister.
• In The Netherlands , there was from Friday, September 11, 1981 to Saturday, May 29, 1982 the cabinet Van Agt II, with Mr. A.A.M. van Agt (CDA) as prime minister.
• The Netherlands had about 14.2 million citizens.
• February 6 » The National Resistance Army of Uganda launches an attack on a Ugandan Army installation in the central Mubende District to begin the Ugandan Bush War.
• March 1 » Provisional Irish Republican Army member Bobby Sands begins his hunger strike in HM Prison Maze.
• March 30 » U.S. President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by John Hinckley, Jr.; three others are wounded in the same incident.
• May 13 » Mehmet Ali Ağca attempts to assassinate Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Square in Rome. The Pope is rushed to the Agostino Gemelli University Polyclinic to undergo emergency surgery and survives.
• August 1 » MTV begins broadcasting in the United States and airs its first video, "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles.
• October 14 » Vice President Hosni Mubarak is elected as the President of Egypt, one week after the assassination of Anwar Sadat.

The temperature on August 31, 1981 was between 9.1 °C and 20.2 °C and averaged 14.2 °C. There was -0.1 mm of rain. There was 3.8 hours of sunshine (28%). The partly clouded was. The average windspeed was 1 Bft (weak wind) and was prevailing from the north-northeast.