31 August: On this day in history

By Elinor Evans

Published: Wednesday, 31 August 2022 at 12:00 am

31 August 1681

Anti-Catholic agitator and pamphleteer Stephen College was hanged and quartered for treason in the Castle yard, Oxford.

31 August 1422

King Henry V died aged 35 at Vincennes, south-east of Paris, probably from dysentery he had contracted while besieging Meaux three months earlier. He was succeeded by his only child, the nine-month-old Henry VI.

31 August 1869

Forty-two- year-old Irish scientist Mary Ward became the world’s first motor vehicle fatality when she fell under the wheels of the steam car she was travelling in.

31 August 1900

Coca Cola was first sold in Britain in the restaurant of Spence’s, a silk merchant and general goods store at St Paul’s, London.

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