What happened on your birthday?

What’s Your Vietnam War Draft Lottery Number?

The Vietnam War draft lottery ran from 1969 to 1972. If you were born on August 31, would your number have been called?

  • Vietnam War 1969 Lottery
    CalledDrafted
    11
  • Vietnam War 1970 Lottery
    Not CalledNot drafted
    275
  • Vietnam War 1971 Lottery
    Not CalledNot drafted
    111
  • Vietnam War 1972 Lottery
    Not CalledNot drafted
    218

Read on to learn more about the Vietnam war draft lottery.





more events on August 31

  • 2006

    Edvard Munch’s famed painting The Scream recovered by Norwegian police. The artwork had been stolen on Aug. 22, 2004.

  • 1997

    New York Yankees retire Don Mattingly’s #23 (first baseman, coach, manager).

  • Diana, Princess of Wales, dies in a Paris car crash along with her companion Dodi Fayed and driver Henri Paul while fleeing paparazzi.

  • 1994

    The Irish Republican Army (IRA) announces a “complete cessation of military operations,” opening the way to a political settlement in Ireland for the first time in a quarter of a century.

  • Last Russian troops leave Estonia and Latvia.

  • 1990

    Ken Griffey and Ken Griffey Jr. become first father and son to play on same team simultaneously in professional baseball (Seattle Mariners).

  • East and West Germany sign the Treaty of Unification (Einigungsvertrag) to join their legal and political systems.

  • 1987

    Longest mine strike in South Africa’s history ends, after 11 people were killed, 500 injured and 400 arrested.

  • 1986

    A Russian cargo ship collides with cruise ship Admiral Nakhimov, killing 398.

  • 1985

    Police capture Richard Ramirez, dubbed the “Night Stalker” for a string of gruesome murders that stretched from Mission Viejo to San Francisco, Cal.

  • 1980

    Polish government forced to sign Gdansk Agreement allowing creation of the trade union Solidarity.

  • 1970

    Queen Rania of Jordan (nee Rania al Yassin), wife of King Abdullah II.

  • Deborah Ann “Debbie” Gibson, singer, songwriter, record producer, actress; youngest artist ever to write, produce and perform a Billboard #1 single (“Foolish Beat”).

  • Lonnie McLucas convicted of torturing and murdering fellow Black Panther Party member Alex Rackley in the first of the New Haven Black Panther Trials.

  • 1968

    The Dasht-e Bayaz 7.3 earthquake in NE Iran completely destroys five villages and severely damages six others.

  • 1965

    US Congress creates Department of Housing & Urban Development.

  • 1961

    A concrete wall replaces the barbed wire fence that separates East and West Germany, it will be called the Berlin wall.

  • 1951

    The 1st Marine Division begins its attack on Bloody Ridge in Korea. The four-day battle results in 2,700 Marine casualties.

  • 1949

    Richard Gere, actor (Pretty Woman, An Officer and a Gentleman).

  • Six of the 16 surviving Union veterans of the Civil War attend the last-ever encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic, held in Indianapolis, Indiana.

  • 1948

    Lowell Ganz, screenwriter, (A League of Their Own) director, producer, actor.

  • 1945

    Itzhak Perlman, violinist.

  • Van Morrison, Irish singer, songwriter.

  • 1944

    The British Eighth Army penetrates the German Gothic Line in Italy.

  • 1942

    The British army under General Bernard Law Montgomery defeats Field Marshal Erwin Rommel’s Afrika Korps in the Battle of Alam Halfa in Egypt.

  • 1940

    Joseph Avenol steps down as Secretary-General of the League of Nations.

  • 1936

    Marva Collins, innovative educator who started Chicago’s one-room school, Westside Preparatory.

  • 1935

    Eldridge Cleaver, political activist and author of Soul on Fire.

  • 1928

    Kurt Weill’s The Threepenny Opera opens in Berlin.

  • 1919

    The Communist Labor Party is founded in Chicago, with the motto, “Workers of the world unite!”

  • 1918

    Daniel Schorr, journalist.

  • Alan Jay Lerner, playwright and lyricist (Brigadoon, Camelot).

  • 1908

    William Saroyan, author and playwright (The Human Comedy).

  • 1907

    William Shawn, longtime editor of The New Yorker.

  • 1905

    Sanford Meisner, influential acting teacher.

  • 1903

    Arthur Godfrey, radio and television personality.

  • 1899

    Lynn Riggs, writer, her book Green Grow the Lilacs was adapted by Rodgers and Hammerstein to become Oklahoma.

  • 1885

    Dubose Heyward, novelist, poet and dramatist best know for Porgy which was the basis for the opera Porgy and Bess.

  • 1870

    Maria Montessori, educator and founder of the Montessori schools.

  • 1864

    At the Democratic convention in Chicago, General George B. McClellan is nominated for president.

  • 1811

    Théophile Gautier, French poet, novelist and author of Art for Art’s Sake.

  • 1802

    Captain Meriwether Lewis leaves Pittsburgh to meet up with Captain William Clark and begin their trek to the Pacific Ocean.

  • 1756

    The British at Fort William Henry, New York, surrender to Louis Montcalm of France.

  • 1303

    The War of Vespers in Sicily ends with an agreement between Charles of Valois, who invaded the country, and Frederick, the ruler of Sicily.