On this day

August 31, 1948

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Headlines from August 31, 1948

Notable Births

Harald Ertl

1948Harald Ertl, Austrian race car driver and journalist (died 1982)[†]

Harald Ertl was an Austrian racing driver and motorsport journalist. He was born in Zell am See and attended the same school as Grand Prix drivers Jochen Rindt, Helmut Marko and Niki Lauda.

1948Lowell Ganz, American screenwriter and producer[†]

Lowell Ganz is an American writer and producer. He is the long-time writing partner of Babaloo Mandel and has written for television, film, and theatre.

1948Ken McMullen, English director, producer, and screenwriter[†]

Ken McMullen is a film director, artist and since 2012 Anniversary Professor of Film Studies at Kingston University, London. McMullen's films are grounded in philosophy, history, psychoanalysis and literature. McMullen's exhibition Signatures of the Invisible brought together artists and scientists working at CERN, the European particle physics facility near Geneva. His other work includes filming conversations with physicists at Stanford Linear Accelerator Centre, which he describes as "making a diary of the transition in human culture" because he believes physics is arriving at another shifting point. His latest work Arrows of Time is a radical new form of cinema consisting of 40 interchangeable elements that deal with literature, philosophy, and contemporary physics, premiered at the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco in April 2007.

Holger Osieck

1948Holger Osieck, German footballer and manager[†]

Holger Osieck is a German football manager who last managed the Australia national team. Prior to the Australian role, he most recently managed J. League club Urawa Red Diamonds, where he won the 2007 AFC Champions League. He served as an assistant coach of the West Germany national football team when they won the 1990 FIFA World Cup. He also led Canada in winning the 2000 CONCACAF Gold Cup.

Rudolf Schenker

1948Rudolf Schenker, German guitarist and songwriter[†]

Rudolf Schenker is a German guitarist and songwriter, best known as the founder and leader of the hard rock band Scorpions. He is the rhythm and lead guitarist, primary songwriter and the sole constant member of the band. He is also the CEO/owner-manager of the Scorpions Musik-Produktions-und Verlagsgesellschaft mbH and owner/founder of the Scorpio-Sound-Studios in Lower Saxony. He is the older brother of Michael Schenker.

Notable Deaths

Andrei Zhdanov

1948Andrei Zhdanov, Russian civil servant and politician (born 1896)[†]

Andrei Aleksandrovich Zhdanov was a Soviet politician. He was the Soviet Union's "propagandist-in-chief" after the Second World War, and was responsible for developing the Soviet cultural policy, the Zhdanov Doctrine, which remained in effect until the death of Joseph Stalin. Zhdanov was considered Stalin's most likely successor but died before him.