31 August

1913: - PSV Eindhoven was founded to celebrate the centennial defeat of the French in the Napoleonic wars as a works team for the employees of electronics conglomerate Phillips.

1929: - York City played their first-ever Football League game after they beat Wigan Borough 2-0. The game was also significant as Reg Stockill became the youngest player to represent the club in a senior competitive match aged 15 years and 281 days. He also scored which makes him possibly the youngest person to ever score in a Football League match.

1935: - Norwich City opened their new ground Carrow Road with a 4-3 victory over West Ham United, in front of 31,000 supporters, which was 6,000 more than had ever attended their old ground at the ‘Nest’. Lochhead, Vinall 2 and Warnes scored for Norwich while West Ham’s goals came from Morton, Marshall and Ruffell.

1946: - The Football League resumed after a break of seven years due to the Second World War. The fixtures were similar to those of the opening days of 1939-1940, the season which was abandoned after most clubs had played 3 games.

1951: - Johnny Berry the Birmingham City outside right transferred to Manchester United for £20,000. He won 3 Championship medals with United before he sustained injuries in the Munich air crash in 1958 which forced him to give up the game.

1960: - The former Chelsea and St Johnstone wing-half Bill Ferguson died at the age of 59. He joined the London side in 1922 from Scottish juniors and spent 11 years at Stamford Bridge appearing in 263 League matches and scored 11 goals. He had 4 years with St Johnstone were he played in 79 games and scored 3 goals.

1973: - Alan West’s proposed move to Sunderland from Burnley fell through after he failed a medical.

1982: - Leicester City’s Eddie Kelly became the first player to get a red card for a “Professional Foul” after he deliberately handled the ball in a League match against Rotherham United.

1997: - The Liverpool-Newcastle United FA Premier League fixture was cancelled as a mark of respect for Princess Diana, who had died earlier in the day in a Paris car crash. 1998: - Ruud Gullit was appointed as Newcastle United manager.

1999: - Manchester United signed the Italian goalkeeper Massimo Taibi for £4.5million from Venezia. The Italian's tenure at Old Trafford is perhaps best known for his continued mistakes while in goal.

2004: - Wayne Rooney completed his move from Everton to Manchester United for £31 million. It marked the most expensive transfer for a teenage player as Rooney was several weeks off his nineteenth birthday at the time of his signing.

2006: - Chelsea were fined £40,000 by the Football Association for breaching doping regulations.

2007: - HRMC abandoned their legal challenge against KPMG which finally put all administorial debt and financial matters with regard to Leeds United to rest.

2008: - Manchester City pulled off a massive coup after they beat Chelsea to the signing of the Brazilian striker Robinho from Real Madrid for a British transfer-record breaking £32.5million.