August 31

Byzantine Empress Theodora dies, ending the Macedonian dynasty's rule.

Empress Theodora, who had ruled the Byzantine Empire alongside and after several male relatives, died without an heir, bringing an end to the Macedonian dynasty that had governed Byzantium for close to two centuries of relative stability and cultural flourishing.

Al-Kamil becomes sultan of the Ayyubid dynasty following his father's death.

Following the death of his father, al-Malik al-Kamil ascended as sultan of the Ayyubid dynasty founded by the famed Saladin, later negotiating a notable diplomatic peace treaty with Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II that temporarily restored Jerusalem to Christian control without warfare.

King Henry V of England dies, and his nine-month-old son becomes King Henry VI.

King Henry V, the celebrated victor of Agincourt whose military campaigns had brought France to the brink of complete conquest, died unexpectedly of dysentery while still in his thirties, leaving his infant son to inherit thrones and conflicts far beyond the child's capacity to manage.

Spanish forces repel a French attack at the Battle of San Marcial during the Peninsular War.

During the Peninsular War, Spanish forces successfully repelled a French assault near the town of San Marcial in northern Spain, a defensive victory that helped secure the Pyrenees frontier as Wellington's Allied forces pushed French troops back toward their own border.

The Battle of Jonesborough begins near Atlanta, part of the campaign that leads to the city's fall.

As part of Union General William Tecumseh Sherman's broader campaign to encircle and capture the vital Confederate rail hub of Atlanta, Union forces engaged Confederate troops near Jonesborough, a battle that succeeded in cutting the last remaining railroad supply line into the city and directly precipitating its fall to Union forces just days later.

The body of Mary Ann Nichols is discovered in London's Whitechapel district, the first canonical victim attributed to Jack the Ripper.

The body of 43-year-old Mary Ann Nichols was discovered in London's impoverished Whitechapel district with severe throat and abdominal wounds, marking the first of what became five widely accepted "canonical" murders attributed to an unidentified serial killer who taunted police and the press under the infamous pseudonym Jack the Ripper.

Ferdinand von Zeppelin patents his design for a navigable rigid airship.

German inventor and count Ferdinand von Zeppelin secured a patent for his design of a large, rigid-framed airship capable of controlled powered flight, a design that later led to the development of the famous Zeppelin passenger airships of the early twentieth century.

Nazi Germany stages a false-flag attack on a German radio station at Gleiwitz, used as pretext for invading Poland the next day.

German forces staged a fabricated attack on a German radio station near the Polish border, dressing concentration camp prisoners in Polish uniforms and leaving their bodies as false evidence, using the incident as a pretext to justify Germany's invasion of Poland the following day.

Diana, Princess of Wales, dies in a car crash in Paris.

Diana, Princess of Wales, was fatally injured in a high-speed car crash in a Paris tunnel while being pursued by paparazzi photographers, an event that triggered an extraordinary global outpouring of public grief and renewed scrutiny of press intrusion into royal privacy.

Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff is formally removed from office following an impeachment trial.

Following a lengthy impeachment process centered on allegations of fiscal mismanagement, Brazil's Senate voted to permanently remove President Dilma Rousseff from office, elevating her vice president to complete the remainder of the presidential term amid a deeply polarized political climate.