August 31

• August 31, 1422
  Henry V, King of England and France, dies
• August 31, 1707
  The Treaty of Altranstädt, which settle the rights of Protestants in Silesia, is signed between Charles XII of Sweden and Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor
• August 31, 1756
  The British at Fort William Henry, New England, surrender to Louis-Joseph de Montcalm of France
• August 31, 1907
  England, Russia and France form the Triple Entente as a counterweight to the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Kingdom of Italy
• August 31, 1946
  At the Nuremberg Tribunal, defendants make closing statements before the court: Hermann Goring denies all, Joachim von Ribbentrop hopes America and Great Britain are more successful versus Bolshevism
• August 31, 1957
  Malaysia gains independence from Britain
• August 31, 1962
  Trinidad and Tobago gain independence from Britain
• August 31, 1991
  Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan declare independence from the Soviet Union
• August 31, 1997
  Diana, Princess of Wales, is pronounced dead at 4:00 a.m. after a car crash at midnight in the Pont de l'Alma road tunnel in Paris

August 30

• August 30, 526
  Theoderic the Great, King of Ostrogoths, dies of dysentery and is succeeded by his grandson Athalaric
• August 30, 1483
  Louis XI, King of France, dies at age 60
• August 30, 1721
  The Peace of Nystad ends the Great Northern War between Sweden and Russia, giving Russia considerably more power in the Baltic region
• August 30, 1862
  Union forces are defeated by the Confederates at the Second Battle of Bull Run in Manassas, Virginia, the culmination of an offensive campaign waged by Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia
• August 30, 1869
  U.S. soldier John Wesley Powell completes exploratory river trip down the Green and Colorado rivers, in which becomes the first Europeans to pass through the Grand Canyon
• August 30, 1909
  Burgess Shale, one of the world's most celebrated fossil fields and the earliest fossil beds containing soft-part imprints, is found by palaeontologist Charles Walcott
• August 30, 1963
  Hot Line communications link between Washington DC and Moscow begins in the wake of the Cuban Missile Crisis
• August 30, 1981
  Mohammad Ali Rajai, president of Iran, and Mohammad Javad Bahonar, prime minister of Iran, are assassinated by a bomb
• August 30, 1991
  American athlete Mike Powell set new world record in long jump, 8.95 m, World Championships in Athletics
• August 30, 1995
  The NATO bombing campaign against Serb artillery positions begins in Bosnia, continuing into October, simultaneously with an ARBiH offensive against the Serb Army around Sarajevo, central Bosnia and Bosnian Krajina