| 31 August 1057 | Byzantine Empire [administration] | The Byzantine emperor Michael VI the Aged abdicates in favour of the general Isaac Comnenus, whose troops have already proclaimed him as emperor. |
| 31 August 1158 | Castile, Spain [administration] | King Sancho III of Castile dies; he is succeeded by his infant son, Alfonso VIII. Civil war breaks out. |
| 31 August 1422 | England [administration] | On the death of King Henry V of England, he is succeeded by his infant son, Henry VI, with the lords establishing a council to rule in his minority. |
| 31 August 1422 | England [births and deaths] | Henry V, king of England 1413–22, son of Henry IV, dies in Bois de Vincennes, France (34). |
| 31 August 1688 | England [births and deaths] | John Bunyan, English Puritan minister and preacher, author of The Pilgrim's Progress (1678), dies in London, England (59). |
| 31 August–11 September 1709 | UK, Austria, Habsburg Monarchy, Holy Roman Empire, France, Spanish Netherlands [War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714)] | An allied (British, Dutch, and Austrian) army under the English general John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, and the Austrian general Prince Eugène of Savoy defeat the French army of marshals Claude-Louis-Hector, duc de Villars, and Louis-François, duc de Boufflers, at Malplaquet in the Spanish Netherlands. The battle causes very heavy casualties (22,000 allied and 12,000 French), causing the Tories in Britain to nickname Marlborough ‘the Butcher’. |
| 31 August 1751 | UK, India, Mogul Empire, France [wars] | The English soldier and colonial administrator Robert Clive takes the Indian town of Arcot, capital of the Carnatic, defeating the territorial ambitions (on behalf of France) of the French governor general Joseph, Marquis de Dupleix. |
| 31 August 1871 | France [elections] | The French Liberal statesman Adolphe Thiers is elected the first president of the Third Republic in France. |
| 31 August 1876 | Ottoman Empire [political events] | Sultan Murad V of the Ottoman Empire is deposed because of his insanity and is succeeded by Abdul Hamid II. |
| 31 August 1900 | UK [food and drink] | Coca-Cola goes on sale in Britain. |
| 31 August 1907 | United Kingdom, Russian Empire [diplomacy] | Britain and Russia sign a convention on Persia, Afghanistan, and Tibet, establishing zones of influence and removing obstacles towards an alignment of Russia with Britain and France against the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy). |
| 31 August 1916 | Germany [law and government] | The German government accepts the ‘Hindenburg Plan’ for militarization of the German war economy. |
| 31 August 1957 | Malaya [decolonization] | The British protectorate over Malaya ends and the independent Malayan Federation comes into being. |
| 31 August 1962 | Trinidad and Tobago [decolonization] | Trinidad and Tobago (previously members of the West Indies Federation) becomes an independent nation within the British Commonwealth. |
| 31 August 1966 | UK [aircraft] | British Aerospace's Harrier, a vertical take off and landing (VTOL) jet, makes its first test flight. |
| 31 August 1975 | USA [international organizations] | The International Monetary Fund (IMF) abandons the remaining role of gold in world monetary affairs. |
| 31 August 1994 | Northern Ireland, UK [terrorism] | The Irish Republican Army (IRA) in Northern Ireland announces its complete cessation of violence (the British government lifts its broadcasting ban on representatives of Sinn Fein on 16 September). |
| 31 August 1997 | France, UK [births and deaths] | Diana Spencer, princess of Wales, humanitarian, and charity worker, is killed in a car crash in the Place de l'Alma underpass in Paris, France, along with her companion Dodi Fayed, and their driver (36). |
| 31 August 1998 | UK [cricket] | On the final day of a one-off Test between England and Sri Lanka at the Oval, London, Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan takes 9-65 in England's second innings to help Sri Lanka achieve its first Test victory in England. |
| 31 August 2006 | Iran [diplomacy] | Iran defies a United Nations Security Council ultimatum that it suspend uranium enrichment by the end of August to allay fears that it trying to develop nuclear weapons or face the possibility of punitive sanctions. |
