On this day: 30 August

First Jewish–Roman War: Roman forces led by Titus set fire to the Second Temple during the siege of Jerusalem.

Elderly Byzantine Emperor Michael VI Bringas abdicates after just one year on the throne.

The Mirdasids defeat the Fatimid Caliphate at the Battle of al-Funaydiq, signalling the definitive loss of Aleppo for the Fatimids.

Peter III of Aragon lands at Trapani to intervene in the War of the Sicilian Vespers.

The five-week Battle of Lake Poyang begins, in which the forces of two Chinese rebel leaders (Chen Youliang and Zhu Yuanzhang) meet to decide who will supplant the Yuan dynasty.

Paul II succeeds Pius II as pope of the Catholic Church.

Guru Ram Das (pictured) became the fourth of the Sikh gurus, the spiritual masters of Sikhism.

Tokugawa Ieyasu enters Edo Castle. (Traditional Japanese date: August 1, 1590)

The Great Northern War between Sweden and Russia ends in the Treaty of Nystad.

Battle of Gross-Jägersdorf: Russian force under Field Marshal Stepan Fyodorovich Apraksin beats a smaller Prussian force commanded by Field Marshal Hans von Lehwaldt, during the Seven Years' War.

Gabriel Prosser planned to hold a slave rebellion in Virginia, U.S., but it was postponed due to rain; he was captured before he could reschedule it.

First Battle of Kulm: French forces are defeated by an Austrian-Prussian-Russian alliance.

Australia: Melbourne, Victoria is founded.

The city of Houston is founded by Augustus Chapman Allen and John Kirby Allen.

American Civil War: Battle of Richmond: Confederates under Edmund Kirby Smith rout Union forces under General William "Bull" Nelson.

Austrian explorers Julius von Payer and Karl Weyprecht discover the archipelago of Franz Josef Land in the Arctic Sea.

Burgess Shale fossils are discovered by Charles Doolittle Walcott.

World War I: The Battle of Tannenberg resulted in the almost complete destruction of the Russian 2nd Army by the German 8th Army.

Ernest Shackleton completes the rescue of all of his men stranded on Elephant Island in Antarctica.

Battle of Dumlupınar: The final battle in the Greco-Turkish War (Turkish War of Independence).

The Second Vienna Award reassigns the territory of Northern Transylvania from Romania to Hungary.

The Tighina Agreement, a treaty regarding administration issues of the Transnistria Governorate, is signed between Germany and Romania.

The Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, General Douglas MacArthur, lands at Atsugi Air Force Base.

The Allied Control Council, governing Germany after World War II, comes into being.

The Japanese occupation of Hong Kong comes to an end.

Writer and politician Abdul Muis became the first person to be awarded the posthumous title of National Hero of Indonesia.

South Vietnamese opposition figure Phan Quang Đán was elected to the National Assembly, despite soldiers being bussed in to vote multiple times for President Ngô Đình Diệm's candidate.

Japan conducts a test of the NAMC YS-11, its first aircraft since World War II and its only successful commercial aircraft from before or after the war.

The Moscow–Washington hotline between the leaders of the U.S. and the Soviet Union goes into operation.

Thurgood Marshall was confirmed as the first African-American Supreme Court justice.

The Third World Population Conference ends in Bucharest, Romania. At the end of the ceremony, the UN-Romanian Demographic Centre is inaugurated.

STS-8: The Space Shuttle Challenger takes off on the first night launch of the shuttle program. Guion Bluford becomes the first African-American in space on this mission.

Discovery, the third orbiter of NASA's Space Shuttle program, lifted off on its maiden voyage from Kennedy Space Center, Florida.

Dissolution of the Soviet Union: Azerbaijan declares independence from Soviet Union.

The 11-day Ruby Ridge standoff ends with Randy Weaver surrendering to federal authorities.

Bosnian War: NATO launches Operation Deliberate Force against Bosnian Serb forces.

Second Congo War: Armed forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and their Angolan and Zimbabwean allies recapture Matadi and the Inga dams in the western DRC from RCD and Rwandan troops.

Prime Minister of Lesotho Tom Thabane flees to South Africa as the army allegedly stages a coup.

Gabonese coup d'état: After Ali Bongo Ondimba's reelection, a military coup ousts him, ending 56 years of Bongo family rule in Gabon.