August 30 in History

Cleopatra VII — the last pharaoh of Egypt — died by suicide at age 39 after Octavian's forces conquered Alexandria, ending the Ptolemaic dynasty that had ruled Egypt for nearly 300 years. Her death turned Egypt into a Roman province and made Octavian (soon Augustus) the unchallenged ruler of the Mediterranean world, closing the Hellenistic era and opening the Roman Imperial age.

Theoderic the Great, the Ostrogoth king who had ruled Italy for over 30 years, died of dysentery at Ravenna in 526 AD. His daughter Amalasuntha took power as regent for her 10-year-old son Athalaric, attempting to preserve Roman administrative traditions in a Gothic kingdom.

The Mirdasid forces crush the Fatimid army at al-Funaydiq, shattering their hold on Aleppo forever. This decisive victory ends over a decade of Fatimid rule in northern Syria and hands control of the city to the local Arab dynasty.

Peter III of Aragon arrived in Sicily in 1282 after the Sicilian Vespers uprising drove out the hated French Angevins. Originally headed on a crusade against Tunisia, he diverted to Trapani at the Palermitans' request, beginning an Aragonese rule of Sicily that would last centuries.

The five-week Battle of Lake Poyang erupts as Chen Youliang and Zhu Yuanzhang clash to determine who will overthrow the Yuan dynasty. Zhu's victory at this massive naval engagement clears the path for him to establish the Ming dynasty, ending centuries of Mongol rule in China.

Pope Paul III issues the bull Eius qui immobilis to excommunicate King Henry VIII for endorsing the Acts of Supremacy. Though the document likely never sees publication, this papal decree solidifies England's break from Rome and forces the crown to sever all remaining ties with the Vatican.

Russian forces under Field Marshal Stepan Fyodorovich Apraksin crush a smaller Prussian army led by Field Marshal Hans von Lehwaldt at Gross-Jägersdorf. This victory temporarily halts Prussian advances in East Prussia, compelling Frederick the Great to divert crucial troops from his main campaign against Austria to defend his eastern flank.

The entire Dutch fleet was captured at anchor in the Texel Roads in 1799 by British forces that rode their horses across the sandbanks at low tide and took the ships by boarding. Thirteen ships of the line. Surrendered without a significant fight. The sailors on board had no orders to resist. It remains one of the only times in naval history that a cavalry charge captured a fleet.

Gabriel Prosser organized an elaborate slave rebellion in Richmond, Virginia, recruiting hundreds of enslaved people and planning to seize the state capital's armory. A violent thunderstorm and betrayal by informants foiled the uprising before it began, but the conspiracy terrified slaveholders across the South and tightened restrictions on enslaved people for decades.

The Fort Mims massacre of 1813 was the deadliest single attack of the Creek War — over 500 settlers and militia were killed when the Creek "Red Sticks" overran the poorly defended fort north of Mobile, Alabama. The slaughter galvanized American public opinion and brought Andrew Jackson into the war.