1996 : Charles and Diana divorce
http://history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=5298

August 29, 2005:
Hurricane Katrina devastates much of the U.S. Gulf Coast from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle, killing more than 1,836 and causing over $115 billion in damage.

Hurricane Katrina was the costliest and one of the deadliest hurricanes in the history of the United States. It was the sixth-strongest Atlantic hurricane ever recorded and the third-strongest hurricane on record that made landfall in the United States. Katrina formed on August 23 during the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season and caused devastation along much of the north-central Gulf Coast. The most severe loss of life and property damage occurred in New Orleans, Louisiana, which flooded as the levee system catastrophically failed, in many cases hours after the storm had moved inland. The hurricane caused severe destruction across the entire Mississippi coast and into Alabama, as far as 100 miles (160 km) from the storm's center. Katrina was the eleventh tropical storm, fifth hurricane, third major hurricane, and second Category 5 hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic season.

It formed over the Bahamas on August 23, 2005, and crossed southern Florida as a moderate Category 1 hurricane, causing some deaths and flooding there, before strengthening rapidly in the Gulf of Mexico and becoming one of the strongest hurricanes on record while at sea. The storm weakened before making its second and third landfalls as a Category 3 storm on the morning of August 29 in southeast Louisiana and at the Louisiana/Mississippi state line, respectively.

The storm surge caused severe damage along the Gulf Coast, devastating the Mississippi cities of Waveland, Bay St. Louis, Pass Christian, Long Beach, Gulfport, Biloxi, Ocean Springs, and Pascagoula. In Louisiana, the flood protection system in New Orleans failed in 53 different places. Nearly every levee in metro New Orleans breached as Hurricane Katrina passed east of the city, subsequently flooding 80% of the city and many areas of neighboring parishes for weeks.

At least 1,836 people lost their lives in Hurricane Katrina and in the subsequent floods, making it the deadliest U.S. hurricane since the 1928 Okeechobee Hurricane. The storm is estimated to have been responsible for $81.2 billion (2005 U.S. dollars) in damage, making it the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history. Criticism of the federal, state and local governments' reaction to the storm was widespread and resulted in an investigation by the U.S. Congress and the resignation of Federal Emergency Management Agency director Michael D. Brown. The storm also prompted Congressional review of the Army Corps of Engineers and the failure of the levee protection system. Conversely, the National Hurricane Center and National Weather Service were widely commended for accurate forecasts and abundant lead time.

On Aug 29:

1835 - The city of Melbourne, Australia, was founded.

August 30 1980:

Willie Nelson's classic "On the Road Again" entered the charts on this day.
The song would eventually reach number one and become an American classic.
Restless spirits everywhere lived by Nelson's lyrics:
"...goin' places that I've never been, seein' things that I may never see again, and I can't wait to get on the road again."

August 31 1939:

At noon, despite threats of British and French intervention,
Nazi leader Adolf Hitler signs an order to attack Poland, and German forces move to the frontier.
That evening, Nazi S.S. troops wearing Polish uniforms staged a phony invasion of Germany, damaging several minor installations on the German side of the border.
They also left behind a handful of dead German prisoners in Polish uniforms to serve as further evidence of the alleged Polish attack,
which Nazi propagandists publicized as an unforgivable act of aggression.

At dawn the next morning, 58 German army divisions invaded Poland all across the 1,750-mile frontier.
Hitler expected appeasement from Britain and France--the same nations that had given Czechoslovakia away to German conquest in 1938 with their signing of the Munich Pact.
However, neither country would allow Hitler's new violation of Europe's borders, and Germany was presented with an ultimatum:
Withdraw by September 3 or face war with the Western democracies.

At 11:15 a.m. on September 3, a few minutes after the expiration of the British ultimatum,
Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain appeared on national radio to announce solemnly that Britain was at war with Germany.
Australia, New Zealand, and India immediately followed suit.
Later that afternoon, the French ultimatum expired, and at 5:00 p.m. France declared war on Germany.
The European phase of World War II began.