other · 476 · Ravenna
In 476 Odoacer deposed the boy-emperor Romulus Augustulus and sent the imperial regalia to Constantinople. No persecutor and no council — but the western empire's quiet end left the pope the most permanent institution in the Latin world, and the papacy's medieval role begins in that vacancy.
Odoacer's deposition of Romulus Augustus, occurring in 476 AD, was a coup that marked the end of the reign of the last Western Roman Emperor approved by the Western Roman Senate and the creation of the Kingdom of Odoacer through his decision to adopt the title of Dux/Rex Italiae, although Julius Nepos exercised control over Dalmatia until 480.
The western empire ends; the bishop of Rome remains the West's fixed point.