TODAY IN HISTORY: World War II ends
In 1040, King Duncan of Scotland was murdered by Macbeth, who became king and ruled for 17 years.
In 1861, Montreal was badly flooded. One quarter of the city was under water.
In 1877, the Northwest Council issued an edict protecting the Canadian buffalo.
In 1929, the German dirigible “Graf Zeppelin” began a round-the-world flight, which was completed Sept. 4.
In 1934, millionaire brewer John Labatt of London, Ont., was kidnapped and held for ransom. He was released in Toronto on Aug. 17. Michael McCardell of Hammond, Ind., was later sentenced to 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to the crime.
In 1941, German spy Josef Jakobs became the last person executed at the Tower of London. He was shot.
In 1945, the Second World War came to an end with VJ Day - Victory in Japan Day. U.S. President Harry Truman announced that Japan had unconditionally surrendered just days after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The official document was signed Sept. 1, 1945, aboard the U.S. battleship “Missouri” with Gen. Douglas MacArthur accepting the surrender on behalf of the Allies.
In 1947, Pakistan became an independent country. The Indian subcontinent was officially partitioned, establishing the self-governing dominions of Pakistan, a Muslim state, and India, a Hindu state. The partitioning ended some 200 years of British rule.
In 1958, Elvis Presley’s mother, Gladys Love Smith Presley, died of a heart attack at age 46. Elvis was to call her death the greatest tragedy of his life.
In 1969, after the worst fighting in 30 years between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland, Britain sent troops into the province. The violence included gunfights, gasoline bombings and fire attacks in Belfast, Londonderry and other parts of Northern Ireland.
In 1974, “(You’re) Having My Baby,” Paul Anka’s controversial duet with Odia Coates, was awarded a gold record. It was Anka’s first No. 1 record since 1959. Feminists objected to the word “my,” saying it should have been “our” baby. It was later covered in a Season 1 episode of “Glee.”
In 1979, Chicago disc jockey Steve Dahl, who a month before had burned a pile of disco records between games of a baseball doubleheader, appeared on the “Tomorrow” TV show. During the program, host Tom Snyder mistakenly referred to singer “Meat Loaf” as “Meat Balls.”
In 2014, Michael Sona, a former junior Conservative campaign staffer and the lone person charged in the 2011 robocalls election scandal, was convicted under the Canada Elections Act of wilfully preventing or endeavouring to prevent an elector from voting. (He was sentenced to nine months in prison, the first person ever to serve time for violating the Canada Elections Act.)