TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS THURSDAY, AUG. 15, the 227th day of 2019. There are 138 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1971, President Richard Nixon announced a 90-day freeze on wages, prices and rents.
In 1483, the Sistine Chapel was consecrated by Pope Sixtus IV.
In 1888, T.E. Lawrence, the British soldier who gained fame as “Lawrence of Arabia,” was born in Tremadoc, Wales.
In 1944, during World War II, Allied forces landed in southern France in Operation Dragoon.
In 1945, in a pre-recorded radio address, Japan’s Emperor Hirohito announced that his country had accepted terms of surrender for ending World War II.
In 1947, India became independent after some 200 years of British rule.
In 1961, as workers began building a Berlin Wall made of concrete, East German soldier Conrad Schumann leapt to freedom over a tangle of barbed wire in a scene captured in a famous photograph.
In 1965, the Beatles played to a crowd of more than 55,000 at New York’s Shea Stadium.
In 1969, the Woodstock Music and Art Fair opened in upstate New York.
In 1995, the Justice Department agreed to pay $3.1 million to white separatist Randy Weaver and his family to settle their claims over the killing of Weaver’s wife and son during a 1992 siege by federal agents at Ruby Ridge, Idaho.
In 1998, 29 people were killed by a car bomb that tore apart the center of Omagh, Northern Ireland; a splinter group calling itself the Real IRA claimed responsibility.
In 2017, President Donald Trump, who faced harsh criticism for initially blaming the deadly weekend violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, on “many sides,” told reporters that there were “very fine people on both sides” of the confrontation and that groups protesting against the white supremacists were “also very violent.” Between those statements, at the urging of aides, Trump had offered a more direct condemnation of white supremacists.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Civil rights activist Vernon Jordan and actor Jim Dale are 84. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer is 81. Musician Pete York (Spencer Davis Group) is 77. Author-journalist Linda Ellerbee is 75. Songwriter Jimmy Webb is 73. Rock singer-musician Tom Johnston (The Doobie Brothers) is 71. Actress Phyllis Smith is 70. Britain’s Princess Anne and actress Tess Harper are 69. Actor Larry Mathews is 64. Actor Zeljko Ivanek is 62. Actor-comedian Rondell Sheridan is 61. Rock singer-musician Matt Johnson (The The) is 58. Movie director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu is 56. Country singer Angela Rae (Wild Horses) is 53. Actor Peter Hermann is 52. Actress Debra Messing is 51. Actor Anthony Anderson is 49. Actor Ben Affleck and singer Mikey Graham (Boyzone) are 47. Actress Natasha Henstridge is 45. Christian rock musician Tim Foreman (Switchfoot) is 41. Actress Emily Kinney and figure skater Jennifer Kirk are 35. Latin pop singer Belinda, actress Courtney Hope, rock singer Joe Jonas (The Jonas Brothers) and actor-singer Carlos Pena-Vega are 30. Actress Jennifer Lawrence is 29.