Today In History

Today is Tuesday, Aug. 15, the 227th day of 2023. There are 138 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

On Aug. 15, 1969, the Woodstock Music and Art Fair opened in upstate New York.

ON THIS DATE

› 1769: Napoleon Bonaparte was born on the island of Corsica.

› 1914: The Panama Canal officially opened as the SS Ancon crossed the just-completed waterway between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.

› 1935: Humorist Will Rogers and aviator Wiley Post were killed when their airplane crashed near Point Barrow in the Alaska Territory.

› 1944: During World War II, Allied forces landed in southern France in Operation Dragoon.

› 1945: In a prerecorded radio address, Japan’s Emperor Hirohito announced that his country had accepted terms of surrender for ending World War II.

› 1947: India became independent after some 200 years of British rule.

› 1961: As workers began constructing a Berlin Wall made of concrete, East German soldier Conrad Schumann leapt to freedom over a tangle of barbed wire.

› 1971: President Richard Nixon announced a 90-day freeze on wages, prices and rents.

› 1989: F.W. de Klerk was sworn in as acting president of South Africa, one day after P.W. Botha resigned as the result of a power struggle within the National Party.

› 1998: Twentynine 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.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Actor Jim Dale is 88. Actor Pat Priest is 87. Retired Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer is 85. U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., is 85. Musician Pete York (Spencer Davis Group) is 81. Author-journalist Linda Ellerbee is 79. Songwriter Jimmy Webb is 77. Rock singer-musician Tom Johnston (The Doobie Brothers) is 75. Actor Phyllis Smith is 74. Britain’s Princess Anne is

73. Actor Tess Harper is

73. Actor Larry Mathews is 68. Actor Zeljko Ivanek is 66. Actor-comedian Rondell Sheridan is 65. Rock singer-musician Matt Johnson (The The) is 62. Movie director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu is 60. Philanthropist Melinda Gates is 59. Country singer Angela Rae (Wild Horses) is 57. Actor Peter Hermann is

56. Actor Debra Messing is 55. Actor Anthony Anderson is 53. Actor Ben Affleck is 51. Singer Mikey Graham (Boyzone) is 51. Actor Natasha Henstridge is 49. Actor Nicole Paggi is 46. Christian rock musician Tim Foreman (Switchfoot) is 45. Figure skater Jennifer Kirk is 39. Latin pop singer Belinda is 34. Actor Courtney Hope is

34. Rock singer Joe Jonas (The Jonas Brothers) is

34. Actor-singer Carlos PenaVega is 34. Actor Jennifer Lawrence is 33.