TODAY IN HISTORY

SUNDAY AUG 15, 2021 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.

1057

Macbeth, King of Scots, was killed in battle by Malcolm, the eldest son of King Duncan, whom Macbeth had slain.

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.

1939

The MGM musical “The Wizard of Oz” opened at the Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood.

1944

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

1947

India became independent after some 200 years of British rule.

1969

The Woodstock Music and Art Fair opened in upstate New York.

1971

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

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.

2003

Bouncing back from the largest blackout in U.S. history, cities from the Midwest to Manhattan restored power to millions of people.

2015

Japanese Emperor Akihito expressed rare “deep remorse” over his country’s wartime actions in an address marking the 70th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II, a day after the prime minister fell short of apologizing to victims of Japanese aggression. Civil rights leader Julian Bond, 75, died in Fort Walton Beach, Florida.