August 15

is the 227th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (228th in leap years), with 138 days remaining.

Events

778 - The Battle of Roncevaux Pass, in which Roland is killed
927 - The Saracens conquered and destroyed Taranto
1057 - King Macbeth of Scotland is killed during the Battle of Lumphanan by the forces of King Malcolm III.
1185 - The cave city of Vardzia was consecrated by Queen Tamar of Georgia
1261 - Michael VIII Palaeologus is crowned Byzantine emperor in Constantinople.
1309 - The city of Rhodes surrenders to the forces of the Knights of St. John, completing their conquest of Rhodes. The knights establish their headquartes on the island, and rename themselves as the Knights of Rhodes.
1517 - Seven Portuguese armed vessels led by Fernao Pires de Andrade meet Chinese officials at the Pearl River estuary.
1519 - Panama City, Panama is founded
1534 - The Society of Jesus is founded by Ignatius of Loyola with Francis Xavier and other students
1535 - Asuncion, Paraguay is founded
1540 - Arequipa, Peru is founded
1549 - Jesuit priest Francis Xavier comes ashore at Kagoshima (Traditional Japanese date: July 22, 1549).
1599 - First Battle of Curlew Pass won by Irish forces.
1620 - The Mayflower departs Southampton, England.
1755 - The deportation of the Acadians takes place, where thousands of them are sent to Europe or Louisiana, with a few escaping and remaining in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
1824 - Freed American slaves form Liberia.
1843 - The Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace in Honolulu, Hawaii is dedicated. Now the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu, it is the oldest Roman Catholic cathedral in continuous use in the United States.
1843 - Tivoli Gardens, one of the oldest still intact amusement parks in the world, opens in Copenhagen, Denmark.
1863 - The Satsuma war begins between the Satsuma clan and the United Kingdom (Traditional Japanese date: July 2, 1863).
1877 - Thomas Edison makes the first-ever recording - "Mary Had a Little Lamb"
1894 - Sante Jeronimo Caserio executed for the Marie Francois Sadi Carnot assesination
1914 - The Panama Canal opens to traffic with the transit of the cargo ship Ancon.
1920 - Polish-Soviet War: Battle of Warsaw - Poles defeat the Red Army.
1942 - World War II: Operation Pedestal - The SS Ohio reaches the island of Malta barely afloat carrying vital fuel supplies for the island defenses.
1944 - World War II: Operation Dragoon - Allied forces land in southern France.
1945 - World War II: Victory over Japan Day - Japan surrenders.
1945 - World War II: Korean Liberation Day
1947 - India gains independence from the United Kingdom. Jawaharlal Nehru takes office as the first Prime Minister of India
1948 - The Republic of Korea is established south of 38th Parallel
1960 - Republic of the Congo (Brazzaville) declares its independence from France
1961 - Construction begins on the Berlin Wall, Conrad Schumann flees from East Germany.
1965 - John Coltrane plays in Chicago, Illinois for the Downbeat Jazz Festival with Elvin Jones and McCoy Tyner.
1965 - The Beatles play to nearly 60,000 fans at Shea Stadium in New York City, marking the birth of stadium rock.
1969 - The Woodstock Music and Art Festival opens.
1971 - President Richard Nixon ends convertibility of U.S. dollar into gold
1973 - Vietnam War: The United States bombing of Cambodia ends
1974 - Yook Young-soo, First Lady of South Korea is killed amid an apparent assassination attempt upon President of the South Korea, Park Chung-hee, during the anniversarial ceremony of the Liberation day.
1975 - Military coup in Bangladesh.
1975 - Miki Takeo makes the first official pilgrimage to Yasukuni Shrine by a sitting prime minister on the anniversary of the end of World War II.
1977 - The Big Ear, a radio telescope operated by The Ohio State University as part of the SETI project, receives a radio signal from deep space; the event is named the "Wow! signal" for notation made by a volunteer on the project.
1978 - Foundation of Mirapuri - The City of Peace and Future Man
1995 - In South Carolina, Shannon Faulkner becomes the first female cadet matriculated at The Citadel, but drops out in less than a week.
1998 - Omagh bomb in Northern Ireland, becoming the worst terrorist incident of The Troubles
1999 - Beni Ounif massacre in Algeria; some 29 people killed at a false roadblock near the Moroccan border, leading to temporary tensions with Morocco.

Births

1001 - King Duncan I of Scotland (d. 1040)
1171 - King Alfonso IX of Leon (d. 1230)
1195 - Anthony of Padua, Portuguese saint (d. 1231)
1432 - Luigi Pulci, Italian poet (d. 1484)
1613 - Gilles Ménage, French scholar (d. 1692)
1717 - Blind Jack, English roadbuilder (d. 1810)
1769 - Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France (d. 1821)
1785 - Thomas De Quincey, English author (d. 1859)
1813 - Jules Grévy, President of France (d. 1891)
1856 - Ivan Franko, Ukrainian writer (d. 1916)
1858 - E. Nesbit, English author (d. 1924)
1860 - Henrietta Vinton Davis American elocutionist, dramatist, impersonator, public speaker (d. 1941).
1872 - Sri Aurobindo, Indian writer, nationalist, philosopher, and guru (d. 1950)
1875 - Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, English composer (d. 1912)
1878 - Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel, Russian counter-revolutionary (d. 1928)
1879 - Ethel Barrymore, American actress (d. 1959)
1887 - Edna Ferber, American novelist (d. 1968)
1883 - Ivan Meštrović, Croatian sculptor (d. 1962)
1890 - Jacques Ibert, French composer (d. 1962)
1892 - Louis, 7th duc de Broglie, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1987)
1893 - Leslie Comrie, New Zealand astronomer and computing pioneer (d. 1950)
1896 - Gerty Cori, Austrian-born biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1957)
1896 - Catherine Doherty, Social justice activist (d. 1985)
1896 - Leon Theremin, Russian inventor (d. 1993)
1900 - Jan Brzechwa, Polish poet (d. 1966)
1912 - Julia Child, American cook (d. 2004)
1912 - Dame Wendy Hiller, English actress (d. 2003)
1916 - Aleks Çaçi, Albanian writer
1917 - Jack Lynch, fourth Taoiseach (d. 1999)
1919 - Huntz Hall, American actor (d. 1999)
1919 - Benedict Kiely, Irish author
1922 - Lukas Foss, German-born composer
1923 - Rose Marie, American actress
1924 - Robert Bolt, English screenwriter (d. 1995)
1925 - Mike Connors, American actor
1925 - Oscar Peterson, Canadian jazz pianist
1928 - Nicolas Roeg, English film director
1933 - Jim Lange, American game show host
1935 - Vernon Jordan Jr., U.S. presidential advisor
1935 - Lionel Taylor, American football player
1938 - Maxine Waters, American politician
1938 - Janusz A. Zajdel, Polish writer
1944 - Linda Ellerbee, American journalist
1944 - Sylvie Vartan, French pop singer
1945 - Mahamandaleshwar Paramhans Swami Maheshwarananda, Indian guru
1945 - Begum Khaleda Zia, Prime Minister of Bangladesh
1946 - Jimmy Webb, American musician and composer
1947 - Raakhee Gulzar, Indian actress
1948 - Uschi Digard, American actress and model
1949 - Richard Deacon, Welsh sculptor
1950 - Princess Anne of the United Kingdom
1951 - Daba Diawara, Malian politician
1957 - Željko Ivanek, American actor
1958 - Victor Shenderovich, Russian satirist
1965 - Rob Thomas, author and screenwriter
1966 - Scott Brosius, American baseball player
1968 - Debra Messing, American actress
1972 - Ben Affleck, American actor
1974 - Natasha Henstridge, Canadian actress
1975 - Kara Wolters, American basketball player
1976 - Boudewijn Zenden, Dutch football player
1977 - Igor Cassina, Italian gymnast
1978 - Tim Foreman, American bassist (Switchfoot)
1978 - Lilia Podkopayeva, Ukrainian gymnast

Deaths

423 - Flavius Honorius, Western Roman Emperor (b. 384)
778 - Roland, Frankish commander
1038 - King Stephen I of Hungary
1040 - King Duncan I of Scotland (b. 1001)
1057 - King Macbeth I of Scotland
1118 - Alexius I Comnenus, Byzantine Emperor (b. 1048)
1196 - Conrad II, Duke of Swabia (b. 1173)
1274 - Robert de Sorbon, French theologian and founder of the Sorbonne (b. 1201)
1369 - Philippa of Hainault, wife of Edward III of England
1528 - Odet de Foix, Vicomte de Lautrec, French military leader (b. 1485)
1552 - Hermann of Wied, German Catholic archbishop (b. 1477)
1621 - John Barclay, Scottish writer (b. 1582)
1666 - Johann Adam Schall von Bell, German Jesuit missionary (b. 1591)
1714 - Constantin Brâncoveanu, Prince of Wallachia (b. 1654)
1728 - Marin Marais, French composer and viol player (b. 1656)
1799 - Giuseppe Parini, Italian poet (b. 1729)
1852 - Johan Gadolin, Finnish scientist (b. 1760)
1907 - Joseph Joachim, Austrian violinist (b. 1831)
1909 - Euclides da Cunha, Brazilian writer and sociologist (b. 1866)
1935 - Wiley Post, American pilot (airplane crash) (b. 1898)
1935 - Will Rogers, American humorist and actor (airplane crash) (b. 1879)
1936 - Grazia Deledda, Italian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1871)
1951 - Artur Schnabel, Polish pianist (b. 1882)
1953 - Ludwig Prandtl, German physicist (b. 1875)
1959 - Blind Willie McTell, American singer (b. 1901
1962 - Lei Feng, Chinese revolutionary (b. 1940)
1967 - René Magritte, Belgian painter (b. 1898)
1971 - Paul Lukas, Hungarian-born actor (b. 1887)
1975 - Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, President of Bangladesh (b. 1920)
1975 - Clay Shaw, John F. Kennedy assassination investigator (b. 1913)
1982 - Hugo Theorell, Swedish scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1903)
1990 - Viktor Tsoi, Russian musician (b. 1962)
1995 - John Cameron Swayze, American journalist (b. 1906)
1999 - Sir Hugh Casson, British architect and artist (b. 1910)
2001 - Richard Chelimo, Kenyan athlete (b. 1972)
2003 - Gösta Sundqvist, Finnish songwriter and singer (heart attack) (b. 1957)
2004 - Sune Bergström, Swedish biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1916)
2004 - Amarsinh Chaudhary, Indian politician (b. 1941)
2005 - James Dougherty, first husband of Marilyn Monroe (b. 1921)

Holidays and observances

Eastern Orthodoxy – Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos, the commemoration of the death of Mary, the mother of Jesus.
RC Saints – Feast day of the Assumption of Mary, the mother of Jesus, Holy Day of Obligation. Public Holiday in: Austria, Belgium, Cameroon, Chile, Côte d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, East Timor, France, Greece, India, Italy, Lebanon, Lithuania, Malta, Mauritius, Poland, Portugal, Seychelles, Slovenia and Spain.
Acadie – National Day
Egypt – Flooding of the Nile Day
Hawaii – Toro Nagashi (Floating Lantern Ceremony) to commemorate the end of the second world war
India – Independence Day (from the United Kingdom, 1947)
Italy – "Ferragosto", remembrance of an ancient Roman holiday in honor of Augustus (Feriae Augusti)
Korea – Liberation Day
Ancient Latvia – Māras
Liechtenstein – Liechtenstein Day
Poland – Polish Armed Forces Day
Tuva – Tuva Republic Day, Naadym
Roman Catholicism - the feasts of at least 3 saints:
- St. Alipius
- St. Arnoul/Arnulphus
- St. MacCartin/Ard/Aed
- The Assumption of Mary - a holy day of obligation

External links

August 14 - August 16 - July 15 - September 15 -- listing of all days

Gourt Home::Gourt :: August 15

Events

Births

Deaths

Holidays and observances

External links