August
15
Independence
Day August
15
Bahrain : August 15 1971
Congo, Republic : August 15 1960
India : August 15 1947
Korea, South : August 15 1945
Events
August 15
293 BC – The oldest known Roman temple to Venus is dedicated.
778 – The Battle of Roncevaux Pass, at which Roland is killed.
927 – The Saracens conquer and destroy Taranto.
982 – Holy Roman Emperor Otto II is defeated by the Saracens
in the battle of Capo Colonna, in Calabria
1018 – Byzantine general Eustathios Daphnomeles blinds and captures
Ibatzes of Bulgaria by a ruse, thereby ending Bulgarian resistance
against Emperor Basil II's conquest of Bulgaria.
1040 – King Duncan I is killed in battle against his first cousin
and rival Macbeth. The latter succeeds him as King of Scotland.
1057 – King Macbeth is killed at the Battle of Lumphanan by
the forces of Máel Coluim mac Donnchada.
1185 – The cave city of Vardzia is consecrated by Queen Tamar
of Georgia.
1281 – Mongol invasion of Japan: The Mongolian fleet of Kublai
Khan is destroyed by a "divine wind" for the second
time in the Battle of Kōan.
1248 – The foundation stone of Cologne Cathedral, built to house
the relics of the Three Wise Men, is laid. (Construction is
eventually completed in 1880.)
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 headquarters on the island and rename themselves
the Knights of Rhodes.
1430 – Francesco Sforza, lord of Milan, conquers Lucca.
1461 – The Empire of Trebizond surrenders to the forces of Sultan
Mehmet II. This is regarded by some historians as the real end
of the Byzantine Empire. Emperor David is exiled and later murdered.
1483 – Pope Sixtus IV consecrates the Sistine Chapel.
1511 – Afonso de Albuquerque of Portugal conquers Malacca, the
capital of the Sultanate of Malacca.
1517 – Seven Portuguese armed vessels led by Fernão Pires de
Andrade meet Chinese officials at the Pearl River estuary.
1519 – Panama City, Panama, is founded.
1534 – Saint Ignatius of Loyola and six classmates take initial
vows, leading to the creation of the Society of Jesus in September
1540.
1537 – Asunción, Paraguay, is founded.
1540 – Arequipa, Peru, is founded.
1549 – Jesuit priest Saint Francis Xavier comes ashore at Kagoshima
(Traditional Japanese date: July 22, 1549).
1599 – Nine Years War: Battle of Curlew Pass – Irish forces
led by Hugh Roe O'Donnell successfully ambush English forces,
led by Sir Conyers Clifford, sent to relieve Collooney Castle.
1695 – French forces end the Bombardment of Brussels, leaving
a third of the buildings in the city in ruins.
1760 – Seven Years' War: Battle of Liegnitz – Frederick the
Great's victory over the Austrians under Ernst von Laudon.
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 Anglo-Satsuma War begins between the Satsuma Domain
of Japan and the United Kingdom (Traditional Japanese date:
July 2, 1863).
1869 – The Meiji government in Japan establishes six new ministries,
including one for Shinto.
1893 – Ibadan area became a British Protectorate after a treaty
signed by Fijabi, the Baale of Ibadan with the British acting
Governor of Lagos, George C. Denton.
1907 – Ordination in Constantinople of Fr. Raphael Morgan, first
African-American Orthodox priest, "Priest-Apostolic"
to America and the West Indies.
1914 – A male servant of American architect Frank Lloyd Wright
sets fire to the living quarters of the architect's Wisconsin
home, Taliesin, murders seven people and burns the living quarters
to the ground.
1914 – The Panama Canal opens to traffic with the transit of
the cargo ship SS Ancon.
1914 – The First Russian Army, led by Pavel Rennenkampf, enters
Eastern Prussia.
1920 – Battle of Warsaw so called Miracle at the Vistula.
1935 – Will Rogers and Wiley Post are killed after their aircraft
develops engine problems during takeoff in Barrow, Alaska.
1939 – 13 Stukas dive into the ground during a disastrous air-practice
at Neuhammer. There are no survivors.
1940 – An Italian submarine torpedoes and sinks the Greek cruiser
Elli at Tinos harbour during peacetime, marking the most serious
Italian provocation prior to the outbreak of the Greco-Italian
War in October.
1941 – Corporal Josef Jakobs is executed by firing squad at
the Tower of London at 7:12 am, making him the last person to
be executed at the Tower for treason.
1942 – World War II: Operation Pedestal – The SS Ohio reaches
the island of Malta barely afloat carrying vital fuel supplies
for the island's defenses.
1944 – World War II: Operation Dragoon – Allied forces land
in southern France.
1945 – World War II: Japan surrenders to end the war.
1947 – India gains Independence from the British Indian Empire
and joins the Commonwealth of Nations.
1947 – Founder of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah is sworn in
as first Governor General of Pakistan in Karachi.
1948 – The Republic of Korea is established south of the 38th
parallel north.
1952 – A flash flood drenches the town of Lynmouth, England,
killing 34 people.
1954 – Alfredo Stroessner begins his dictatorship in Paraguay.
1960 – Republic of the Congo (Brazzaville) becomes independent
from France.
1961 – Conrad Schumann flees from East Germany while on duty
guarding the construction of the Berlin Wall.
1962 – James Joseph Dresnok defects to the Democratic People's
Republic of Korea after running across the Korean DMZ. Dresnok
still resides in the capital, Pyongyang.
1963 – Execution of Henry John Burnett, the last man to be hanged
in Scotland.
1963 – President Fulbert Youlou is overthrown in the Republic
of Congo, after a three-day uprising in the capital.
1965 – The Beatles play to nearly 60,000 fans at Shea Stadium
in New York City, in an event later seen as marking the birth
of stadium rock.
1969 – The Woodstock Music and Art Festival opens.
1971 – President Richard Nixon completes the break from the
gold standard by ending convertibility of the United States
dollar into gold by foreign investors.
1971 – Bahrain gains independence from the United Kingdom.
1973 – Vietnam War: The United States bombing of Cambodia ends.
1974 – Yuk Young-soo, First Lady of South Korea, is killed during
an apparent assassination attempt upon President of South Korea,
Park Chung-hee.
1975 – Bangladesh's founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is killed
along with most members of his family during a military coup.
1975 – Miki Takeo makes the first official pilgrimage to Yasukuni
Shrine by an incumbent prime minister on the anniversary of
the end of World War II.
1977 – The Big Ear, a radio telescope operated by Ohio State
University as part of the SETI project, receives a radio signal
from deep space; the event is named the "Wow! signal"
from the notation made by a volunteer on the project.
1984 – The PKK in Turkey starts a campaign of armed attacks
upon the Turkish military with an attack on police and gendarmerie
bases in Şemdinli and Eruh
1995 – In South Carolina, Shannon Faulkner becomes the first
female cadet matriculated at The Citadel (she drops out less
than a week later).
1998 – Omagh bomb in Northern Ireland, the worst terrorist incident
of The Troubles
1999 – Beni Ounif massacre in Algeria; some 29 people are killed
at a false roadblock near the Moroccan border, leading to temporary
tensions with Morocco.
2005 – Israel's unilateral disengagement plan to evict all Israelis
from the Gaza Strip and from four settlements in the northern
West Bank begins.
2007 – An 8.0-magnitude earthquake off the Pacific coast devastates
Ica and various regions of Peru killing 514 and injuring 1,090.
Holidays
and observances
Armed Forces
Day (Poland)
Christian Feast Day:
Feast day of the Assumption of Mary, one of the Catholic Holy
Day of Obligation. (Christianity, a public holiday in Austria,
Belgium, Benin, Bosnia, Burundi, Cameroon, Chile, Colombia,
Côte d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala,
Hungary, Italy, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg,
Macedonia, Malta, Mauritius, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Romania,
Senegal, Seychelles, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Togo, and
Vanuatu), and its related observances:
Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos (Eastern Orthodox, Oriental
Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches)
Ferragosto (Italy)
Mother's Day (Antwerp and Costa Rica)
National Acadian Day (Acadians)
Navy Day (Romania)
Virgin of Candelaria, patron of the Canary Islands. (Tenerife,
Spain)
Stanislaus Kostka
Tarcisius
August 15 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Constitution Day (Equatorial Guinea)
Earliest day on which Day of Hearts can fall, while August 21
is the latest; celebrated on the third Monday in August. (area
around Haarlem and Amsterdam)
Founding of Asunción (Paraguay)
Independence Day, celebrates the independence of the Republic
of the Congo from France in 1960.
Independence Day, celebrates the independence of India from
the United Kingdom in 1947.
Liberation Day, celebrates the independence of Korea from Japan
in 1945:
Gwangbokjeol, "Liberation Day" (South Korea)
Jogukhaebangui nal, "Fatherland Liberation Day" (North
Korea)
The first day of Flooding of the Nile, or Wafaa El-Nil.(Egypt
and Coptic Church)
The main day of Bon Festival (Japan)
Victory over Japan Day (United States)
For details, contact Datacentre
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