What Happened on August 15th in History
30 historical events on this date
Execution of Henry John Burnett, the last man to be hanged in Scotland.
Henry John Burnett was the last man to be hanged in Scotland, and the first in Aberdeen since 1891. He was tried at the high court in Aberdeen from 23 to 25 July 1963 for the murder of merchant...
President Fulbert Youlou is overthrown in the Republic of the Congo, after a three-day uprising in the capital.
Fulbert Youlou was a Congolese nationalist leader and former Catholic priest who became the first President of the Republic of the Congo upon its independence in 1960.
The Beatles play to nearly 60,000 fans at Shea Stadium in New York City, an event later regarded as the birth of stadium rock.
The Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band in...
The Woodstock Music & Art Fair opens in Bethel, New York, featuring some of the top rock musicians of the era.
The Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held from August 15 to 18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, 60 miles (95Â km) southwest...
Patricia Palinkas becomes the first woman to play professionally in an American football game.
Patricia Palinkas was the first woman to have played American football professionally in a predominantly male league. She was a holder for her husband Stephen Palinkas for the Orlando Panthers of...
President Richard Nixon completes the break from the gold standard by ending convertibility of the United States dollar into gold by foreign investors.
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he represented California in both houses of the...
Bahrain gains independence from the United Kingdom.
Bahrain, officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, is an island country in West Asia. Situated near the western shore of the Persian Gulf, the country comprises a small archipelago of 33 natural islands...
Vietnam War: The US Air Force bombing of Cambodia ends.
The Vietnam War was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam and their allies. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union and China, while...
Yuk Young-soo, First Lady of South Korea, is killed during an apparent assassination attempt upon President Park Chung Hee.
Yuk Young-soo was the wife of the 3rd South Korean president Park Chung Hee and the mother of the 11th South Korean president Park Geun-hye. She was the first lady when Park was in office, from 1962...
Bangladeshi leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is killed along with most members of his family during a military coup.
Bangladeshis are the citizens and nationals of Bangladesh, a South Asian country centred on the transnational historical region of Bengal along the eponymous bay.
Takeo Miki makes the first official pilgrimage to Yasukuni Shrine by an incumbent prime minister on the anniversary of the end of World War II.
Takeo Miki was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1974 to 1976.
SAETA Flight 011 crashes into the Chimborazo volcano in Ecuador, killing all 59 people on board; the wreckage is not discovered until 2002.
SAETA Flight 011 was a scheduled passenger flight operated by SAETA Air Ecuador between Quito and Cuenca, using a Vickers Viscount 785D aircraft. On 15 August 1976, the flight was reported missing...
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.
The Ohio State University Radio Observatory was a Kraus-type radio telescope located on the grounds of the Perkins Observatory at Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio from 1963 to 1998. Known...
The Kurdistan Workers' Party in Turkey starts a campaign of armed attacks upon the Turkish Armed Forces with an attack on police and gendarmerie bases in Ćemdinli and Eruh.
The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) is a Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla group primarily based in the mountainous Kurdish-majority regions of southeastern Turkey, northern...
Signing of the Assam Accord, an agreement between representatives of the Government of India and the leaders of the Assam Movement to end the movement.
The Assam Accord was a Memorandum of Settlement (MoS) signed between representatives of the Government of India and the leaders of the Assam Movement. It was signed in the presence of the then-Prime...
China Eastern Airlines Flight 5510 crashes after takeoff from Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport, killing 34 of the 40 people on board.
China Eastern Airlines Flight 5510 was a domestic flight from Shanghai to Nanchang, operated by an An-24. On 15 August 1989, an An-24 operating this flight crashed into Zhoujiabang about 240 meters...
In South Carolina, Shannon Faulkner becomes the first female cadet matriculated at The Citadel (she drops out less than a week later).
South Carolina is a state in the Southeastern, South Atlantic and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast,...
Tomiichi Murayama, Prime Minister of Japan, releases the Murayama Statement, which formally expresses remorse for Japanese war crimes committed during World War II.
Tomiichi Murayama was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1994 to 1996. He was the country's first socialist premier since Tetsu Katayama in 1948, and is best...
Northern Ireland: Omagh bombing takes place; 29 people (including a woman pregnant with twins) killed and some 220 others injured.
Northern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares an open border...
Apple introduces the iMac computer.
Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley, and known for consumer electronics, software and online services. Founded in...
Beni Ounif massacre in Algeria: Some 29 people are killed at a false roadblock near the Moroccan border, leading to temporary tensions with Morocco.
BĂ©ni Ounif is a town and commune in BĂ©char Province, Algeria, coextensive with the district of BĂ©ni Ounif. It has a population of 10,732 as of the 2008 census, up from 8,199 in 1998, and had an...
Israel's unilateral disengagement plan to evict all Israelis from the Gaza Strip and from four settlements in the northern West Bank begins.
In 2005, Israel disengaged from the Gaza Strip by dismantling all 21 Israeli settlements there. Nonetheless, the Gaza Strip has continued to be regarded by the United Nations, many other...
The Helsinki Agreement between the Free Aceh Movement and the Government of Indonesia was signed, ending almost three decades of fighting.
The Free Aceh Movement, known internationally as the Acheh-Sumatra National Liberation Front (ASNLF), was a separatist group seeking independence for the province of Aceh of Sumatra, Indonesia. GAM...
An 8.0-magnitude earthquake off the Pacific coast devastates Ica and various regions of Peru killing 514 and injuring 1,090.
The 2007 Peru earthquake, which measured 8.0 on the moment magnitude scale, hit the central coast of Peru on August 15 at 23:40:57 UTC and lasted two minutes. The epicenter was located 150Â km...
At least 27 people are killed and 226 injured in an explosion in southern Beirut near a complex used by Lebanon's militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon. A previously unknown Syrian Sunni group claims responsibility in an online video.
On 15 August 2013, a car bomb exploded in Beirut, Lebanon killing 27 people and injuring over 200 people. The car bomb was intended for the stronghold of Hezbollah. It was reportedly the "worst...
The Smithsonian announces the discovery of the olinguito, the first new carnivorous species found in the Americas in 35 years.
The Smithsonian Institution is a group of museums, education and research centers, created by the United States federal government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded on August...
North Korea moves its clock back half an hour to introduce Pyongyang Time, 81â2 hours ahead of UTC.
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the...
Russia begins production on the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine.
Sputnik V or Gam-COVID-Vac is an adenovirus viral vector vaccine for COVID-19 developed by the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology in Russia. It is the world's first...
Kabul falls into the hands of the Taliban as Ashraf Ghani flees Afghanistan along with local residents and foreign nationals, effectively reestablishing the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
Kabul is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is within the jurisdiction of Kabul District and has an estimated population of 5,333,284 people. Located in the eastern half of the country,...
US president Donald Trump meets with Russian president Vladimir Putin in Alaska, the first such summit since the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Donald John Trump is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 45th president from...