Today in History: August 15, Woodstock opens

Today in History

Today is Monday, Aug. 15, the 227th day of 2022. There are 138 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

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

On this date:

In 1057, Macbeth, King of Scots, was killed in battle by Malcolm, the eldest son of King Duncan, whom Macbeth had slain.

In 1769, Napoleon Bonaparte was born on the island of Corsica.

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

In 1935, humorist Will Rogers and aviator Wiley Post were killed when their airplane crashed near Point Barrow in the Alaska Territory.

In 1944, during World War II, Allied forces landed in southern France in Operation Dragoon.

In 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.

In 1947, India became independent after some 200 years of British rule.

In 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.

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

In 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.

In 1998, 29 people were killed by a car bomb that tore apart the center of Omagh (OH’-mah), Northern Ireland; a splinter group calling itself the Real IRA claimed responsibility.

In 2003, bouncing back from the largest blackout in U.S. history, cities from the Midwest to Manhattan restored power to millions of people.

Ten years ago: Felix Hernandez pitched the Seattle Mariners’ first perfect game and the 23rd in baseball history, overpowering the Tampa Bay Rays 1-0; it was the third perfect game and sixth no-hitter of the season.

Five years ago: President Donald Trump, who’d faced harsh criticism for initially blaming the deadly weekend violence in Charlottesville, Virginia on “many sides,” told reporters that there were “very fine people on both sides” of the confrontation and that groups protesting against the white supremacists were “also very violent.” (In between those statements, at the urging of aides, Trump had offered a more direct condemnation of white supremacists.)

One year ago: The Taliban swept into Afghanistan’s capital after the country’s government collapsed and the embattled Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, joined fellow citizens and foreigners in fleeing the country; the collapse marked the end of a two-decade U.S. campaign to remake the country. As U.S. military helicopters whisked American diplomats to the airport in Kabul, the U.S. military said it was taking charge of air traffic control at the airport, where thousands of foreigners and Afghans were desperately trying to leave. The American flag was lowered at the embassy, where smoke rose as staff destroyed important documents. Afghans rushing to leave the country lined up at cash machines to withdraw their life savings. Rescuers raced to find survivors from a 7.2-magnitude earthquake in Haiti, searching the rubble ahead of a potential deluge from the approaching Tropical Storm Grace.

Today’s Birthdays: Actor Jim Dale is 87. Actor Pat Priest is 86. Retired Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer is 84. U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., is 84. Musician Pete York (Spencer Davis Group) is 80. Author-journalist Linda Ellerbee is 78. Songwriter Jimmy Webb is 76. Rock singer-musician Tom Johnston (The Doobie Brothers) is 74. Actor Phyllis Smith is 73. Britain’s Princess Anne is 72. Actor Tess Harper is 72. Actor Larry Mathews is 67. Actor Zeljko Ivanek (ZEHL’-koh eh-VAHN’-ehk) is 65. Actor-comedian Rondell Sheridan is 64. Rock singer-musician Matt Johnson (The The) is 61. Movie director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (ihn-YAH’-ee-tu) is 59. Philanthropist Melinda Gates is 58. Country singer Angela Rae (Wild Horses) is 56. Actor Peter Hermann is 55. Actor Debra Messing is 54. Actor Anthony Anderson is 52. Actor Ben Affleck is 50. Singer Mikey Graham (Boyzone) is 50. Actor Natasha Henstridge is 48. Actor Nicole Paggi is 45. Christian rock musician Tim Foreman (Switchfoot) is 44. Actor Emily Kinney is 38. Figure skater Jennifer Kirk is 38. Latin pop singer Belinda is 33. Actor Courtney Hope is 33. Rock singer Joe Jonas (The Jonas Brothers) is 33. Actor-singer Carlos PenaVega is 33. Actor Jennifer Lawrence is 32.

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