August 15



Events

Up to 1900 
 29 BC  Octavian is celebrated as conqueror of Egypt and takes over the ruling of the Roman Empire, later changing his name to Augustus.
 927  The Saracens conquer and destroy Taranto.
 982  Otto II, Holy Roman Emperor is defeated by the Saracens in the Battle of Cape Colonna, in Calabria.
 1040  King Duncan I of Scotland is killed in a battle he fought against his first cousin, and rival, Macbeth.
 1057  King Macbeth is killed in battle.
 1185  The cave city of Vardzia is founded in Georgia, by Queen Tamar of Georgia.
 1237  The Battle of the Puig takes place during the Spanish Reconquista. The Kingdom of Aragon defeats the Tarifa of Valencia.
 1248  The foundation stone of Cologne Cathedral is laid.
 1271  Philip III of France is crowned King.
 1281  Attempted Mongol invasions of Japan: A Mongolian fleet led by Kublai Khan is destroyed by a "Divine Wind" for the second time in the Battle of Koan.
 1430  Francesco Sforza, Lord of Milan, conquers Lucca.
 1483  Pope Sixtus IV consecrates the Sistine Chapel in Rome.
 1511  The city of Baracoa, Cuba, is founded by Diego Velazquez de Cuellar.
 1519  Panama City is founded.
 1537  The city of Asuncion in present-day Paraguay is founded, named after the religious feast day of the Assumption of Mary.
 1540  The city of Arequipa in present-day Peru is founded.
 1549  Jesuit priest Saint Francis Xavier comes ashore at Kagoshima, Japan.
 1695  French forces end the bombardment of Brussels, leaving a third of the city's buildings in ruins.
 1760  Seven Years' War: Battle of Liegnitz - Frederick the Great's victory over the Austrians under Ernst Gideon von Laudon.
 1769  Napoleon, French general and emperor, is born on the island of Corsica.
 1824  Freed African-American slaves found Liberia.
 1843  The Tivoli Gardens theme park in Copenhagen, Denmark, opens.
 1843  The Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace in Honolulu, Hawaii is dedicated. It is now the Roman Catholic Cathedral of the city.
 1869  The Meiji Government in Japan establishes six new ministries, including one for Shinto.

1901  2000 
 1912  Eduardo Schaerer becomes President of Paraguay.
 1914  The Panama Canal opens.
 1935  Will Rogers and Wiley Post are killed after their aircraft develops engine problems during take-off from Barrow, Alaska.
 1939  The Wizard of Oz movie premieres at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California.
 1941  Corporal Josef Jakobs is executed by firing squad in the Tower of London, being the last person executed there for treason. 
 1945  Japan surrenders, ending World War II.
 1945  World War II: Liberation of Korea.
 1947  India becomes independent (separate) from the United Kingdom from the formal Transfer of Power as the Empire is partitioned and adopts the name Bharat, while the new mainly Islamic state of Pakistan is created.
 1947  Muhammad Ali Jinnah becomes Governor-General of Pakistan.
 1948  The Republic of Korea (South Korea) is founded south of the 38th parallel.
 1950  Assam is struck by a major earthquake.
 1952  The village of Lynmouth in Devon, England, is hit by a flash flood.
 1954  In Paraguay, the dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner begins.
 1960  The Republic of the Congo becomes independent, with Fulbert Youlou as President. Exactly three years later, he is removed from office in a military coup.
 1961  Conrad Schumann flees from East Germany while on duty guarding the building of the Berlin Wall.
 1963  Henry John Burnett is executed, becoming the last man to be hanged in Scotland.
 1963  President Fulbert Youlou is overthrown in the Republic of the Congo, after a three-day uprising in the capital Brazzaville.
 1965  The Beatles play to nearly 60,000 in New York City, an event later considered to be the birth of stadium rock.
 1968  An earthquake strikes the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.
 1969  The Woodstock music festival takes place in the State of New York.
 1970  Patricia Palinkas becomes the first woman to play a professional game of American football.
 1971  Bahrain becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
 1973  US bombing of Cambodia ends.
 1974  The Seoul metro is opened, becoming the first metro in South Korea.
 1974  Toronto Zoo is opened.
 1975  Along with members of his family, Bangladeshi political leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, is killed in a coup.
 1989  F. W. de Klerk becomes President of South Africa.
 1993  Juan Carlos Wasmosy becomes President of Paraguay.
 1998  The Omagh bombing is carried out by the IRA in Northern Ireland, killing 29 people.
 1999  The Beni Ounif massacre in Algeria kills 29 people at a false roadblock near the Moroccan border.

From 2001 
 2004  Hans-Adam II, Prince of Liechtenstein, gives his official royal duties over to his son, Alois, but remains as Head of State.
 2005  Israel's unilateral disengagement plan to evict all Israelis from the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements begins.
 2007  A magnitude 8 earthquake centred off Peru's Pacific coast, devastates Ica province, killing 514 people, and injuring over 1000.
 2008  Fernando Lugo becomes President of Paraguay.
 2013  Horacio Cartes becomes President of Paraguay.
 2013  The discovery of a species of mammal in northwestern South America is announced. It is named Olinguito.
 2018  A bomb attack on an education centre in Kabul, Afghanistan, kills 34 people; on the same day, an attack in the country's Baghlan Province kills 9 police officers and 35 soldiers.
 2018  Mario Abdo Benítez becomes President of Paraguay.

Births

Up to 1800 
 774  Emperor Heizei of Japan (d. 824)
 1171  King Alfonso IX of León (d. 1230)
 1195  Anthony of Padua, Portuguese saint (d. 1231)
 1250  Matteo I Visconti, ruler of Milan (d. 1322)
 1402  Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham, English politician (d. 1460)
 1432  Luigi Pulci, Italian poet (d. 1484)
 1455  George, Duke of Bavaria (d. 1503)
 1575  Bartol Kasic, Croatian writer and linguist (d. 1650)
 1613  Gilles Menage, French scholar (d. 1692)
 1736  Johann Christoph Kellner, German organist and composer (d. 1803)
 1717  Blind Jack, English engineer (d. 1810)
 1740  Matthias Claudius, German poet and journalist (d. 1815)
 1743  Thomas Henderson, Governor of New Jersey (d. 1824)
 1769  Napoleon, Emperor of France (d. 1821)
 1771  Sir Walter Scott, Scottish writer (d. 1832)
 1785  Thomas De Quincey, British writer (d. 1859)
 1794  Elias Magnus Fries, Swedish botanist (d. 1878)
 1795  Aaron V. Brown, 13th Governor of Tennessee (d. 1859)
 1798  Sangolli Rayanna, Indian freedom fighter (d. 1831)

1801  1900 
 1813  Jules Grévy, 3rd President of France (d. 1891)
 1817  James Wilson Henderson, 4th Governor of Texas (d. 1880)
 1824  John Chisum, American cattle baron (d. 1884)
 1828  Jean-Baptiste Billot, French general and statesman (d. 1907)
 1836  Pyotr Boborykin, Russian writer, playwright and journalist (d. 1921)
 1845  Walter Crane, English painter (d. 1915)
 1846  Charles Woodruff, American archer (d. 1927)
 1856  Keir Hardie, Scottish socialist and labor leader (d. 1915)
 1856  Ivan Franko, Ukrainian writer (d. 1916)
 1858  Edith Nesbit, English writer (d. 1924)
 1858  Michael Hainisch, President of Austria (d. 1940)
 1859  Charles Comiskey, American baseball owner (d. 1931)
 1860  Florence Harding, First Lady of the United States (d. 1924)
 1860  Henrietta Vinton Davis, American actress and playwright (d. 1941)
 1863  Alexei Krylov, Russian engineer and mathematician (d. 1945)
 1865  Mikao Usui, Japanese spiritual figure (d. 1926)
 1872  Sri Aurobindo, Indian writer and guru (d. 1950)
 1875  Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, English composer and musician (d. 1912)
 1876  Stylianos Gonatas, Greek military officer and politician (d. 1966)
 1877  Tachiyama Mineemon, Japanese sumo wrestler (d. 1941)
 1878  Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel, Russian counter-revolutionary (d. 1928)
 1879  Ethel Barrymore, American actress (d. 1959)
 1881  Alfred Wagenknecht, German-born American activist (d. 1956)
 1890  Elizabeth Bolden, American supercentenarian (d. 2006)
 1890  Jacques Ibert, French composer (d. 1962)
 1892  Louis, 7th duc de Broglie, French physicist (d. 1987)
 1892  Walther Nehring, German general (d. 1983)
 1893  Leslie Comrie, New Zealand astronomer and mechanical computation designer (d. 1950)
 1896  Gerty Cori, Austrian-born biochemist (d. 1957)
 1896  Léon Theremin, Russian inventor (d. 1993)
 1897  Benedetta Cappa, Italian painter (d. 1977)
 1900  Estelle Brody, American actress (d. 1995)

1901  1950 
 1901  Pyotr Novikov, Russian mathematician (d. 1975)
 1901  Arnulfo Arias, three-time President of Panama (d. 1988)
 1904  George Klein, Canadian inventor (d. 1992)
 1909  Hugo Winterhalter, American composer and bandleader (d. 1973)
 1912  Naoto Tajima, Japanese athlete (d. 1990)
 1912  Julia Child, American cook (d. 2004)
 1912  Wendy Hiller, English actress (d. 2003)
 1912  Guido Morselli, Italian novelist and essayist (d. 1973)
 1917  Jack Lynch, 5th Taoiseach of Ireland (d. 1999)
 1917  Oscar Romero, Salvadoran priest (d. 1980)
 1917  Yukio Tsuda, Japanese footballer (d. 1979)
 1919  Dina Wadia, daughter of Muhammad Ali Jinnah (d. 2017)
 1920  Huntz Hall, American actor (d. 1999)
 1921  August Kowalczyk, Polish actor, director and Holocaust survivor (d. 2012)
 1922  Mary Fairfax, Polish-born Australian philanthropist (d. 2017) 
 1922  Lukas Foss, German-born composer (d. 2009)
 1923  Rose Marie, American actress (d. 2017)
 1924  Robert Bolt, English playwright and screenwriter (d. 1995)
 1924  Jo Benkow, Norwegian politician (d. 2013)
 1924  Hedy Epstein, German-American political activist (d. 2016)
 1924  Phyllis Schlafly, American conservative political activist and author (d. 2016)
 1925  Aldo Ciccolini, Italian-French pianist (d. 2015)
 1925  Leonie Ossowski, German writer (d. 2019)
 1925  Oscar Peterson, Canadian jazz pianist (d. 2007)
 1926  Konstantinos Stephanopoulos, former President of Greece (d. 2016)
 1928  Carl Joachim Classen, German classical philologist (d. 2013)
 1928  Muhammad Haji Ibrahim Egal, Prime Minister of Somalia (d. 2002)
 1928  Malcolm Glazer, American businessman and sports team owner (d. 2014)
 1928  Paul Adderley, acting Governor-General of the Bahamas (d. 2012)
 1928  Nicolas Roeg, English film director and cinematographer (d. 2018)
 1929  Anna Walentynowicz, Polish activist (d. 2010)
 1931  Richard F. Heck, American chemist (d. 2015)
 1932  Jim Lange, American game show and DJ (d. 2014)
 1934  Ebrahim Abadi, Iranian actor (d. 2019)
 1934  Nino Ferrer, French-Italian singer and actor (d. 1998)
 1934  Bobby Byrd, American singer-songwriter and producer (d. 2007)
 1934  Darrell K. Sweet, American illustrator (d. 2011)
 1935  Régine Deforges, French author, editor and playwright (d. 2014)
 1938  Pran Kumar Sharma, Indian cartoonist (d. 2014)
 1938  Bounnhang Vorachith, President of Laos
 1938  Maxine Waters, American politician
 1940  Gudrun Ensslin, member of the Red Army Faction (d. 1977)
 1942  Pete York, English musician
 1943  Jean-Luc Mandaba, Central African politician, former Prime Minister of the Central African Republic
 1943  Eileen Bell, Northern Irish politician
 1943  Eni Faleomavaega, American Samoan politician (d. 2017)
 1944  Sylvie Vartan, Bulgarian-French singer and actress
 1944  Thomas J. Murphy, Jr., American politician, 56th Mayor of Pittsburgh
 1945  Khaleda Zia, 9th Prime Minister of Bangladesh
 1945  Alain Juppé, former Prime Minister of France
 1946  William Waldegrave, Baron Waldegrave of North Hill, English politician
 1946  Jimmy Webb, American songwriter and composer
 1946  Tony Robinson, English actor and television presenter
 1949  Richard Deacon, Welsh sculptor
 1950  Anne, Princess Royal, member of the British royal family
 1950  Tommy Aldridge, American drummer

1951  1975 
 1952  Rudi Kargus, German footballer
 1952  Bernard Lacombe, French footballer
 1953  Vigdís Grímsdóttir, Icelandic writer
 1953  Wolfgang Hohlbein, German writer
 1953  Mark Thatcher, British businessman and son of Margaret Thatcher
 1953  Carol Thatcher, daughter of Margaret Thatcher
 1954  Stieg Larsson, Swedish writer (d. 2004)
 1955  Roger Willemsen, German author, essayist and television presenter (d. 2016)
 1958  Simon Baron-Cohen, British psychiatrist and writer
 1958  Craig MacTavish, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
 1959  Scott Altman, American astronaut
 1961  Arjun, Indian movie actor and director
 1961  Ed Gillespie, former White House counsel
 1962  Moreno Mannini, Italian footballer
 1963  Valery Levaneuski, Russian activist
 1963  Alejandro González Iñárritu, Mexican film director and producer
 1964  Melinda Gates, wife of Bill Gates
 1966  Dimitris Papadopoulos, Greek basketball player
 1967  Alan Henning, British humanitarian and aid worker (d. 2014)
 1968  Debra Messing, American actress
 1969  Bernard Fanning, Australian singer, songwriter and guitarist (Powderfinger)
 1969  Juli Minoves Triquell, Andorran diplomat and writer
 1970  Anthony Anderson, American comedian and actor
 1970  Masahiro Endo, Japanese footballer
 1970  Ben Silverman, American television producer
 1970  Maya Soetoro-Ng, sister of Barack Obama
 1972  Ben Affleck, American actor
 1973  Amitabh Bhattacharjee, Indian actor
 1975  Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, Japanese footballer
 1975  Vijay Bharadwaj, Indian cricketer
 1975  Brendan Morrison, Canadian ice hockey player

From 1976 
 1976  Abiy Ahmed, Ethiopian politician, Prime minister of Ethiopia
 1976  Boudewijn Zenden, Dutch footballer
 1977  Martin Biron, Canadian ice hockey player
 1978  Lilia Podkopayeva, Ukrainian gymnast
 1981  Brendan Hansen, American swimmer
 1982  Tsuyoshi Hayashi, Japanese actor
 1983  Luke McCormick, English footballer
 1985  Nipsey Hussle, American rapper (d. 2019)
 1985  Emily Kinney, American actress, singer, model and composer
 1986  Natalia Kills, British singer-songwriter, musician and actress
 1986  Besik Kudukhov, Russian wrestler (d. 2013)
 1988  Oussama Assaidi, Moroccan footballer
 1989  Kristina Karjalainen, Estonian-Finnish model
 1989  Carlos Pena, Jr., American actor, dancer and singer
 1989  Joe Jonas, American actor and singer (Jonas Brothers)
 1990  Jennifer Lawrence, American actress
 1990  Danny Verbeek, Dutch footballer
 1991  Petja Piiroinen, Finnish snowboarder
 1992  Baskaran Adhiban, Indian chess player
 1993  Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, English footballer
 1998  Gulliver McGrath, Australian actor

Deaths

Up to 1900 
 423  Flavius Honorius, Roman Emperor (b. 384)
 465  Libius Severus, Roman Emperor
 778  Roland, Frankish commander
 1038  King Stephen I of Hungary
 1040  King Duncan I of Scotland
 1057  King Macbeth of Scotland
 1118  Alexios I Komnenos, Byzantine Emperor (b. 1048)
 1196  Conrad II, Duke of Swabia (b. 1173)
 1274  Robert de Sorbon, French theologian and educator (b. 1201)
 1369  Philippa of Hainault, Queen consort of Edward III of England
 1464  Pope Pius II (b. 1405)
 1528  Odet de Foix, French general (b. 1485)
 1552  Hermann of Wied, German archbishop (b. 1477)
 1621  John Barclay, Scottish poet (b. 1582)
 1714  Constantin Brancoveanu, Romanian prince (b. 1654)
 1728  Marin Marais, French composer (b. 1656)
 1758  Pierre Bouguer, French mathematician (b. 1698)
 1799  Giuseppe Parini, Italian poet (b. 1729)
 1860  Princess Juliane of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Grand Duchess of Russia (b. 1781)

1901  2000 
 1904  John Henry Kinkead, Governor of Nevada (b. 1826)
 1909  Euclides da Cunha, Brazilian author, publicist and engineer (b. 1866)
 1925  Konrad Magi, Estonian artist (b. 1878)
 1931  Nigar Shikhlinskaya, Azerbaijani World War I nurse (b. 1878)
 1933  Christie Fuller, Australia Singer
 1935  Paul Signac, French painter (b. 1863)
 1935  Wiley Post, American pilot (b. 1898)
 1935  Will Rogers, American humorist and actor (b. 1879)
 1936  Grazia Deledda, Italian writer (b. 1871)
 1941  Josef Jakobs, German spy (b. 1898)
 1942  Mahadev Desai, Indian activist and writer (b. 1892)
 1945  Korechika Anami, Japanese Minister of War (b. 1887)
 1951  Artur Schnabel, Austrian pianist and composer (b. 1882)
 1953  Ludwig Prandtl, German physicist (b. 1875)
 1962  Lei Feng, Chinese soldier (b. 1940)
 1963  Henry John Burnett, last person to be hanged in Scotland (b. 1942)
 1964  Dr. Atl, Mexican painter and writer (b. 1875)
 1967  René Magritte, Belgian painter (b. 1898)
 1967  Manuel Prado Ugarteche, President of Peru (b. 1889)
 1971  Paul Lukas, Hungarian-born actor (b. 1887)
 1974  Yuk Young-soo, First Lady of South Korea (b. 1925)
 1975  Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladeshi politician (b. 1920)
 1982  Hugo Theorell, Swedish scientist (b. 1903)
 1989  Minoru Genda, Japanese military aviator and politician (b. 1904)
 1989  Thrasyvoulos Tsakalotos, Greek army officer (b. 1897)
 1990  Viktor Tsoi, Russian singer (b. 1962)

From 2001 
 2001  Richard Chelimo, Kenyan runner (b. 1972)
 2004  Sune Bergström, Swedish biochemist (b. 1916)
 2004  Amarsinh Chaudhary, Indian politician, 8th Chief Minister of Gujarat (b. 1941)
 2006  Te Atairangi Kaahu, Maori Queen (b. 1931)
 2006  Faas Wilkes, Dutch footballer (b. 1923)
 2007  John Gofman, American scientist (b. 1918)
 2011  Rick Rypien, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1984)
 2012  Harry Harrison, American science fiction writer (b. 1925)
 2012  Biff Elliot, American actor (b. 1923)
 2013  Marich Man Singh Shrestha, former Prime Minister of Nepal (b. 1942)
 2013  Slawomir Mrozek, Polish author and playwright (b. 1930)
 2013  Jacques Vergès, French lawyer (b. 1925)
 2014  Licia Albanese, Italian-American soprano (b. 1913)
 2014  Jan Ekier, Polish pianist and composer (b. 1913)
 2014  James Freeman Gilbert, American geophysicist (b. 1931)
 2014  James Cama, American martial artist and teacher (b. 1957)
 2015  Rafael Chirbes, Spanish writer (b. 1949)
 2015  Julian Bond, American social activist (b. 1940)
 2016  Dalian Atkinson, English footballer (b. 1968)
 2016  Stefan Henze, German slalom canoeist (b. 1981)
 2017  Gunnar Birkerts, Latvian-born American architect (b. 1925)
 2017  Vern Ehlers, American politician (b. 1932)
 2017  Abdirahman Jama Barre, Somali politician (b. 1937)
 2018  Rita Borsellino, Italian anti-Mafia activist and politician (b. 1945)
 2018  François Garnier, French Roman Catholic prelate (b. 1944)
 2018  Albert Millaire, Canadian actor (b. 1935)
 2019  Eddie Marlin, American wrestler and promoter (b. 1930)
 2019  Qin Hanzhang, Chinese engineer and food scientist (b. 1908)
 2019  Antonio Rastrelli, Italian politician (b. 1927)
 2019  Vidya Sinha, Indian actress (b. 1947)
 2019  Glenn Tasker, Australian sports columnist (b. 1951)
 2019  Wrestling Pro, American professional wrestler (b. 1938)

Observances 
 Independence Day in India, Bahrain and the Republic of the Congo
 Liberation Day in South Korea
 VJ Day, marking the end of World War II in East Asia
 Assumption of Mary – Roman Catholic Church and other churches in Western Christianity
 Ferragosto (Italy)
 National Day of Liechtenstein
 Mother's Day (Costa Rica)

Days of the year