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 Benitez becomes President of Paraguay.
Births
Up to 1800
774 Emperor Heizei of Japan (d. 824)
1171 King Alfonso IX of Leon (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 Grevy, 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 Leon 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 Regine 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 Juppe, 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 Vigdis Grimsdottir, 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 Gonzalez Inarritu, 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 Rene 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 Bergstrom, 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 Verges, 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 Francois 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