Saturday, August 15, 2009

15 August: Macbeth Dies; Bonaparte Is Born; Will Rogers Crashes

By The Associated Press 2 hrs 5 mins ago, & The UPI Almanac. Today is Saturday, Aug. 15, the 227th day of 2009. There are 138 days left in the year.
Today's Highlight in History: On Aug. 15, 1945, Japanese Emperor Hirohito announced to his subjects in a prerecorded radio address that Japan had accepted terms of surrender for ending World War II. 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. One hundred fifty years ago, in 1859, Chicago White Sox founder Charles Comiskey was born in Chicago. In 1914, the Panama Canal opened to traffic. In 1935, humorist Will Rogers and aviator Wiley Post were killed when their airplane crashed near Point Barrow in the Alaska Territory. The original AP story. In 1944, Allied forces landed in southern France in Operation Dragoon. In 1947, India became independent after some 200 years of British rule. In 1948, the Republic of Korea (South Korea) was proclaimed. In 1971, President Richard Nixon announced a 90-day freeze on wages, prices and rents. In 1979, Andrew Young resigned as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations after coming under fire for an unauthorized meeting with the U.N. observer for the Palestine Liberation Organization. In 1985, South African President P.W. Botha, rejecting Western pleas to abolish apartheid, declared, "I am not prepared to lead white South Africans and other minority groups on a road to abdication and suicide." In 1987, more than 13.5 inches of rain drenched the Chicago area, causing more than $100 million in damage. In 1995, the Justice Department agreed to pay $3.1 million to white separatist Randall Weaver, whose wife and teenage son were killed by FBI sharpshooters during a standoff at his Idaho cabin three years earlier. In 1998, 29 people were killed by a car bomb that tore apart the center of Omagh, Northern Ireland; a splinter group calling itself the Real IRA claimed responsibility. Ten years ago: President Bill Clinton and his family went house-hunting in Westchester County, N.Y. (They later settled on a house in Chappaqua.) Tiger Woods won the PGA Championship, becoming at age 23 the youngest player to win two majors since Seve Ballesteros. In 2000, one hundred people from North Korea arrived in South Korea for temporary reunions with relatives they had not seen for half a century; 100 South Koreans visited the North. In 2001, astronomers announced the discovery of the first solar system outside our own - two planets orbiting a star in the Big Dipper. Five years ago: Residents left homeless by Hurricane Charley dug through their ravaged homes, rescuing what they could as President George W. Bush promised rapid delivery of disaster aid. In Athens, the U.S. men's basketball team lost 92-73 to Puerto Rico, only the third Olympic defeat ever for the Americans and the first since adding pros. Vijay Singh won the PGA Championship in Haven, Wis. In 2006, Israel began withdrawing its forces from southern Lebanon. In 2007, a magnitude-8 earthquake in Peru's southern desert killed at least 540 people. One year ago: Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili grudgingly signed a U.S.-backed truce with Russia, even as he denounced the Russians as invading barbarians and accused the West of all but encouraging them to overrun his country. Michael Phelps won his sixth gold medal with his sixth world record, in the 200-meter individual medley at the Summer Olympics. American Nastia Liukin won the gold in women's gymnastics; friend and teammate Shawn Johnson was second. National Public Radio commentator Leroy Sievers, who shared his struggle with cancer, died at his Maryland home at age 53. Today's Birthdays: Actress Rose Marie is 86. Political activist Phyllis Schlafly is 85. Actor Mike Connors is 84. Actress Lori Nelson is 76. Civil rights activist Vernon Jordan is 74. Actor Jim Dale is 74. Actress Pat Priest is 73. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer is 71. U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., is 71. Musician Pete York (Spencer Davis Group) is 67. Author-journalist Linda Ellerbee is 65. Songwriter Jimmy Webb is 63. Rock singer-musician Tom Johnston (The Doobie Brothers) is 61. Britain's Princess Anne is 59. Actress Tess Harper is 59. Actor Larry Mathews is 54. Actor Zeljko Ivanek is 52. Actor-comedian Rondell Sheridan is 51. Rock singer-musician Matt Johnson (The The) is 48. Movie director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu ("Babel") is 46. Actress Debi Mazar is 45. Country singer Angela Rae (Wild Horses) is 43. Actor Peter Hermann is 42. Actress Debra Messing is 41. Actor Anthony Anderson is 39. Actor Ben Affleck is 37. Singer Mikey Graham (Boyzone) is 37. Actress Natasha Henstridge is 35. Today In Entertainment History -- Seventy years ago, in 1939, "The Wizard of Oz" premiered in Hollywood.In 1958, Buddy Holly and Maria Elena Santiago got married in a private ceremony at his parents' home in Lubbock, Texas. Holly and Santiago had met only two months before. He died in a plane crash the following February. In 1965, The Beatles performed before a capacity crowd at New York's Shea Stadium, which, at the time, set a record for the largest audience to gather for a concert. Forty years ago, in 1969, the Woodstock Music and Arts Fair opened in upstate New York. During three days, dozens of acts performed before the crowd that had gathered on Max Yasgur's farm. Original AP story. Max Yasgur addresses the crowd at his farm. In 1980, George Harrison's book "I Me Mine" was published. In 1996, a women's shelter on Long Island, New York, refused to accept money from a benefit concert featuring James Brown. The shelter said Brown's wife had accused him of assaulting her, although each time she withdrew the accusations or the charges were dismissed. In 1998, singer Ian Gillan of Deep Purple allegedly hit a security guard in the head with a microphone during a concert in Pontiac, Michigan. He was later charged with assault and battery. In 2004, Phish performed their final show during a weekend-long festival in Coventry, Vermont. Last year, record producer Jerry Wexler, who coined the term "rhythm and blues," died in Sarasota, Fla. at age 91. Thought for Today: "To feel that one has a place in life solves half the problem of contentment." — George Edward Woodberry, American poet, critic and educator (1855-1930).

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