Today is Thursday, August 15, the 228th day of the yr 2024. There are 138 days left within the yr.
Today in history:
On August 15, 1969, the Woodstock Music and Art Fair opened in upstate New York; greater than 460,000 people attended the three-day festival, which was to change into a groundbreaking event in American music and culture.
Also 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 1935, humorist Will Rogers and aviator Wiley Post were killed when their plane crashed near Point Barrow within the Alaska Territory.
In 1947, India gained independence after almost 200 years of British rule.
When employees began constructing a concrete wall in Berlin in 1961, East German soldier Conrad Schumann jumped over a tangle of barbed wire to freedom.
In 1989, FW de Klerk was sworn in as acting President of South Africa, in the future after PW Botha resigned resulting from an influence struggle inside the National Party.
In 1998, 29 people were killed in a automotive bomb that rocked the centre of Omagh (OH'-mah) in Northern Ireland. A splinter group calling itself the “Real IRA” claimed responsibility.
In 2003, tens of millions of individuals – from the Midwest to Manhattan – were in a position to regain power after the biggest blackout in U.S. history.
In 2017, President Donald Trump, who faced heavy criticism for initially blaming the deadly violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, on “many sides,” told reporters that there have been “very fine people on both sides” of the confrontation and that the groups protesting against white supremacists were “very violent as well.” (In between these statements, Trump had issued a more direct condemnation of white supremacists on the urging of his advisers.)
In 2021, the Taliban regained control of the Afghan capital Kabul following the withdrawal of US forces from the country.
Today's birthdays:
- Actor Jim Dale is 89.
- Retired Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer is 86.
- Democrat Maxine Waters (US Representative from California) is 86 years old.
- The creator and journalist Linda Ellerbee is 80.
- Songwriter Jimmy Webb is 78.
- Actress Phyllis Smith is 75.
- The British Princess Anne is 74.
- Actress Tess Harper is 74.
- Actor Zeljko Ivanek (ZEHL'-koh eh-VAHN'-ehk) is 67.
- Celebrity chef Tom Colicchio is 62.
- The film director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (ihn-YAH'-ee-tu) is 61 years old.
- Philanthropist Melinda French Gates is 60.
- Actress Debra Messing is 56.
- Actor Anthony Anderson is 54.
- Actor Ben Affleck is 52.
- Beach volleyball Olympic champion Kerri Walsh Jennings is 46.
- Rock singer Joe Jonas (The Jonas Brothers) is 35.
- Actress Jennifer Lawrence is 34.
Originally published:
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