Historical Events on August 15

Events 1 - 200 of 243

• 636 Beginning of the five-day decisive Battle at Yarmuk: Muslim forces defeat the Byzantine army to take control of Syria for the first time

• 927 The Saracens conquer and destroy Taranto (southern Italy)
• 1185 The cave city of Vardzia is consecrated by Queen Tamar of Georgia
• 1193 Philip II of France marries Ingeborg, daughter of King Valdemar I of Denmar in Amiens, requests annulment immediately after on grounds of non-consummation (bride deputes)
• 1246 Güyük (Kuyuk), son and successor of Ogodei, formally elected Great Khan of the Mongols at Sira Ordu, five years after the death of his father
• 1248 Construction of the new Cologne Cathedral in the Gothic style begins with the laying of the foundation stone by Archbishop Konrad von Hochstaden (completed 1880)
• 1308 Knights of St John conquer Rhodes
• 1454 Malatestiana Library, the first humanist civic library in Europe, opens in association with the convent of San Francesco in Cesena, Italy [1]
• 1457 Earliest dated book, "Mainz Psalter," completed, 1st to be printed in three colours
• 1461 Empire of Trebizond surrenders to forces of Sultan Mehmet II - last Byzantine Empire remnant to fall. Emperor David exiled and later murdered.

• 1517 Seven Portuguese armed vessels led by Fernão Pires de Andrade meet Chinese officials at the Pearl River estuary.
• 1519 Panama City founded by Spanish conquistador Pedro Arias Dávila
• 1534 Ignatius of Loyola co-founds the Society of Jesus (Jesuit) religious order at Sanit Densi Church in Montmartre, France
• 1537 Asunción is founded in Paraguay
• 1540 Arequipa is founded in Peru
• 1548 Mary Queen of Scotland arrives in France, aged 6

• 1599 Nine Years War: Battle of Curlew Pass - Irish forces led by Hugh Roe O'Donnell successfully ambush English forces, led by Sir Conyers Clifford, sent to relieve Collooney Castle.

• 1635 1st recorded north American hurricane hits the Plymouth Colony
• 1653 -16] Dutch ship "Sperwer" stranded at Tsjedzjoe, Korea
• 1658 France, Sweden, Bavarian, Brunswick, Munster and Hessen-Kassel form Confederation of the Rhine
• 1668 Confederation of the Rhine disbands
• 1684 Spain, Germany and France sign Truce of Ratisbone, ending the War of Reunions - meant to last 20 years, lasts only four
• 1741 French troops attack the Rhine
• 1748 United Lutheran Church the American colonies organized
• 1760 Battle at Leignitz: Prussian forces beat Austria and Russian armies
• 1785 French Cardinal de Rohan arrested in 'the affair of the diamond necklace'

• 1824 Freed American slaves establish Liberia on the West African coast through the American Colonization Society (ACS)
• 1827 Race riots in Cincinnati, Ohio spurred by city's threat to enforce restrictive residency requirements on Blacks begin; over 1,000 (more than half of the Black population) leave, many bound for Canada
• 1832 Gregory XVI encyclical On liberalism & religious indifferentism
• 1843 National black convention meets in Buffalo, NY
• 1843 Tivoli Gardens amusement park opens in Copenhagen, world's 2nd oldest
• 1848 M. Waldo Hanchett patents dental chair
• 1858 Regular US mail to the Pacific coast begins

• 1863 Confederate submarine "CSS H.L. Hunley" arrives in Charleston on railroad cars from Mobile, Alabama, where it was built [1]
• 1863 The Anglo-Satsuma War begins between the Satsuma Domain of Japan and the United Kingdom (Traditional Japanese date: July 2, 1863).
• 1864 US Civil War: Off New England coast, CSS Tallahassee captures 6 Yankee schooners
• 1865 Battle of Lone Jack, Missouri: fierce fighting between Union soldiers and Confederate forces prompted by bushwacker attacks destroys town of Lone Jack
• 1867 The Representation of the People Act (1867) extends suffrage in the UK
• 1869 The Meiji government in Japan establishes six new ministries, including one for Shinto
• 1870 Transcontinental Railway actually completed in Colorado
• 1876 US law removes Indians from Black Hills after gold find
• 1886 American MLB pitcher Guy Hecker scores 7 runs in 1 game
• 1891 San Sebastian Church in Manila, the first all-steel church in Asia, is officially inaugurated and blessed

• 1893 US no longer allowed exclusive rights in Bering Sea
• 1899 Louisville's pitcher Henry Dowling struck out 5 times in a game
• 1900 Russian troops advance further unto Manchuria
• 1900 The Boxer Rebellion: In China, the Empress, her family and court retainers flee while foreign troops move through Peking in an attempt to quell the rebellion
• 1901 Arch Rock, a danger to San Francisco Bay shipping, blasted with 30 tons of nitro
• 1901 Great Britain issues a proclamation calling on the Boers to surrender by 15 September or face banishment and confiscation of their property
• 1903 New Zealand's All Blacks play their first Rugby Test Match against Australia's Wallabies at the Sydney Cricket Ground; New Zealand win 22-3
• 1905 Philadelphia A's future Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Rube Waddell no-hits St Louis Browns, 2-0 in 5 innings
• 1906 1st freight delivery tunnel system begins, underneath Chicago

• 1911 Procter & Gamble unveils its Crisco shortening
• 1912 Yankee Guy Zinn sets record by stealing home twice in a game

• 1914 Japan joins the side of the allies
• 1914 Panama Canal opens (under cost) with the SS Ancon making the 1st official steamship through the canal

• 1914 The first large public gathering of Boers in South Africa who do not want to support Britain in a war against Germany; British authorities will try to repress this movement, but discontent spreads

• 1915 Journalist Albert Siegfried Bettelheim, convicted of murder in Georgia

• 1918 Longest work of animation then produced - "The Sinking of Lusitania" by Winsor McCay

• 1923 Mexico & US reaches accord over oil concession of 1917
• 1925 Norway annexes Spitsbergen
• 1931 Dutch Spakenburg football team forms
• 1931 Ernest Lassy completes longest canoe journey without port (6,102 mi)
• 1931 Roy Wilkins joins NAACP as Assistant Secretary
• 1934 US ends occupation of Haiti after 19 years; started after the 1915 assassination of Haiti's president
• 1936 Americans make a clean sweep of the 3m diving medals via Marjorie Gestring, Katherine Rawls and Dorothy Poynton-Hill at the Berlin Olympics
• 1936 Annibale Frossi scores twice as Italy beats Austria 2-1 in extra time in the soccer final at the Berlin Olympics

• 1936 Marshall Wayne and Elbert Root make it an American 1-2 in the 10m platform diving at the Berlin Olympics
• 1936 The Berlin Olympic fencing competition concludes with Italy winning 4 of the 7 gold medals and Hungary taking the other 3

• 1939 13 Nazi Luftwaffe Stuka dive bombers crash into the ground during a disastrous practice-demonstration at Neuhammer-am-Queis, Silesia, Germany (now Świętoszów, Poland) . No survivors.
• 1939 First night game at baseball's Comiskey Park in Chicago, White Sox beat Cleveland Browns 5-2
• 1940 1st edition of Jewish Weekly newspaper in Amsterdam (under Nazis)
• 1940 Heavy dogfights above England: 75 German aircraft damaged
• 1941 Kovono Lithuanian Jews are herded into Slobodka ghetto
• 1942 5 hostages executed by Nazis in St-Michielsgestel
• 1943 Allies land on Kiska, Aleutian islands
• 1944 Allied air raid on train in North Netherlands, 32 killed

• 1944 Operation Anvil: Allies land on French Mediterranean sea coast
• 1944 Operation Dragoon: Allied troops land in Provence
• 1944 US 12 Army corps enters Le Mans through Orleans
• 1944 US 7th Armour division reaches Chartres
• 1945 A riot ensues in San Francisco while the city is celebrating the end of WW II
• 1945 US wartime rationing of gasoline and fuel oil ends

• 1945 World War II: Korean Liberation Day
• 1946 Dumont TV Network (WABD NY) is launched in the US
• 1947 GLEEP (Graphite Low Energy Experimental Pile), the first experimental nuclear reactor in Western Europe begins operation in Oxford, England
• 1947 India gains independence from Great Britain, remains a dominion until 1950
• 1948 Republic of Korea (South Korea) proclaimed (National Day)
• 1949 WOTV TV channel 8 in Grand Rapids, MI (NBC) begins broadcasting
• 1950 8.6 Assam-Tibet earthquake kills several thousand

• 1950 Indians make their 1st triple play at Cleveland Stadium
• 1950 Joseph Pholien becomes Belgian premier
• 1950 Rotterdam dock strike begins
• 1950 Srikakulam district is formed in Andhra Pradesh, India

• 1952 19th NFL Chicago All-Star Game: Los Angeles 10, All-Stars 7 (88,316)
• 1952 9 inches of rain fall creates a 20 ft wave in Lynmouth, England, killing 34

• 1954 WCHS TV channel 8 in Charleston-Huntington, WV (ABC) begins
• 1955 Hurricane Connie dissipates after killing 77 in the US eastern seaboard and mid-atlantic states
• 1955 WXEX TV channel 8 in Richmond-Petersburg, VA (ABC) begins
• 1957 David Simons reaches 30,942 m in Man High 2 balloon
• 1957 USAF Captain Joe B. Jordan reaches 31,513 m in F-104 jet fighter
• 1958 25th NFL Chicago All-Star Game: All-Stars 35, Detroit 19 (70,000)
• 1958 Marshal Nikolai Bulganin resigns as Chairman of the Board of the State Bank of the USSR
• 1960 CFL's Calgary Stampeders move into McMahon Stadium
• 1960 Chicago Bears beat NY Giants 16-7 in Toronto (NFL expo)
• 1960 Congo (formerly Congo/Brazzaville) declares Independence from France
• 1960 UFO is sighted by 3 California patrolmen
• 1961 Keiyo Road is specified as the first driveway in Japan
• 1962 Netherlands & Indonesia sign accord over New Guinea
• 1962 Shady Grove Baptist Church burned in Leesburg, Georgia
• 1963 Fulbert Youlou resigns as President of Congo-Brazzaville

• 1964 Fred Trueman takes 300th Test Cricket wicket (Neil Hawke)

• 1964 MLB Philadelphia Phillies turn triple-play in 8-1 over Mets at Shea Stadium, NYC
• 1964 Race riot in Dixmoor, Illinois - a suburb of Chicago
• 1964 WEWS-TV in Cleveland, Ohio first airs "The Big 5 Show", a teen dance and music program later syndicated as "Upbeat"

• 1966 Puerto Rican champion José Torres beats American Eddie Cotton on points in Las Vegas to retain the WBC/WBA light-heavyweight boxing title
• 1966 Radio Free Asia (South Korea) begins radio transmission

• 1967 UK's Marine Offences Bill making pirate radio stations a crime goes into effect, pirate station Radio 355 closes down
• 1968 Pirate Radio Free London begins transmitting

• 1968 USSR performs nuclear test at Sary Shagan USSR

• 1970 Patricia Palinkas becomes 1st woman pro football player (Orlando)
• 1971 Bahrain gains independence from Britain
• 1971 Charles Lismont wins Helsinki marathon (2:13:09.0)

• 1971 KVRL (now KRIV) TV ch 26 in Houston, Texas (Fox) begins
• 1971 The Social Democratic and Labour Party announce a campaign of civil disobedience in response to the introduction of Internment in Northern Ireland

• 1973 Black September kills 3 and wounds 55 in Athens
• 1973 David Storey's play "Cromwell" premieres in London
• 1973 USSR performs nuclear test
• 1974 France performs nuclear test at Mururoa atoll
• 1974 Hurricane and floods ravage Bangladesh, 4,000 killed
• 1974 Longest team (6) trampoline bouncing marathon (1,248 hours or 52 days)
• 1974 South Korean President Park Chung-Hee escapes assassination attempt

• 1975 Joanne Little acquitted of murdering her prison guard in North Carolina - 1st woman to successfully use defense of deadly force to resist rape
• 1975 Miki Takeo makes the first official pilgrimage to Yasukuni Shrine by an incumbent prime minister on the anniversary of the end of World War II
• 1977 "Wow" possible alien radio signal from deep space received at "The Big Ear", Ohio State's radio telescope in Delaware
• 1977 Herbert Kappler, head of Nazi police and security services (SS) in Rome during WWII, escapes from prison hospital in Rome
• 1978 US House of Representatives approves (233-169), 39-month extension for ERA

• 1979 Andrew Young resigns as US ambassador to the United Nations

• 1981 Robin Leamy of US swims record 7.98 kph for 50 m
• 1982 Equatorial Guinea adopts constitution
• 1984 The PKK in Turkey starts a campaign of armed attacks upon the Turkish military
• 1985 First Iraqi air raid on Iran's main oil export terminal, Kharg Island

• 1987 At Pan Am games in Indianapolis, USA & Cuba are tied with 2 outs in 9th, Ty Griffin HR, Cuba 1st loss in 20 years of Pan Am competition
• 1988 At 4PM LILCO consumers used a record 3,813 megawatts
• 1988 NYC begins $70 million program to rebuild 900 Bronx apartments

• 1989 Italian swimmer Giorgio Lamberti sets world record 200m freestyle (1:46.69) in Bonn, West Germany
• 1990 At least 150 people die in clashes between the African National Congress and Inkatha Freedom Party, South Africa

• 1990 Phils Terry Mulholland no-hits Giants 6-0 (8th no hitter of 1990)

• 1991 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
• 1992 Colombo '92 closes in Genoa, Italy
• 1992 Striker Brian Deane scores both goals for Sheffield United in a season-opening 2-1 home win over Manchester United at Bramall Lane; first of Deane's goals is the first in EPL's inaugural season

• 1993 NYC radio (WFAN) personality Don Imus' lung collapses for 2nd time
• 1993 Televangelist Robert Tilton announces he is divorcing Marte

• 1994 Terrorist Carlos the Jackal, captured in Khartoum Sudan
• 1995 "Macarena" single is released by Los del Rio
• 1997 Dan Wilson hits Seattle Mariners 3,000th HR
• 1997 Dow Jones drops 247.37 pts

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