On Aug. 15, 1945, Emperor Hirohito announced to his subjects in a pre-recorded radio address that Japan had accepted terms of surrender for ending World War II.
In 1057, Macbeth, King of Scots, was killed in battle by Malcolm, the eldest son of King Duncan, whom Macbeth had slain.
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, Alaska.
In 1944, during World War II, Allied forces landed in southern France in Operation Dragoon.
In 1969, the Woodstock Music and Art Fair opened in upstate New York.
In 1971, President Richard Nixon announced a 90-day freeze on wages, prices and rents.
In 1997, the government expanded its recall of ground beef sold under the Hudson brand name to 1.2 million pounds because of new evidence of possible contamination by E. coli bacteria. The Justice Department decided against prosecuting senior FBI officials in connection with an alleged cover-up that followed the deadly 1992 Ruby Ridge siege in Idaho.
In 2002, President George W. Bush, using Mount Rushmore as a dramatic backdrop, pressed Congress to give him a flexible, fast-moving homeland security department. Some 600 family members of 9-11 victims filed a trillion-dollar federal lawsuit against Saudi officials, banks and charities, charging they had financed Osama bin Laden's network and the attacks on New York and Washington.
In 2006, Israel began withdrawing its forces from southern Lebanon. Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu, the queen of New Zealand's indigenous Maori population, died on North Island, New Zealand, at age 75.
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