August 15

1157 Shakespeare's famous character Macbeth was based on a real Scottish king in the 11th century named Mac Bethad mac Findlaích. He was killed at the Battle of Lumphanan by the forces of King Duncan I's son, the future Malcolm III, on August 15, 1057.

1519 Panama City, Panama, was founded on August 15, 1519, by Pedro Arias de Ávila, also known as Pedrarias Dávila. Within a few years of its founding, the city became a launching point for the exploration and conquest of Peru and a transit point for gold and silver headed back to Spain through the Isthmus.

1534 Ignatius Loyola, Francis Xavier and five others professed vows of poverty, chastity, and later obedience to the Pope in the church of Montmartre, Paris, on August 15, 1534. Their initial vows led to the creation of the Society of Jesus in September 1540.

1537 The Spanish explorer Juan de Salazar de Espinosa founded the settlement of Asunción on August 15, 1537. The city played a significant role as the center of Spanish colonial administration in the region and served as an important hub for trade and governance. Over time, Asunción grew in importance and became a key location in the Spanish colonial province of Paraguay. Asunción is now the capital and largest city of  Paraguay.

View of the city of Asunción in the 1860s

1769 Napoléon Bonaparte was born on August 15, 1769 in the palatial Maison Bonaparte on the River Saint Charles in the old part of Ajaccio on the west coast of Corsica.. His parents  were of of minor Corsican nobility. Napoleon's mother was the dominant influence of his childhood. Her firm discipline helped restrain the rambunctious boy, nicknamed Rabullione (the "meddler" or "disrupter"). At the age of 9, Napoleon was admitted to a French military school at Brienne-le-Château.

1771 Scottish novelist, playwright, and poet Walter Scott was born on August 15, 1771 in a third-floor flat on College Wynd in the Old Town of Edinburgh. Following a childhood bout of polio, Walter was sent in 1773 to live in the rural Scottish Borders at his paternal grandparents' farm at Sandyknowe, During his time at Sandyknowe, Walter was taught to read by his aunt Jenny, and learned from her the speech patterns and many of the tales and legends that characterized much of his work.

1785 English author Thomas De Quincey was born on August 15, 1785. Whilst a student at Oxford, de Quincey took opium to relieve a toothache. This became a lifelong addiction and eventually all his teeth fell out and he had to live on liquids. De Quincey is best known for his Confessions of an English Opium-Eater. Many scholars suggest that in publishing this work, De Quincey inaugurated the tradition of addiction literature in the West.

1843 The Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace in Honolulu, Hawaii was dedicated on August 15, 1843. Now the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu, it is the oldest Roman Catholic cathedral in continuous use in the United States.

Eastern face of Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace By blahedo 

1843 Copenhagen's Tivoli Gardens, the second oldest still intact amusement park in the world, opened on August 15, 1843. The park is divided into several themed areas, including the Chinese Garden, the Italian Garden, and the World of Hans Christian Andersen. It also has a number of rides, including the Rutschebanen, a wooden roller coaster that is one of the oldest in the world.

1856 Founder of UK's Labour Party James Keir Hardie was born in Newhouse, Lanarkshire, Scotland on August 15, 1856. The illegitimate son of Mary Keir, a domestic servant, James grew up in desperate poverty. He started working as a coal miner at the age of ten. Hardie's bosses stopped him from working down the mine when he organised a union. Together with various trade unions and the Fabian Society he founded the Independent Labour Party in 1893 to represent the laboring classes in Parliament.

1872 The secret ballot for UK elections was mandated by the July 1872 Ballot Act. It was first used on August 15, 1872 to re-elect Hugh Childers as MP for Pontefract in a ministerial by-election. Of those who voted, 16%, were illiterate, and special arrangements had to be made to record their previously-open oral votes.

1914 Panama achieved full independence from Colombia in November 1903 with US support. At the same time the USA bought the rights to build the Panama Canal. The U.S. formally took control of the canal property the following year. The Panama Canal opened to traffic  a decade later on August 15, 1914. The United States spent almost $375,000,000 (roughly equivalent to $8,600,000,000 today) on building the Panama project. This was by far the largest American engineering project to date.

1914 On August 15, 1914, while Frank Lloyd Wright was working in Chicago, a disgruntled Barbadian servant, Julian Carlton, set fire to the living quarters of the architect's Wisconsin home. Seven people, including Wright's mistress, were trapped inside the dining room and Carlton took an ax to victims who tried to escape. All seven were killed.

1928 American businessman Walter Diemer was working as an accountant for the Fleer Chewing Gum Co. when he accidentally invented bubble gum on August 15, 1928. He had been experimenting during his spare time with recipes for a chewing gum base. Walter Diemer called his invention Double Bubble. The reason the gum is pink is it is the only color that Diemer had to hand.

1931 The 449-foot (136.9 metres) long Kitsilano Pool in Vancouver opened on August 15, 1931. Operated by the Vancouver Park Board, it is North America’s longest saltwater pool. The pool is located on Kitsilano Beach and is open from May to September. 

1939 The Wizard of Oz had its red-carpet premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood on August 15, 1939. The film was a critical and commercial success, and it went on to become one of the most beloved films of all time. The premiere was a star-studded event, with many of the film's cast and crew in attendance. Judy Garland, who played Dorothy, was the belle of the ball, and she even received a kiss from the Cowardly Lion.

1940 On August 15, Liechtenstein's National Day, the Prince of Liechtenstein invites the residents of his tiny country to have a beer in the garden of his castle. It has been celebrated since 1940 and is closely connected to the birthday of Prince Franz-Josef II on 16 August. The day was already a public holiday to mark the Feast of the Assumption, but also served to celebrate the birthday of Prince Franz Josef II, who was born on August 16, 1906.

1941 Corporal Josef Jakobs was executed by firing squad at the Tower of London on August 15, 1941 making him the last person to be executed at the Tower. He had been convicted of being a German spy. His case is notable in part because his injuries sustained during his parachute landing in England had left him unable to stand before the firing squad, so he was seated in a chair and then shot by the firing squad.

1943 In 1498 Leonardo Da Vinci, painted a representation of Jesus' last Passover meal for the Dominicans of Santa Maria delle Grazie on the wall of their convent in Milan. On August 15, 1943, during World War II, the refectory was struck by Allied bombing. A protective structure had been built in front of the da Vinci wall fresco, which prevented the painting from being struck by bomb splinters, but it was damaged by the vibration. A clean-and-stabilize restoration in the 1950s restored the fresco. 

1947 On August 15, 1947, India peacefully became free and independent from the British Empire. The Constituent Assembly of India adopted Hindi as the Official Language of the Union two years later. The Constitution of India came into force in 1950, forming a republic with Rajendra Prasad sworn in as its first President of India.

1948 Following World War II, the Soviet Union and US agreed on leaving Korea partitioned along the 38th parallel. Separate governments, each with its own ideology were established. Syngman Rhee, an opponent of communism, who had been backed and appointed by the United States as head of the provisional government, won the first presidential elections of the newly declared Republic of Korea. The ceremony inaugurating the government of the Republic of Korea took place on August 15, 1948.

1950 Anne, Princess Royal of the United Kingdom was born at Clarence House on August 15, 1950 at 11:50 am. Anne is the second child and only daughter of Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, and Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. When the Westminster registrar visited Clarence House to complete the birth certificate, he gave Prince Philip his daughter’s identity card, a ration book and bottles of cod liver oil and orange juice.

1950 The first mouse to go into space was launched on August 15, 1950, aboard a U.S. V-2 rocket from White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The rocket reached an altitude of 137 kilometers (85 miles). Regrettably, as you mentioned, the mouse did not survive the descent due to a parachute malfunction. This mission, known as the "Albert I" flight, was one of the early attempts to study the effects of high-altitude and space travel on living organisms. 

1953 Margaret Thatcher had two children, the twins Carol and Mark, who were born on August 15, 1953, six weeks premature. "Typical of Margaret. She produced twins and avoided the necessity of a second pregnancy," said her husband Denis Thatcher.

1964 The Beatles played a concert on August 15, 1964 at Shea Stadium in New York, an event later regarded as the birth of stadium rock. It was one of the first times a major rock band had performed in such a large outdoor stadium, with an estimated audience of around 55,600 to 57,000 fans. The concert marked a turning point in the scale and impact of live music performances, setting the stage for the stadium tours and massive concerts that have become common in the music industry today.

1969 Woodstock is a small town in Ulster Co, south-east New York. The town became world famous for the 4- day rock festival held at nearby (Max) Yasgur’s farm as part of the Woodstock Music and Art Fair from August 15-18, 1969. About 400,000 people attended, many not having bought a ticket, making it the largest rock festival of the 1960s. Woodstock is now seen as a symbol of the era of 'flower power', psychedelia, civil rights, and anti-war protest.

1970 The first woman to play professional American football was Patricia Palinkas. She got into a game for the Orlando Panthers against the Bridgeport Jets, in front of twelve thousand fans on August 15, 1970. Palinkas went on to appear four more times.

2013 John Evans of Britain managed to balance an incredible 275 glasses of beer on his head at the Haifa Beer Festival in Israel on August 15, 2013. Evans is a professional strongman and head balancer. He has held over 30 Guinness World Records for his balancing feats. 

2015 North Korea created “Pyongyang Time” on August 15, 2015, moving its clocks 30 minutes back making it 8.5 hours ahead of GMT. This was done to symbolically break away from Japan's influence, as Japan had set the time zone for Korea during its occupation of the country from 1910 to 1945.

2017 Czech doctors successfully delivered a baby girl on August 15, 2019, 117 days after her mother had suffered a severe stroke and became brain dead. After the baby's birth, they disconnected the mother’s life support.