Famous events on August 15

1914 – The Panama Canal opens to traffic with the transit of the cargo ship SS Ancon.

1939 – The Wizard of Oz premiered at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Los Angeles, California.

1945 – World War II: Japan surrenders to end the war.

1947 – India gains Independence from the British Indian Empire and joins the Commonwealth of Nations.

1948 – The Republic of Korea is established south of the 38th parallel north.

1965 – The Beatles play to nearly 60,000 fans at Shea Stadium in New York, New York, an event later regarded as the birth of stadium rock.

1969 – Woodstock opens.

1971 – President Richard Nixon completes the break from the gold standard by ending convertibility of the United States dollar into gold by foreign investors.

1973 – Vietnam War: The United States bombing of Cambodia ends.

1995 – In South Carolina, Shannon Faulkner becomes the first female cadet matriculated at The Citadel (she drops out less than a week later).

2005 – Israel's unilateral disengagement plan to evict all Israelis from the Gaza Strip and from four settlements in the northern West Bank begins.

2007 – An 8.0-magnitude earthquake off the Pacific coast devastates Ica and various regions of Peru killing 514 and injuring 1,090.

People born on August 15, 1953

Mark Thatcher

People born in 1953

January: Pamela Sue Martin 1-5, Pat Benatar 1-10, Paul Allen 1-21.

February: Duane “Dog” Chapman 2-2, Dan Quisenberry 2-7 (1998), Mary Steenburgen 2-8, Jeb Bush 2-11, Michael Bolton 2-26.

March: Jim Rice 3-8, Jimmy Lovine 3-11.

April: Rick Moranis 4-18.

May: Jamaal Wilkes 5-2, Tony Blair 5-6, Pierce Brosnan 5-16, Dan Roundfield 5-26, Jim Zorn 5-10, George Brett 5-15, Colm Meaney 5-30.

June: John Edwards 6-10, Tim Allen 6-13, Cyndi Lauper 6-22.

July: Leon Spinks 7-11, Steve Grogan 7-24, Walter Payton 7-25.

August: Hulk Hogan 8-11, Kathy Lee Gifford 8-16, Bruce Sutter 8-30.

September: Amy Irving 9-10, Joe Washington 9-24.

October: Tito Jackson 10-15, Keith Hernandez 10-20.

November: Kate Capshaw 11-3, Dennis Miller 11-3, Kevin Nealon 11-18.

December: Roy Firestone 12-8, Kim Basinger 12-8, Sam Kinison 12-8 (1992), John Malkovich 12-9,  Ben Bernanke 12-13, Bill Pullman 12-17, Meredith Vierra 12-30.

People born on August 15

Napoleon 1769-1821, Julia Child 1912-2004, Rose Marie 1923, Phyllis Schlafly 1924, Mike Connors 1925, John Brodie 1935, Stephen Breyer 1938, Linda Ellerbee 1944, Gene Upshaw 1945, Gary Kubiak 1961, Patrick Ewing 1962, Melinda Gates 1964, Debra Messing 1968, Ben Affleck 1972, Kerri Walsh 1978, Carl Edwards 1979, Joe Jonas 1989, Jennifer Lawrence 1990.

People died on August 15

Macbeth (1057), Will Rogers (1935), Paul Brown (1991), John Cameron Swayze (1995).

People died over the last 365 days.

2013

July: Dennis Farina July 22, Dennis Burkley July 14, Cory Monteith July 13.

June:  James Gandolfini June 19, Slim Whitman June 19, Jason Leffler June 12, Esther Williams June 6, Deacon Jones June 3, Frank Lautenberg June 3.

May: Tim Samaras May 31, Jean Stapleton May 31, Ken Venturi May 17, Dick Trickle May 16, Fred White May 15, Joyce Brothers May 13, Chuck Muncie May 13.

April: George Jones, April 26, Richie Havens, April 22, Allan Arbus, April 19, Pat Summerall, April 16, Jonathan Winters April 11, Margaret Thatcher April 8, Roger Ebert April 4, Chuck Fairbanks April 2, William Ginsburgh April 1, Jack Pardee April 1.

March: Hugo Chavez March 5, Bonnie Franklin March 1.

February: Van Cliburn February 27, C. Everett Koop February 25, Jerry Buss February 18, B.H. Born February 3, Ed Koch February 1.

January: Earl Weaver January 19, Stan Musial January 19, Patti Page January 1.

2012

December: Norman Schwarzkopf December 27, Jack Klugman December 24, Robert Bork December 19, Daniel Inouye December 17, Ravi Shankar December 11, Rick Majerus December 1.

November: Zig Ziglar November 28, Hector Camacho November 24, Larry Hagman November 23, Deborah Raffin November 21, Arlen Specter November 14, Lee MacPhail November 8, Darrell Royal November 7.

October: George McGovern October 21, Alex Karras October 10.

September: Andy Williams September 25, Art Modell September 6, Sun Myung Moon September 3.

August: Phyllis Diller August 20.