This Day in History: Aug. 15

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This Day In History: August 15

Take a look at all of the important historical events that took place on August 15.

On this day, Aug, 15 ...

1969: The Woodstock Music and Art Fair opens in Bethel, N.Y.

Also on this day:

• 1483: The Sistine Chapel is consecrated by Pope Sixtus IV.
• 1945: In a pre-recorded radio address, Japan’s Emperor Hirohito announces that his country has accepted terms of surrender for ending World War II.
• 1947: The Indian Independence Bill creates the two independent states of India and Pakistan.

• 1961: As workers begin constructing a Berlin Wall made of concrete, East German soldier Conrad Schumann leaps to freedom over a tangle of barbed wire in a scene captured in a famous photograph.
• 1965: The Beatles play before more than 55,000 fans at New York’s Shea Stadium.
• 1971: President Richard Nixon announces a 90-day freeze on wages, prices and rents.
• 1995: The Justice Department agrees to pay $3.1 million to white separatist Randy Weaver and his family to settle their claims over the killing of Weaver’s wife and son during a 1992 siege by federal agents at Ruby Ridge, Idaho
• 1998: A car bomb kills 29 people in Omagh, Northern Ireland, the deadliest act of violence in more than 30 years of the “Troubles.”

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• 2018: President Trump revokes the security clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan. 

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• 2019: Israeli officials decide to block U.S. Reps. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., from entering the country as part of a planned visit, a reversal that comes amid pressure from President Trump and concerns about their support for boycotts of Israel.