August 15 - What happened today?

Home What happened today in history? Blamepro's Almanac for August 15
In the headlines today:

2003	Idi Amin, the former dictator of Uganda, dies in a Saudi Arabian hospital at age 80.
2000	British Airways grounds all Concorde flights after a crash the previous month killed 113 passengers and crew. (Air France had earlier announced their cancellation of supersonic Concorde flights.)
1994	Terrorist 'Carlos the Jackal' is jailed in France, following his capture in Sudan.
1980	Ex-Beatle George Harrison's autobiography, I Me Mine, is published.
1969	The Woodstock music festival opens in upstate New York.
1961	Construction begins on the Berlin Wall, separating the Communist East from the free West.
1948	Korea becomes a republic.
1948	The first nightly TV newscast begins, with Douglas Edwards as anchor, on the CBS network.
1947	India gains its independence from Great Britain.
1945	V-J Day, a holiday marking the Allied victory over Japan during WWII, is celebrated for the first time.
1935	Beloved humorist Will Rogers and pilot Wiley Post are killed a plane crash near Point Barrow, AK.

Born today:

1972 Ben Affleck - actor

1968 Debra Messing - actress

1967 MCA - rapper (Beastie Boys)

1950 Tess Harper - actress

1950 Princess Anne - daughter of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, sister of Princes Charles

1945 Gene Upshaw - football player

1944 Linda Ellerbee - TV journalist, TV hostess

1942 Peter York - drummer (Spencer Davis Group)

1933 Bobby Helms - singer

1925 Oscar Peterson - jazz pianist

1925 Mike Connors - actor

1925 Rose Marie - actress

1925 Bill Pinkney - bassist (The Drifters)

1912 Wendy Hiller - actress (Oscar® winner, 1958)

1912 Julia Child - chef, author

1887 Edna Ferber - author

1879 Ethel Barrymore - actress (Oscar® winner, 1944)

1771 Sir Walter Scott - author

1769 Napoleon Bonaparte - French emperor

Born today? Your sign of the Zodiac is:

Leo

(The Lion)