August 15 birthdays & history

Famous people born on August 15

• 1769Napoleon Bonaparte, French general and emperor
• 1771Walter Scott, Scottish novelist, playwright, and poet
• 1990Jennifer Lawrence, American actress and producer
• 1972Ben Affleck, American actor and filmmaker
• 1872Sri Aurobindo, Indian guru, poet, and philosopher
• 1892Louis de Broglie, French physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1896Gerty Cori, Czech-American biochemist and physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1964Melinda French Gates, American businesswoman and philanthropist, co-founded the Gates Foundation
• 1963Alejandro González Iñárritu, Mexican filmmaker
• 1912Julia Child, American chef and author

What happened on August 15

• 1261Michael VIII Palaiologos was crowned Byzantine emperor in Constantinople.
• 1843The Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace in Honolulu, Hawaii is dedicated. Now the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu, it is the oldest Roman Catholic cathedral in continuous use in the United States.
• 1843Tivoli Gardens, one of the oldest still intact amusement parks in the world, opens in Copenhagen, Denmark.
• 1893Ibadan area becomes a British Protectorate after a treaty was signed by Fijabi, the Baale of Ibadan, with the British acting Governor of Lagos, George C. Denton.
• 1899Fratton Park football ground in Portsmouth, England is officially first opened.
• 1907Ordination in Constantinople of Fr. Raphael Morgan, the first African-American Orthodox priest, "Priest-Apostolic" to America and the West Indies.
• 1914The Panama Canal opens to traffic with the transit of the cargo ship SS Ancon.
• 1939The Wizard of Oz premieres at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Los Angeles, California.
• 1947Jawaharlal Nehru took office as the first prime minister of India, a post he held for 16 years.
• 1947India gains independence from British rule after nearly 190 years of British company and crown rule and joins the Commonwealth of Nations.
• 1947Founder of Pakistan Muhammad Ali Jinnah is sworn in as first Governor-General of Pakistan in Karachi.
• 1948The Republic of Korea was established with Syngman Rhee as its first president.

Also observed on August 15

• Armed Forces Day (Poland)
• Constitution Day (Equatorial Guinea)
• Founding of Asunción (Paraguay)
• Independence Day, celebrates the independence of India from the United Kingdom in 1947
• Independence Day, celebrates the independence of the Republic of the Congo from France in 1960
• International Apostrophe Day