On Aug. 15, 1057, Macbeth, King of Scotland and the inspiration for the Shakespeare play, was murdered by Malcolm III, the son of King Duncan.
In 1769 Napoleon Bonaparte was born on the island of Corsica.
In 1771 Scottish novelist Walter Scott was born in Edinburgh.
In 1888 T.E. Lawrence, who gained fame as “Lawrence of Arabia,” was born in Wales.
In 1912 cooking expert and author Julia Child was born in Pasadena, Calif.
In 1914 the Panama Canal was opened to traffic.
In 1935 humorist Will Rogers and aviator Wiley Post were killed when their airplane crashed in Alaska.
In 1939 the MGM film musical “The Wizard of Oz” premiered at the Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood.
In 1944, during World War II, Allied forces landed in southern France.
In 1945 V-J Day was proclaimed by the Allies, a day after Japan agreed to surrender.
In 1947 India became independent after about two centuries of British rule.
In 1948 the Republic of Korea was proclaimed.
In 1961 East German workers began building the Berlin Wall.
In 1967 Mayor Richard Daley unveiled Pablo Picasso’s 162-ton, 50-foot-high steel gift “to the people of Chicago,” the Daley Plaza sculpture now known in the city simply as the Picasso.
In 1969 the Woodstock Music and Art Fair opened in upstate New York.
In 1973, in a nationwide broadcast, President Richard Nixon denied any involvement in the Watergate break-in or cover-up.
In 1979 UN Ambassador Andrew Young resigned in the wake of controversy generated by an unauthorized meeting with a Palestine Liberation Organization representative.
In 1989 F.W. de Klerk was sworn in as acting president of South Africa, one day after P.W. Botha resigned as the result of a power struggle within the National Party.
In 1990, in an attempt to gain support against the U.S.-led coalition in the Persian Gulf, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein offered to make peace with longtime enemy Iran.
In 1999 Tiger Woods won the PGA Championship, becoming the youngest player to win two majors since Seve Ballesteros.
