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 1859 Charles Comiskey, who would own the White Sox in the early 1900s, was born in Chicago.
In 1918 the United States and Russia severed diplomatic relations.
In 1935 humorist Will Rogers and aviator Wiley Post were killed when their airplane crashed near Point Barrow, Alaska.
In 1939 the MGM film musical “The Wizard of Oz” premiered at 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 unconditionally.
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 simply known in the city as the Picasso.
In 1969 the Woodstock Music and Art Fair opened in upstate New York.
In 1990, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein offered to make peace with longtime enemy Iran.
In 2001 astronomers announced the discovery of the first solar system outside our own.
