Once again, it should be reiterated, that this does not pretend to be a very extensive history of what happened on this day (nor is it the most original - the links can be found down below). If you know something that I am missing, by all means, shoot me an email or leave a comment, and let me know!
Aug 14, 1945: Japan's surrender made public
On this day in 1945, an official announcement of Japan's unconditional surrender to the Allies is made public to the Japanese people.
Even though Japan's War Council, urged by Emperor Hirohito, had already submitted a formal declaration of surrender to the Allies, via ambassadors, on August 10, fighting continued between the Japanese and the Soviets in Manchuria and between the Japanese and the United States in the South Pacific. In fact, two days after the Council agreed to surrender, a Japanese submarine sank the Oak Hill, an American landing ship, and the Thomas F. Nickel, an American destroyer, both east of Okinawa.
In the afternoon of August 14, Japanese radio announced that an Imperial Proclamation was soon to be made, accepting the terms of unconditional surrender drawn up at the Potsdam Conference. That proclamation had already been recorded by the emperor. The news did not go over well, as more than 1,000 Japanese soldiers stormed the Imperial Palace in an attempt to find the proclamation and prevent its being transmitted to the Allies. Soldiers still loyal to Emperor Hirohito repulsed the attackers.
That evening, General Anami, the member of the War Council most adamant against surrender, committed suicide. His reason: to atone for the Japanese army's defeat, and to be spared having to hear his emperor speak the words of surrender.
Aug 14, 2003: Blackout hits Northeast United States
On this day in 2003, a major outage knocked out power across the eastern United States and parts of Canada. Beginning at 4:10 p.m. ET, 21 power plants shut down in just three minutes. Fifty million people were affected, including residents of New York, Cleveland and Detroit, as well as Toronto and Ottawa, Canada. Although power companies were able to resume some service in as little as two hours, power remained off in other places for more than a day. The outage stopped trains and elevators, and disrupted everything from cellular telephone service to operations at hospitals to traffic at airports. In New York City, it took more than two hours for passengers to be evacuated from stalled subway trains. Small business owners were affected when they lost expensive refrigerated stock. The loss of use of electric water pumps interrupted water service in many areas. There were even some reports of people being stranded mid-ride on amusement park roller coasters. At the New York Stock Exchange and bond market, though, trading was able to continue thanks to backup generators.
Authorities soon calmed the fears of jittery Americans that terrorists may have been responsible for the blackout, but they were initially unable to determine the cause of the massive outage. American and Canadian representatives pointed figures at each other, while politicians took the opportunity to point out major flaws in the region's outdated power grid. Finally, an investigation by a joint U.S.-Canada task force traced the problem back to an Ohio company, FirstEnergy Corporation. When the company's EastLake plant shut down unexpectedly after overgrown trees came into contact with a power line, it triggered a series of problems that led to a chain reaction of outages. FirstEnergy was criticized for poor line maintenance, and more importantly, for failing to notice and address the problem in a timely manner--before it affected other areas.
Despite concerns, there were very few reports of looting or other blackout-inspired crime. In New York City, the police department, out in full force, actually recorded about 100 fewer arrests than average. In some places, citizens even took it upon themselves to mitigate the effects of the outage, by assisting elderly neighbors or helping to direct traffic in the absence of working traffic lights.
In New York City alone, the estimated cost of the blackout was more than $500 million.
This is the anniversary of Kublai Khan's invading forces disappearing somewhere off the coast of Japan during a typhoon. Construction of the Cologne Cathedral began. The oldest exactly dated book came on this day in Gutenberg in 1457. Thoreau was arrested on this day. Abraham Lincoln had a meeting with blacks, the first time an American President did so. Foreign (Western) forces began to arrive in China with the aim of suppressing the Boxer Rebellion. In 1941, Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt issue a joint statement that would later become known as the Atlantic Charter. Japan formally surrendered, unconditionally, which ended World War II, so far the most destructive war that humanity has ever known. The Beatles taped for the Ed Sullivan show. In 1973, the United States ended the secret bombing of Cambodia. 17,000 protested in Gdansk (also known by it's German name, Danzig), Poland. PW Botha resigned as South African President, which eventually ushered in FW DeKlerk, who would begin the process of serious reform towards ending the official policy of racial segregation known as apartheid. The Hubble telescope captured pictures of Uranus with rings. Much of the east coast of the United States, including New York City, experienced a serious blackout.
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
554 - Ravenna becomes seat of Byzantines milt governor in Italy
1183 - Taira no Munemori and the Taira clan take the young Emperor Antoku and the three sacred treasures and flee to western Japan to escape pursuit by the Minamoto clan. (Traditional Japanese date: Twenty-fifth Day of the Seventh Month of the Second Year of Juei).
1248 - Construction of Cologne Cathedral begun
1281 - Kublai Khans invading fleet disappears in typhoon near Japan
1385 - Portuguese defeat Castilians at Aljubarrota, retain independence
1395 - Utrecht bishop Frederik of Blankenheim occupies Coevorden
1457 - Oldest known exactly dated printed book (c 3 years after Gutenberg)
1498 - Columbus landed at the mouth of the Orinoco River in Venezuela
1551 - Turkish fleet under Dragut occupies Tripoli
1559 - Spanish explorer de Luna lands in Pensacola Bay,Fla
1585 - Queen Elizabeth I refuses sovereignty of Netherlands
1597 - Cornelis de Houtmans fleet is 1st Dutch visit to Java
1624 - Dutch fleet ceases Callao the Lima in Peru
1636 - Spanish troops occupy Corbie at Amiens
1642 - Able Tasmans ships Heemskerck/Zeehaen depart out of Batavia
1678 - Battle of Mons-French repulse William of Orange
1743 - Prussian army occupies Saksen, beginning 2nd Silezian War
1756 - French capture Fort Oswego, NY
1758 - Battle at Zorndorf: Prussia beats Russia, 1000s killed
English Monarch Queen Elizabeth I 1762 - English fleet occupies Havana
1765 - Mass colonists challenge British rule by an Elm (Liberty Tree)
1782 - Suriname forbids selling slave mothers without their babies
1790 - Sweden & Russia sign Peace of Verela
1813 - British warship Pelican attacks & captures US war brigantine Argus
1816 - Great Britain annexes Tristan da Cunha
1820 - 1st US eye hospital, the NY Eye Infirmary, opens in NYC
1824 - General Lafayette returns to US
1825 - Dutch King Willem I throws foreign students out
1842 - Seminole War ends; Indians removed from Florida to Oklahoma
1846 - Henry David Thoreau jailed for tax resistance
1846 - The Cape Girardeau meteorite, a 2.3 kg chondrite-type meteorite strikes near the town of Cape Girardeau in Cape Girardeau County, Missouri.
1848 - Oregon Territory created
1861 - 79th NY troops mutinies
1861 - Martial Law is declared at St Louis, Missouri due to pro-secession sentiment which surged throughout Missouri after the Battle of Wilson's Creek
1862 - Lincoln receives 1st group of blacks to confer with US president
1864 - -16] Confederate General Joe Wheeler besieges Dalton, Georgia
1864 - 2nd day of battle at Deep Bottom Run Virginia: Federal assault
1873 - "Field & Stream" begins publishing
1875 - Society of Regte Afrikaanders establishes in Paarl
1876 - Prairie View State University forms
1880 - Construction of Cologne Cathedral completed (began in 1248)
1882 - Queen Victoria recieves Zulu chief Cetewayo
1885 - Japan's first patent is issued to the inventor of a rust-proof paint.
1890 - Cecil Rhodes' colonies reach Mashonaland (Fort Victoria)
1893 - France issues 1st driving licenses, included required test
1893 - France introduces motor vehicle registration.
1897 - The town of Anosimena is captured by French troops from Menabe defenders in Madagascar.
1900 - 1st electric tram in Netherland (Leidseplein-Brouwersgracht)
1900 - 2,000 marines land to capture Beijing, ending Boxer rebellion
1901 - SS Islander hits iceberg near Alaska & sinks killing 70
1901 - The first claimed powered flight, by Gustave Whitehead in his Number 21.
1903 - James J Jeffries KOs James J Corbett in 10 for heavyweight boxing title
1905 - Ngindo-rebellion killed 5 RC German clergymen in East-Africa
1907 - "Ha-Tikva" adopted as official Zionist hymn
1908 - Race riot in Springfield Illinois
1908 - The first beauty contest is held in Folkestone, England.
1910 - 6th International Congress of Esperantists held in Washington, DC
1911 - General Leconte appointed temporary pres of Haiti
1911 - United States Senate leaders agree to rotate the office of President pro tempore of the Senate among leading candidates to fill the vacancy left by William P. Frye's death.
1912 - 2,500 US marines invade Nicaragua; US remains until 1925
1914 - British field marshal John French & Gen Wilson land in France
1915 - British transport Royal Edward sank by German U boat kills 1000
1917 - China declares war on Germany and Austria at start of WW I
1917 - Leeuwen soccer team forms
1919 - White Sox Happy Felsch ties record of 4 outfield assists in a game
1919 - Yankee Muddy Ruel hits into a triple-play
1920 - Little Entente formed by Czechoslovakia & Yugoslavia
1920 - Olympic Games open in Antwerp
1921 - Tannu Tuva, later Tuvinian People's Republic is established as a completely independent country (which is supported by Russia).
1922 - 1st "old time" musicians broadcasted on radio (Jenkins-WSB Atlanta)
1925 - Mount Rushmore 1st proposed
1925 - The original Hetch Hetchy Moccasin Powerhouse is completed and goes on line.
1928 - Ben Hecht & Charles MacArthur's "Front Page," premieres in NYC
1929 - Jewish Agency for Palestine forms
1932 - 10th Olympic Games at Los Angeles closes
1932 - Dodger John Quinn, 49, is oldest pitcher to win a major league game
1932 - Philips makes 1 millionth radio
1933 - Jimmie Foxx hits for cycle & sets AL record with 9 RBIs
1935 - Social Security Act becomes law
1936 - 1st Olympic basketball game (Berlin)
1936 - Rainey Bethea is hanged in Owensboro, Kentucky in the last public execution in the United States.
1937 - China declares war on Japan
1937 - Detroit Tigers score 36 runs in double header vs St Louis Browns
1938 - BBC's 1st feature film on TV (Student of Prague)
1939 - 1st night games at Comiskey Park (White Sox 5, Browns 2)
1940 - Dutch Premier De Geer vacations in Switzerland
1941 - US President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill issue the joint declaration that later becomes known as the Atlantic Charter
1942 - Dwight D Eisenhower named commander for invasion of North Africa
1943 - -Aug 24th: Quadrant conference over strike in Pacific Ocean
1943 - 1st allied air raid on Borneo
1943 - US 45th Division occupies Falcone 40 km outside of Messina
1944 - British premier Winston Churchill arrives at Corsica
1944 - Operation Tractable: new Canadian offensive
1944 - Russian offensive at Weichsel
1945 - V-J Day; Japan surrenders unconditionally to end WW II (also August 15 depending on time zone)
1947 - India granted independence within British Commonwealth
1947 - Mildred Babe Didrikson Zaharias gives up amateur status for $300,000
1947 - Pakistan gains independence from Britain
1948 - 14th Olympic games close at London, Great Britain
1948 - Bradman's last Test Cricket innings
1948 - England all out for 52 v Australia at Cricket Oval
1949 - Military coup under colonel Sami Hinnawi in Syria
1952 - Mátyás Rákosi appointed premier of Hungary
1953 - 20th NFL Chicago All-Star Game: Detroit 24, All-Stars 10 (93,818)
1953 - KXLF TV channel 4 in Butte, MT (CBS/ABC) begins broadcasting
1954 - WGR TV (now WGRZ) TV channel 2 in Buffalo, NY (NBC) begins
1958 - Canadian Football League plays 1st game (Winnipeg 29, Edmonton 21)
1958 - Cleve Indian, Vic Power steals home twice in 1 game
1958 - KLM Superconstellation crashes west of Ireland, killing 99
1959 - 26th NFL Chicago All-Star Game: Baltimore 29, All-Stars 0 (70,000)
1959 - AFL organized with NY, Dallas, LA, Minneapolis, Denver & Houston
1961 - Philadelphia Phillies lose 17th straight game
1962 - French & Italian workers break through at Mount Blanc Vehicular Tunnel
1962 - NASA civilian test pilot Joseph A Walker takes X-15 to 60,000 m
1962 - US mail truck in Plymouth, Mass robbed of more than $1.5 million
1964 - Bo Belinsky is suspended after attacking sportswriter Braven Dyer
1964 - Egypt/Iraq/Jordan/Kuwait/Syria form common market
1965 - Beatles tape an appearance for Ed Sullivan Show
1965 - Continental Football League plays 1st games
1965 - Sonny & Cher's "I Got You Babe" hits #1
1966 - 1st US lunar orbiter begins orbiting Moon
1966 - Cleveland Stadium's 1st rock concert is held, featuring Beatles
1966 - Kathy Whitworth wins LPGA Lady Carling Golf Open
1967 - Belgian embassy in Kinshasa, Congo, plundered
1967 - Pirate radio stations Radio 270, Radio London, Radio Ireland
1967 - Radio Scotland & Radio Swinging Holland go off the air
1968 - Montreal Expos officially become a member of NL
1969 - British troops intervene militarily in Northern Ireland
1969 - NY Mets fall 9½ games back, later to win pennant
1970 - City University of NY inaugurates open admissions
1970 - Steven Stills arrested for drug possession
1971 - Bahrain proclaims independence after 110 years of British rule
1971 - British begin internment without trial in Northern Ireland
1971 - Cards Bob Gibson, 35, no-hits Pirates, 11-0
1971 - France performs nuclear test
1972 - East German Aeroflot Illyushin 62 crashes near Moscow, killing 156
1973 - Johnny Unitas files $725,000 suit against Balt Colts
1973 - US ends secret bombing of Cambodia
1974 - Congress authorizes US citizens to own gold
1974 - Turkish army attacks Nicosia Cyprus
1974 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1974 - USSR performs underground nuclear test
1975 - -15] Pakistani military coup against president Mujib ur-Rahman
1975 - Dmitri Shotakovitch, buried at the Novodevitshi-convent
1975 - Norwegian King Olav V opens Longyearbyen Airport on Spitsbergen
1976 - 10,000 Northern Ireland women demonstrate for peace in Belfast
1977 - 59th PGA Championship: Lanny Wadkins shoots a 282 at Pebble Beach Cal
1977 - 77,691 see NY Cosmos beat Fort Lauderdale Strikers 8-3 at Giant Stad
1977 - Debbie Austin wins LPGA Long Island Charity Golf Classic
1978 - French TV announced a rating of "0" for a program about an Armenian's woman's 40th birthday, (comp: Napoleanic drama-67%, Knockout-33%)
1979 - Rainbow seen in Northern Wales for a 3 hours duration
1980 - 17,000 workers strike in Gdansk, Poland
1980 - Democratic Convention in NYC nominates Jimmy Carter & Walter Mondale
1980 - In Lenin Shipyard Gdansk Poland, 17,000 workers go on strike
1981 - George Foster hits his 8th HR into red seats at Riverfront
1981 - Phils Mike Schmidt hits his 300th career HR off NY Met Mike Scott
1982 - Atlanta snaps an 11-game losing streak with a 6-5 win over Padres
1982 - Iran "Ramadan-offensive" in Iraq
1982 - Pete Rose (Phillies) 12,365 at bat sets record (passes Aaron)
1983 - Patty Sheehan wins LPGA Henredon Golf Classic
1983 - Robert de Castella wins Helsinki marathon (2:10:03
1984 - IBM releases PC DOS version 3.0
1984 - West Indies complete 5-0 series annihilation of England
Pakistani Politican Benazir Bhutto 1986 - Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto arrested
1986 - Phillies & Pirates play a 6 game series in 4 days
1987 - "Les Miserables," opens at Rock Theatre, Szeged Hungary
1987 - Oakland's Mark McGwire sets rookie HR record at 39, en route to 49
1988 - 70th PGA Championship: Jeff Sluman shoots a 272 at Oak Tree GC Edmond
1988 - Detroit beats Sox, 18-6, at Fenway, ends Boston winning streak at 24
1989 - President Pieter W Botha of South Africa, resigns
1990 - Angel's Louis Palonia is 74th to hit an inside park grandslam
1990 - Denver vote for a 1% sales tax to pay for a baseball franchise
1991 - Twins Dave Winfield is 23rd to hit 400 HR
1993 - Nigerian presidential election
1993 - Reggie Jackson Day - NY Yanks retire 13th # (#44)
1993 - St Louis reliever Lee Smith is fastest to get 40 saves
1994 - 76th PGA Championship: Nick Price shoots a 269 at Southern Hills Tulsa
1994 - Doc Gooden leaves Betty Ford Center
1994 - Liselotte Neumann wins LPGA Weetabix Women's British Golf Open
1994 - Maggie Will wins Children's Medical Center LPGA Golf Classic
1994 - Space telescope Hubble photographs Uranus with rings
1994 - Terrorist "Carlos" arrested in Khartoum Sudan
1995 - Shannon Faulkner becomes 1st woman to attend the Citadel
1997 - "1776," opens at Criterion Theater NYC
1997 - Convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh formally sentenced to death
1997 - Karrie Webb wins LPGA Weetabix Women's British Open
1997 - Oklahoma Court of Appeals upholds death sentence of Timothy McVeigh
1997 - Soyuz TM-25 lands
2003 - Widescale power blackout in the northeast United States and Canada.
2007 - The 2007 Kahtaniya bombings kills at least 400 people.
2010 - 2010 Summer Youth Olympic Games, first ever Youth Olympics, officially starts in Singapore.
2012 - 46 people are killed and 80 injured after a series of suicide bombings in Afghanistan
2126 - Comet Swift-Tuttle approaches close to Earth
1248 - The rebuilding of the Cologne Cathedral in Cologne, Germany, began after being destroyed by fire. 1756 - Daniel Boone married 16-year-old Rebecca Bryan. 1805 - A peace treaty between the U.S. and Tunis was signed on board the USS Constitution. 1848 - The Oregon Territory was established. 1873 - "Field and Stream" magazine published its first issue. 1880 - The Cologne Cathedral in Cologne, Germany was completed after 632 years of rebuilding. 1888 - A patent for the electric meter was granted to Oliver B. Shallenberger. 1896 - Gold was discovered in Canada's Yukon Territory. Within the next year more than 30,000 people rushed to the area to look for gold. 1900 - An international force, consisting of eight nations, lifted the siege of Peking. It was an end to the Boxer Rebellion, which was aimed at purging China of foreigners. 1917 - China declared war on Germany and Austria during World War I. 1919 - About 1 million tons of ice and rock broke off of a glacier near Mont Blanc, France. Nine people were killed in the incident. 1935 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law. The act created unemployment insurance and pension plans for the elderly. 1936 - The first basketball competition was held at the Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany. The U.S. defeated Canada, 19-8. 1941 - The U.S. Congress appropriated the funds to construct the Pentagon (approximately $83 million). The building was the new home of the U.S. War Department. 1941 - U.S. President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill issued the Atlantic Charter. The charter was a statement of principles that renounced aggression. 1944 - The federal government allowed the manufacture of certain domestic appliances to resume on a limited basis. 1945 - It was announced by U.S. President Truman that Japan had surrendered unconditionally. The surrender ended World War II. 1947 - Pakistan became independent from British rule. 1953 - The whiffle ball was invented. 1959 - The first meeting was held to organize the American Football League. 1962 - A U.S. mail truck was held up in Plymouth, MA. The robbers got away with more that $1.5 million dollars. 1969 - British troops arrived in Northern Ireland to intervene in sectarian violence between Protestants and Roman Catholics. 1973 - The U.S. bombing of Cambodia ended. The halt marked the official end to 12 years of combat in Indochina by the U.S. 1976 - A charity softball game began for the Community General Hospital in Monticello, NY. The game was eventually called off due to weather after 30 hours. The final score was Gager's Diner's 491 to Bend 'n Elbow Tavern's 467. 1980 - People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) was incorporated. 1984 - Patricia Ann Reagan and Paul Grilley were married on a movie set in California. 1986 - U.S. officials announced that a U.S. Drug Enforcement agent had been abducted, interrogated and tortured by Mexican police. 1987 - Mark McGwire set the record for major league home runs by a rookie when he connected for his 49th home run of the season. 1992 - The U.S. announced that emergency airlifts of food to Somalia would begin. The action was being taken to stop mass deaths due to starvation. 1995 - Shannon Faulkner became the first female cadet in the history of The Citadel, South Carolina's state military college. She quit the school less than a week later. 1997 - William Friedkin received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. 1998 - A U.S. federal appeals court in Richmond, VA, ruled that the Food and Drug Administration had no authority to regulate tobacco. The FDA had established rules to make it harder for minors to buy cigarettes. 2000 - Valujet was ordered to pay $11 million in fines and restitution for hazardous waste violations in the crash that killed 110 people in 1996. 2000 - It was announced that Charles Grodin would be joining CBS' "60 Minutes II" as a commentator.
1900 International forces entered Beijing, China, in an effort to suppress the antiforeign uprising known as the Boxer Rebellion. 1935 The Social Security Act became law. 1945 Japan surrendered to the United States, ending World War II. 1947 Pakistan became independent of British rule. 1951 Newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst died in Beverly Hills, California. 1995 Shannon Faulkner became the first female cadet at the Citadel, the state military college of South Carolina. 1997 Timothy McVeigh was sentenced to death for the Oklahoma City bombing. 2003 The largest blackout in North American history hit the northeast.
The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:
http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/aug14.htm
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