By The Associated Press

Today in History

Today is Saturday, Aug. 15, the 228th day of 2020. There are 138 days left in the year.

Todayís Highlight in History:

On August 15, 1947, India became independent after some 200 years of British rule.

On this date:

In 1483, the Sistine Chapel was consecrated by Pope Sixtus IV.

In 1769, Napoleon Bonaparte was born on the island of Corsica.

In 1935, humorist Will Rogers and aviator Wiley Post were killed when their airplane crashed near Point Barrow in the Alaska Territory.

In 1939, the MGM musical ìThe Wizard of Ozî opened at the Graumanís Chinese Theater in Hollywood.

In 1944, during World War II, Allied forces landed in southern France in Operation Dragoon.

In 1945, in a pre-recorded radio address, Japanís Emperor Hirohito announced that his country had accepted terms of surrender for ending World War II.

In 1965, the Beatles played to a crowd of more than 55,000 at New Yorkís Shea Stadium.

In 1969, the Woodstock Music and Art Fair opened in upstate New York.

In 1971, President Richard Nixon announced a 90-day freeze on wages, prices and rents.

In 1998, 29 people were killed by a car bomb that tore apart the center of Omagh (OHí-mah), Northern Ireland; a splinter group calling itself the Real IRA claimed responsibility.

In 2004, in Athens, the U.S. menís basketball team lost 92-73 to Puerto Rico, only the third Olympic defeat ever for the Americans and the first since adding pros.

In 2017, President Donald Trump, whoíd faced harsh criticism for initially blaming the deadly weekend violence in Charlottesville, Virginia on ìmany sides,î told reporters that there were ìvery fine people on both sidesî of the confrontation and that groups protesting against the white supremacists were ìalso very violent.î (In between those statements, at the urging of aides, Trump had offered a more direct condemnation of white supremacists.)

Ten years ago: Former medical student Philip Markoff, charged with killing Julissa Brisman, a masseuse heíd met through Craigslist, was found dead in his Boston jail cell, a suicide. Martin Kaymer won the PGA Championship in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, in a three-hole playoff that did not include Dustin Johnson, who was penalized two strokes for grounding his club in a bunker on the last hole.

Five years ago: Japanese Emperor Akihito expressed rare ìdeep remorseî over his countryís wartime actions in an address marking the 70th anniversary of Japanís surrender in World War II, a day after the prime minister fell short of apologizing to victims of Japanese aggression. Civil rights leader Julian Bond, 75, died in Fort Walton Beach, Florida.

One year ago: After being urged to do so by President Donald Trump, Israel barred two Muslim-American congresswomen from entering the country for a visit. (Israel later granted permission for Rep. Rashida Tlaib to visit her grandmother in the occupied West Bank on humanitarian grounds; she declined, saying Israelís ìoppressiveî conditions were designed to humiliate her.) A federal appeals panel ruled that immigrant children detained by the U.S. government should get edible food, clean water, soap and toothpaste under a longstanding agreement over detention conditions.