August 15th

Today's Highlight in History:
August 15th, 1945, was proclaimed "V-J Day" by the Allies, a day after Japan agreed to surrender unconditionally.

On this date:
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, Alaska.

In 1939, the MGM musical "The Wizard of Oz," starring Judy Garland, premiered at the Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood.

In 1944, during World War Two, Allied forces landed in southern France.

In 1947, India became independent after some 200 years of British rule.

In 1948, the Republic of Korea was proclaimed.

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

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

In 1994, Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, the terrorist known as "Carlos the Jackal," was jailed in France after being captured in Sudan.

In 1998, 29 people were killed by a car bomb in Omagh, Northern Ireland; a splinter group calling itself the Real I-R-A claimed responsibility.

Ten years ago: In an attempt to gain support against the US-led coalition in the Persian Gulf, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein offered to make peace with longtime enemy Iran.

Five years ago: The Justice Department agreed to pay 3.1 million dollars to white separatist Randy Weaver and his family to settle their claims over the killing of Weaver's wife and son during a 1992 siege by federal agents at Ruby Ridge, Idaho. Pioneering TV journalist and Timex watch pitchman John Cameron Swayze died in Sarasota, Florida, at age 89.

One year ago: President Clinton and his family went house-hunting in Westchester County, New York. (They later settled on a house in Chappaqua.) Tiger Woods won the PGA Championship, becoming the youngest player to win two majors since Seve Ballesteros.

"We must not read either law or history backwards."

-- Helen M. Cam, English historian and educator (1885-1968).