Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 August 15

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Japanese foreign affairs minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signs the Instrument of Surrender.

The surrender of Japan on September 2, 1945, brought the hostilities of World War II to a close. Together with the British Empire and China, the United States called for the unconditional surrender of the Japanese armed forces in the Potsdam Declaration on July 26, 1945. Japan's leaders privately made entreaties to the publicly neutral Soviet Union to mediate more favorable peace terms. On August 6, the United States detonated an atomic bomb over Hiroshima. On August 8, the Soviet Union invaded the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo. Hours later, the United States dropped a second atomic bomb, on Nagasaki. Emperor Hirohito intervened and ordered that the Allies' terms for ending the war be accepted. Hirohito gave a recorded radio address transmitted across the Empire on August 15, announcing the surrender of Japan. The surrender ceremony was held aboard the battleship USS Missouri, at which officials from the Japanese government signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender (pictured). (Full article...)

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In the news

COVID-19 pandemic

Alexander Lukashenko

Israel and the United Arab Emirates agree to a deal to normalize relations.
Pro-democracy protests intensify in Belarus after the contested reelection of incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko (pictured).
Prime Minister Hassan Diab of Lebanon, and his cabinet, resign in the wake of the explosions in Beirut that killed at least 200 people.
In golf, Collin Morikawa wins the PGA Championship for his first career major.

On this day

August 15: Independence Day in India (1947); National Liberation Day of Korea (1945)

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman

1038 – Upon the death of his uncle Stephen I, Peter became the second king of Hungary.
1461 – Byzantine–Ottoman wars: The Empire of Trebizond, the longest-surviving Byzantine successor state, was conquered by Ottoman forces following a month-long siege.
1812 – War of 1812: Potawatomi warriors destroyed the United States Army's Fort Dearborn in what is now Chicago, and captured the survivors.
1975 – Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (pictured), Bangladesh's founding leader, was assassinated with most of his family in a military coup.
2005 – The Helsinki Agreement between the Free Aceh Movement and the Government of Indonesia was signed, ending more than 28 years of fighting.

Eliza Lee Cabot Follen (b. 1787)
Johan Gadolin (d. 1852)
Chief Keef (b. 1995)

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Today's featured picture

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (15 August 1875 – 1 September 1912) was an English composer and conductor. His greatest success was his cantata Hiawatha's Wedding Feast. This set the epic poem The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to music, and was widely performed by choral groups in England and the United States. Composers were not well paid; the work sold hundreds of thousands of copies, but he had sold the music outright for the sum of 15 guineas, so did not benefit directly. He learned to retain his rights and earned royalties for other compositions after achieving wide renown, but always struggled financially. This photograph of Coleridge-Taylor was taken around 1905.

Photograph credit: unknown; restored by Adam Cuerden

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