Browsing: August 15

A Brief History This article presents a chronological list of notable events that happened on August 15th.  For each date below, please click on the date to be taken to an article covering that date’s event. Digging Deeper On August 15, 1281, the army and navy forces of the Mongol/Chinese Emperor Kublai Khan were destroyed at the Battle of Kōan, an attempt to invade and conquer Japan. On August 15, 1769, Napoleon Bonaparte was born. On August 15, 1769, little Napoleon Bonaparte was born on the island of Corsica, to ethnic Italian parents, although living on what was then a…

A Brief History On August 15, 2015, North Korea changed its time to a self-appointed “Pyongyang Time,” moving clocks backward a half hour to flout international time, known as UTC. Digging Deeper Playing with time is not the only odd choice by North Korea, called “The Hermit Kingdom” for keeping its population out of contact with the rest of the world, in order to control information and thought. Since its establishment in 1948, North Korea has been a dictatorship by a single family, first by Kim Il Sung, then his son, Kim Jong Il, and currently the next son in…

A Brief History On August 15, 1914, a disgruntled 31 year old chef and servant at a Frank Lloyd Wright property known as Taliesin, in Wisconsin, went on a murderous rampage, killing seven people and burning a prestigious mansion, all without the use of a firearm… Digging Deeper Wright, the great American architect, hired Julian Carlton, a West Indian of African descent to work at the 600 acre estate.  Carlton grew increasingly paranoid over time and had run ins with other workers and contractors.  Carlton began staying up late armed with a butcher knife while staring out a window, causing…

A Brief History On August 15, 1281, the army and navy forces of the Mongol/Chinese Emperor Kublai Khan were destroyed at the Battle of Kōan, an attempt to invade and conquer Japan.  Aided by a fortuitous weather situation called by the Japanese a “Divine Wind” (or “Kamikaze” in Japanese), the Mongol forces were defeated, and Kublai Khan never did get to conquer Japan.  In fact, the great Khan had previously made an attempt at conquering Japan to add to his vast empire, back in 1271, and that attempt was also failed by a “Divine Wind!”  Genghis Khan and his grandson,…

A Brief History On August 15, 1914, the Panama Canal was opened for traffic, with the SS Ancon making the first transit of the great canal. Constructed from 1904 to 1914 by the United States, a previous French attempt at building the canal from 1881 to 1894 failed miserably, with thousands of workers killed by disease and venomous snakes, a rate of fatalities that reached 200 per month. Despite an asking price of $100 million dollars, the US was able to purchase the rights to the canal project for only $40 million. Completion of the canal became a great source…