Following are some of the major events to have occurred on August 15
Reuters
1914 - The Panama Canal opened with the passage of the vessel Ancon, although it was not formally inaugurated until July 1920.
1935 - American humorist Will Rogers died in a plane crash in Alaska.
1945 - Millions worldwide celebrated VJ (Victory in Japan) Day after Japan's surrender ended World War Two.
1947 - The Indian Independence Act came into force, setting up the two independent states of India and Pakistan.
1969 - The Woodstock Music and Arts Fair began in Bethel, New York.
1998 - A car bomb blast in Omagh, Northern Ireland, killed 29 people in the worst single attack in nearly 30 years of violence.
2003 - Libya, in a letter to the U.N. Security Council, said it was taking responsibility for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 270 people.
2005 - Indonesia and rebels from Aceh signed a peace deal in Helsinki aimed at ending one of Asia's longest-running conflicts, which cost more than 12,000 lives in nearly three decades of fighting.
2007 - A massive earthquake ravaged Peru's central coast killing about 500 people in a 8.0-magnitude quake.
2008 - Swimmer Michael Phelps of the U.S. sets a new world record in the 200m individual medley event.
2014 - World's biggest beach ball is inflated in Blackpool, northern England.
