^{“Kissing the War Goodbye,” US Navy photograph by Lt. Victor Jorgensen, taken August 14, 1945}

Today in History

• Macbeth kills King Duncan I of Scotland and takes the throne (1040)
• The Mainz Psalter, the first book with a printed date of publication and a printed colophon, is published (1457)
• The Haitian Revolution begins (1791)
• Japan issues its first patent, for the invention of a rust-proof paint (1885)
• France becomes the first country to require motor vehicle registration (1893)
• The first claimed powered flight, by Gustave Whitehead, allegedly takes place (1901)
• FDR signs the Social Security Act (1935)
• World War II: FDR and Churchill sign the Atlantic Charter (1941)
• World War II: Japan accepts the Allied surrender terms and the Emperor records the Imperial Rescript on Surrender, marked as Victory in Japan (VJ) Day in the US (1945)
• The American Football League is founded (1959)
• Offshore pirate radio is banned in the UK (1967)
• The Rocky Horror Picture Show, longest-running release in film history, opens in London (1975)
• Solidarity strikes at the Gdansk, Poland, shipyards, led by Lech Walesa (1980)
• Carlos the Jackal is captured (1994)
• The US Embassy in Cuba reopens after 54 years (2015)

Birthdays

• Richard von Krafft-Ebing, psychologist (1840)
• Doc Holliday, dentist and gambler (1851)
• John Galsworthy, author (1867)
• Francis Ford, filmmaker (1881)
• Alice Ghostley, actress (1923)
• Buddy Greco, singer and pianist (1926)
• Lina Wertmüller, filmmaker (1928)
• Earl Weaver, baseball player and manager (1930)
• Lee Hoffman, author (1932)
• David Crosby, singer-songwriter (1941)
• Steve Martin, comedian and filmmaker (1945)
• Susan Saint James, actress (1946)
• Maddy Prior, singer (1947)
• Danielle Steele, author (1947)
• Gary Larson, cartoonist (1950)
• Stanley McChrystal, US General (1954)
• Marcia Gay Harden, actress (1959)
• Magic Johnson, basketball player (1959)
• Halle Berry, model and actress (1966)
• Catherine Bell, actress (1968)
• Mila Kunis, actress (1983)
• Tim Tebow, football player (1987)

Deaths

• David Farragut, US admiral (1870)
• William Randolph Hearst, newspaper publisher (1951)
• Hugo Eckener, Graf Zeppelin captain (1954)
• Bertolt Brecht, playwright (1956)
• Frederick Joliot-Curie, physicist and Marie Curie’s son-in-law (1958)
• Clifford Odets, playwright and director (1963)
• Oscar Levant, actor, pianist, and composer (1972)
• Dorothy Stratten, model and actress (1980)
• J. B. Priestley, author (1984)
• Enzo Ferrari, car manufacturer (1988)
• John Sirica, Watergate judge (1992)
• Pee Wee Reese, baseball player (1999)
• Fyuvsh Finkel, actor (2016)

Holidays and Observances

• Anniversary Day (Tristan da Cunha)
• Commemoration of Wadi al-Dahab (Morocco)
• Engineer’s Day (Domincan Republic)
• Day of the Defenders of the Fatherland (Abkazia)
• Independence Day (Pakistan)
• Pramuka Day (Indonesia)
• Falklands Day

August 14 is the 226th day of the year (227th in leap years). There are 139 days remaining until the end of the year.