On Aug. 14, 1848, the U.S. designated land the Oregon Territory.
In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs into law the Social Security Act, which guaranteed an income for the unemployed and retirees.
In 1945, President Harry S. Truman announced Imperial Japan had surrendered, ending the war.
In 1961, unhappy with drummer Pete Best’s role in The Beatles Brian Epstein and the other three members decided to sack him. Best played his last gig the following night at The Cavern, Liverpool. Ringo Starr received a telephone call from John Lennon, asking him to join The Beatles. On August 18, appeared as a member of The Beatles for the first time.
In 1973, U.S. bombing of Cambodia came to a halt.
In 2003, a major outage knocked out power across the eastern United States and parts of Canada. Beginning at 4:10 p.m. EST, 21 power plants shut down in just three minutes. Fifty million people were affected, including residents of New York, Cleveland and Detroit, as well as Toronto and Ottawa, Canada.
In 2015, the American flag rose over the newly reopened U.S. Embassy in Cuba after a half century of often-hostile relations.