On August 15, 1969, the Woodstock music festival opened on
a patch of farmland in White Lake, a hamlet in the upstate New
York town of Bethel.

Promoters John Roberts, Joel Rosenman, Artie Kornfield and
Michael Lang originally envisioned the festival as a way to raise
funds to build a recording studio and rock-and-roll retreat near
the town of Woodstock, New York.

Despite their relative inexperience, the promoters managed to
sign a roster of top acts, including the Jefferson Airplane, the
Who, the Grateful Dead, Sly and the Family Stone, Janis Joplin,
Jimi Hendrix, Creedence Clearwater Revival and many more.

Apocalypse Now, the acclaimed Vietnam War film directed by
Francis Ford Coppola, opened in theaters around the United
States on August 15, 1979.

The film, inspired in part by Joseph Conrad’s 1899 novella
Heart of Darkness, among other sources, told the story of an
Army captain (played by Martin Sheen) and crew of men who
are sent into the Cambodian jungle to kill a U.S. Special Forces
colonel (Marlon Brando) who has gone AWOL and is thought to
be crazy.

Apocalypse Now, which co-starred Robert Duvall and Dennis
Hopper, became notorious for its long, difficult production,
which included budget problems, shooting delays due to bad
weather on the Philippines set, a heart attack for Sheen and
a nervous breakdown for Coppola.

Despite the production hurdles, the film became a commercial
success and won two Academy Awards (Best Cinematography
and Best Sound); it received six other Oscar nominations,
including Best Director, Best Picture and Best Supporting
Actor (Duvall).

Japan’s unconditional surrender to the Allies was made
public on V-J Day, or Victory over Japan Day, in an
official announcement on August 14, 1945. (Because
of time zone differences, it was August 15 in Japan.)

Japan formally surrendered in writing two weeks later,
on September 2.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law the Social
Security Act on August 14, 1935.

FDR commended Congress for what he considered to be
a “patriotic” act.

Roosevelt had taken the helm of the country in 1932 in the
midst of the Great Depression, the nation’s worst economic
crisis.

The Social Security Act (SSA) was in keeping with his other
“New Deal” programs, including the establishment of the
Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation
Corps, which attempted to hoist America out of the Great
Depression by putting Americans back to work.

Although it was initially created to combat unemployment,
Social Security now functions primarily as a powerful safety
net for retirees and the disabled, and provides death benefits
to taxpayer dependents.

The Social Security system has remained popular and relatively unchanged since 1935.

Shortly after midnight on August 13, 1961, East German soldiers
began laying down barbed wire and bricks as a barrier between
Soviet-controlled East Berlin and the democratic western section
of the city.

After World War II, defeated Germany was divided into Soviet,
American, British and French zones of occupation.

   
Berlin Wall memorial at Bernauer Strasse, Berlin, Germany.