Stephen I (c. 975 – 15 August 1038) was the last Grand Prince of the Hungarians and the first King of Hungary (from 1000 or 1001 until his death). The first member of his family to become a devout Christian, he married Gisela of Bavaria, a scion of the imperial Ottonian dynasty. After succeeding his father in 997, Stephen had to defend the throne, with aid from foreign knights, against his relative Koppány. In a series of wars against semi-independent tribes and chieftains—including the Black Hungarians and his uncle, Gyula the Younger—Stephen unified the Carpathian Basin. He established at least one archbishopric, six bishoprics and three Benedictine monasteries, all independent of the archbishops of the Holy Roman Empire. Hungary enjoyed lasting peace during his reign, and became a preferred route for pilgrims and merchants traveling between Western Europe and the Holy Land or Constantinople. Stephen was canonized by Pope Gregory VII in 1083. In Hungary, his feast day (celebrated on 20 August) is a public holiday commemorating the foundation of the state. (Full article...)

Damage to the painting in 1913

• ... that the painting Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan has been attacked and damaged twice (damage pictured)?
• ... that Chopin's Piano Sonata No. 2 contains as its third movement a Marche funèbre, which was composed earlier than the other music?
• ... that ethnic Croat journalist Štefica Galić has been called the "Schindler of Ljubuški" for helping save an estimated two-thirds of the town's Bosniaks during the Croat–Bosniak War?
• ... that Indian Railways runs loss-making trains on the Patna–Digha Ghat line to prevent encroachment?
• ... that South Dakota architect Harold Spitznagel designed the original Mount Rushmore visitor center with Cecil Doty as part of Mission 66, providing a setting for Alfred Hitchcock's 1959 film North by Northwest?
• ... that Charles Darwin made descriptive notes on the Brazilian sandperch after a specimen was caught with hook and line off the coast of Patagonia during the voyage of Beagle?
• ... that as CEO of Denver Health, Dr. Patricia A. Gabow streamlined operations, improved patient care, and cut excessive spending using a system based on the Toyota Production System?
• ... that members of the Djajadiningrat family fought on both sides of the Indonesian Revolution?

Artist's impression of the Parker Solar Probe

• A portion of the Ponte Morandi motorway bridge in Genoa, Italy, collapses, killing at least 39 people.
• NASA's Parker Solar Probe (artist's impression pictured) is launched to study the Sun's outer corona.
• In the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen, Saudi armed forces bomb a school bus in Dahyan, killing at least 50 people, including 29 children.
• Amado Boudou, former vice president of Argentina, is sentenced to almost six years in prison for corruption.

August 15: Independence Day in India (1947)

Afonso de Albuquerque

• 718 – Forces of the Umayyad Caliphate abandoned their year-long siege of Constantinople, causing the caliphate to give up its goal of conquering the Byzantine Empire.
• 1511 – Afonso de Albuquerque (pictured) captured the city of Malacca, giving Portugal control over the Strait of Malacca, through which all sea-going trade between China and India was concentrated.
• 1907 – Raphael Morgan was ordained as what is believed to be the first Black Orthodox clergyman in America.
• 1948 – The Republic of Korea was established with Syngman Rhee as its first president.
• 1998 – A car bomb attack carried out by the Real Irish Republican Army killed 29 people and injured approximately 220 others in Omagh, Northern Ireland.

Nikephoros Phokas Barytrachelos (d. 1022) · Charles Comiskey (b. 1859) · Rosalía Mera (d. 2013)