August 15

1635: The first recorded hurricane in America occurred at Plymouth Colony. 1852: Johan Gadolin, discoverer of the element yttrium (the Y in YIG), died. 1877: Thomas Edison coined the telephone greeting "Hello," instead of "Ahoy," suggested by Alexander Graham Bell. 1892: Louis de Broglie, known for his research on quantum theory and for his discovery of the wave nature of electrons, was born. 1914: The Panama Canal was opened to traffic as an American ship sailed from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean (the Chinese government now operates the canal). 1935: Wiley Post, who made the first round-the-world solo flight (15,596 miles)  in his Lockheed Vega 5B single-engine aircraft, died. 1945: Emperor Hirohito broadcast over the radio that Japan had accepted terms for unconditional surrender, ending World War II. 1948: The Republic of Korea was proclaimed - ROK Constitution. 1994: The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced it had cooled atoms to 700 nanokelvins, the coldest temperature ever recorded. 1997: The Dow Jones dropped 247.37 points. 2001: Astronomers announced the discovery of the first solar system outside our own. 2006: The Voyager 1 spacecraft reached the milestone of being 100 AU from the sun.