Japan announced its surrender following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Soviet declaration of war against Japan, ending World War II — the deadliest conflict in human history.

India became independent from British rule at midnight on August 15, with Jawaharlal Nehru's famous 'Tryst with Destiny' speech. The British Empire's jewel became the world's largest democracy.

The Woodstock Music and Art Fair opened on a dairy farm in Bethel, New York, with an estimated 400,000 people attending over four days. It became the defining cultural event of the 1960s counterculture movement.