The surrender of Japan on September 2, 1945, brought the hostilities of World War II to a close. Together with the British Empire and China, the United States called for the unconditional surrender of the Japanese armed forces in the Potsdam Declaration on July 26, 1945. Japan's leaders privately made entreaties to the publicly neutral Soviet Union to mediate more favorable peace terms. On August 6, the United States detonated an atomic bomb over Hiroshima. On August 8, the Soviet Union invaded the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo. Hours later, the United States dropped a second atomic bomb, on Nagasaki. Emperor Hirohito intervened and ordered that the Allies' terms for ending the war be accepted. Hirohito gave a recorded radio address transmitted across the Empire on August 15, announcing the surrender of Japan. The surrender ceremony was held aboard the battleship USS Missouri, at which officials from the Japanese government signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender (pictured).

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrender_of_Japan

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1461:

Byzantine–Ottoman wars: The Empire of Trebizond, the longest- surviving Byzantine successor state, was conquered by Ottoman forces following a month-long siege. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Trebizond_%281461%29

1914:

On the day of his dismissal, an employee at Taliesin, Frank Lloyd Wright's estate, killed seven people with a hatchet and set the house on fire. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taliesin_%28studio%29

1975:

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh's founding leader, was assassinated with most of his family in a military coup. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/15_August_1975_Bangladesh_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat

2005:

The Helsinki Agreement between the Free Aceh Movement and the Government of Indonesia was signed, ending more than 28 years of fighting. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insurgency_in_Aceh

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

neroli: More fully neroli oil or oil of neroli: an essential oil distilled from the blossoms of the bitter orange or Seville orange (Citrus × aurantium subsp. amara) used to make perfumes. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/neroli

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

What are we? What is the future? What is the past? What magic fluid envelops us and hides from us the things it is most important for us to know? We are born, we live, and we die in the midst of the marvelous.   --Napoleon I of France https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Napoleon_I_of_France