In Washington, President Harry Truman announces Japan’s unconditional surrender, ending WWII. Weeks later, a surrender ceremony on the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay formally concludes 6 years of fighting in Europe and the Pacific.

2003. 50 million people lose power as a huge blackout hits the northeastern United States and parts of Canada. An Ohio-based utility later receives much of the blame for the outages, which highlight the condition of North America’s power grid.

1935. “Today a hope of many years' standing is in large part fulfilled.”

In Washington, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Social Security Act. The law provides retirement income to elderly Americans and other government benefits to this day.

1969. British troops arrive in Northern Ireland. They’re sent there to intervene amid a surge in sectarian violence between Protestants and Roman Catholics. But that violence continues to flare in the troubled province until a peace process emerges decades later.

1980. During the Cold War, workers begin a strike at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk, Poland. The job action leads to the Solidarity labor movement, the first in dependent union behind the Iron Curtain. Solidarity helps topple Communism in Poland by the end of the decade.

And 1945. “Excuse me.”

Steve Martin, actor, comedian, writer and producer is born in Waco, Texas. Today in History, August 14th. Camille Bohannon, the Associated Press.