Kangchenjunga, the world's third-highest mountain, towering to the north of Darjeeling

Darjeeling is a town in India's East­ern Hima­layas, situated close to the borders with Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan and China. In the mid-19th century, when much of India was under East India Company rule, Darjeeling was founded as a summer retreat. On the slopes below, tea plantations were laid out where Darjeeling tea is grown. Thousands of labourers from the surrounding regions built the town and worked in the tea plantations. Their descendants constitute the majority of Darjeeling's residents today and give the town a cosmopolitan ethnic mix. The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, ascending 2,100 metres (7,000 ft), is a World Heritage Site and a popular tourist experience. The local economy is largely dependent on tourism and tea growing. Population growth has made unregulated construction, traffic congestion and water shortages common. Deforestation has damaged the environment, including the springs that supply the town's water. (Full article...)

Wood type

• ... that wood type for printing (example pictured) was invented in China, first mass-produced in the United States, and later exported back to China for use by missionaries?
• ... that William Pinckney was only the second Black American to be awarded the Navy Cross, the highest decoration for valor in combat after the Medal of Honor?
• ... that the Franco-Greek defence agreement is the first intra-NATO defensive alliance?
• ... that Fateh Muhammad Panipati has been called the al-Jazari of contemporary times?
• ... that Harris Computer Systems specialized in making computers for real-time simulation?
• ... that LGBT rights activist Kit Malone helped create the first transgender organized marching group in the Indianapolis Pride Parade's history?
• ... that in a choral tour program titled Salmo!, Bach's 18th successor first conducted Salmo 150, an a cappella setting of Psalm 150 by the Brazilian composer Ernani Aguiar?
• ... that zoologist Herb Wong wrote the liner notes for more than 600 jazz albums, by his own count?

Salman Rushdie

• A church fire in Giza, Egypt, kills 41 people, including several children.
• Salman Rushdie (pictured), author of The Satanic Verses, is critically injured after a knife attack at a speech in the United States.
• A mass mortality event involving fish, beavers and other wildlife occurs in the Polish part of the river Oder, causing a health and environmental crisis for the human residents.
• A mass shooting after a family conflict in Cetinje, Montenegro, leaves 11 people dead and 6 others injured.

August 15: Independence Day in India (1947); National Liberation Day of Korea (1945)

Jawaharlal Nehru

• 718 – Forces of the Umayyad Caliphate abandoned their year-long siege of Constantinople, ending the Umayyad goal of conquering the Byzantine Empire.
• 1038 – Upon the death of his uncle Stephen I, Peter became the second king of Hungary.
• 1942 – World War II: The tanker SS Ohio reached Malta as part of an operation to deliver much-needed supplies during the siege of Malta.
• 1947 – Jawaharlal Nehru (pictured) took office as the first prime minister of India, a post he held for 18 years.
• 1998 – The Troubles: A car bomb attack carried out by the Real Irish Republican Army killed 29 people and injured approximately 220 others in Omagh, Northern Ireland.