Happy Birthday August 15

Napoléon Bonaparte was born on August 15, 1769 in the palatial Maison Bonaparte on the River Saint Charles in the old part of Ajaccio on the west coast of Corsica.. His parents were of of minor Corsican nobility. Napoleon's mother was the dominant influence of his childhood. Her firm discipline helped restrain the rambunctious boy, nicknamed Rabullione (the "meddler" or "disrupter"). At the age of 9, Napoleon was admitted to a French military school at Brienne-le-Château.

Scottish novelist, playwright, and poet Walter Scott was born on August 15, 1771 in a third-floor flat on College Wynd in the Old Town of Edinburgh. Following a childhood bout of polio, Walter was sent in 1773 to live in the rural Scottish Borders at his paternal grandparents' farm at Sandyknowe, During his time at Sandyknowe, Walter was taught to read by his aunt Jenny, and learned from her the speech patterns and many of the tales and legends that characterized much of his work.

Founder of UK's Labour Party James Keir Hardie was born in Newhouse, Lanarkshire, Scotland on August 15, 1856. The illegitimate son of Mary Keir, a domestic servant, James grew up in desperate poverty. He started working as a coal miner at the age of ten. Hardie's bosses stopped him from working down the mine when he organised a union. Together with various trade unions and the Fabian Society he founded the Independent Labour Party in 1893 to represent the laboring classes in Parliament.

For more August 15 anniversaries, including the death of the Scottish king Macbeth, the oldest Roman Catholic cathedral in continuous use in the United States, and the invention of bubble gum, check out OnThatDay.