Today in History - August 15: World War II comes to an end with a confusing radio message
For ordinary Japanese people, this was the first time they had heard Hirohito's voice - or indeed the voice of any emperor.
Because the message did not explicitly say so, a radio announcer later clarified that Japan had surrendered.
Patricia Palinkas became the first woman to play American football professionally in the ostensibly male-only league on August 15, 1970.
Palinkas played as a holder for the Orlando Panthers, a specialised position with one task - to catch the ball and hold it in place for the kicker.
In her first game the kicker (her husband) made three of five attempts.
But the other team did not take it easy on her.
Bridgeport Jets player Wally Florence said he "wanted to break her neck. She's out here making folly with a man's game."
Even after her husband hurt his leg and was not offered a contract, she was asked to stay with the team.
But she quit because of a salary dispute, being offered just $25 a game.
Inventor Thomas Edison suggested a little-used word as a new way of answering the phone on August 15, 1877.
Since the invention of the telephone a year earlier, users had been baffled as to what to say when they picked up.
At no point in history had most people needed to blindly make a greeting to someone they might know well, or might not know at all.
But the word caught on, and switchboard operators were soon colloquially referred to as "Hello girls".
It was in that context that the word "hello" first was published in literature, in a 1889 novel by Mark Twain.
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