April 15
is the 105th day of the year in the
Gregorian calendar (106th in
leap years). There are 260 days remaining.
*
1450 -
Battle of Formigny: Toward the end of the
Hundred Years' War, the
French attack and nearly annihilate
English forces, ending
English domination in
northern France.
*
1632 -
Battle of Rain;
Swedes under
Gustavus Adolphus defeat the
Holy Roman Empire during the
Thirty Years' War.
*
1738 - Premiere in
London of
Serse, an
Italian opera by
George Frideric Handel.
*
1755 -
Samuel Johnson's
A Dictionary of the English Language published in
London.
*
1783 - Preliminary articles of peace ending
Revolutionary War ratified.
*
1802 -
William Wordsworth and his sister,
Dorothy come across a "long belt" of
daffodils, inspiring the former to pen
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.
*
1865 -
Abraham Lincoln dies after being shot the previous evening by
John Wilkes Booth.
* 1865 -
Andrew Johnson becomes the 17th
President of the United States.
*
1892 - The
General Electric Company is formed through the merger of the
Edison General Electric Company and the
Thomson-Houston Company.
*
1912 - The
British passenger liner
RMS Titanic sinks at about 2:20 a.m. after hitting an iceberg in the
North Atlantic almost three hours earlier.
*
1920 -
Anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti murder two security guards while robbing a shoe store.
*
1923 -
Insulin first became generally available for use by
diabetics.
*
1924 -
Rand McNally publishes its first
road atlas.
*
1927 -
Douglas Fairbanks,
Mary Pickford and
Norma and
Constance Talmadge become the first celebrities to leave their footprints in cement at
Grauman's Chinese Theater in
Hollywood.
*
1940 - The
Allies start their attack on the
Norwegian town of
Narvik which was occupied by
Nazi Germany.
*
1942 -
George Cross awarded to "to the island fortress of
Malta - its people and defenders" by
King George VI.
*
1943 - An
Allied bomber attack misses the
Minerva automobile factory and hits the
Belgian town of
Mortsel instead, leaving 936 dead civilians in its wake.
*
1945 - The
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp is liberated.
*
1947 -
Jackie Robinson debuts for the
Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team, breaking that sport's color line.
*
1955 - The first
McDonald's restaurant opens in
Des Plaines, Illinois.
*
1986 - The
United States launch
Operation El Dorado Canyon against
Libya.
*
1989 -
Hillsborough disaster: A human
stampede occurs at
Hillsborough Stadium, a football stadium in
Sheffield, resulting in the loss of 96 lives.
* 1989 - Upon
Hu Yaobang's death, the
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 begin in the
People's Republic of China.
*
1992 -
National Assembly of Vietnam adopts the 1992
Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
*
1994 - Representatives of 124 countries and the
European Communities sign the
Marrakesh Agreements revising the
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and setting up the
World Trade Organization (effective
January 1 1995).
*
1997 - Fire sweeps through a campsite of
Muslims making the
Hajj pilgrimage; the official death toll is 343.
*
2002 - An
Air China Boeing 767-200,
flight CA129 crashes into hillside during heavy rain and fog near
Pusan,
South Korea, killing 128.
*
1452 -
Leonardo da Vinci, Italian artist (d.
1519)
*
1489 -
Sinan, Ottoman architect (d.
1588)
*
1552 -
Pietro Cataldi, Italian mathematician (d.
1626)
*
1580 -
George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore, English colonizer
*
1588 -
Claudius Salmasius, French classical scholar (d.
1653)
*
1641 -
Robert Sibbald, Scottish physician (d.
1722)
*
1642 -
Suleiman II,
Ottoman Sultan (d.
1691)
*
1646 - King
Christian V of Denmark (d.
1699)
*
1651 -
Robert Sibbald, Scottish physician
*
1684 -
Catherine I of Russia (d.
1727)
*
1688 -
Johann Friedrich Fasch, German composer (d.
1758)
*
1707 -
Leonhard Euler, Swiss mathematician (d.
1783)
*
1710 -
William Cullen, Scottish physician (d.
1790)
*
1721 -
Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, English military leader (d.
1765)
*
1772 -
Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, French naturalist (d.
1844)
*
1793 -
Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve, German astronomer (d.
1864)
*
1794 -
Jean Pierre Flourens, French physiologist (d.
1867)
*
1800 -
James Clark Ross, English explorer (d.
1862)
*
1809 -
Hermann Grassmann, German mathematician (d.
1877)
*
1832 -
Wilhelm Busch, German poet (d.
1908)
*
1843 -
Henry James, American author (d.
1916)
*
1858 -
Émile Durkheim, French sociologist (d.
1917)
*
1861 -
Bliss Carman, Canadian poet (d.
1929)
*
1874 -
Johannes Stark, German physicist,
Nobel laureate (d.
1957)
*
1878 -
Robert Walser, Swiss writer (d.
1956)
*
1879 -
Melville Henry Cane, American lawyer (d.
1980)
*
1883 -
Stanley Bruce, eighth
Prime Minister of Australia (d.
1967)
*
1885 -
Tadeusz Kutrzeba, Polish general
*
1886 -
Nikolay Gumilyov, Russian poet (d.
1921)
*
1888 -
Maximilian Kronberger, German poet (d.
1904)
*
1889 -
Thomas Hart Benton, American muralist (d.
1975)
* 1889 -
A. Philip Randolph, American activist (d.
1979)
*
1892 -
Corrie ten Boom,
Holocaust survivor (d.
1983)
*
1894 -
Bessie Smith, American blues singer (d.
1937)
*
1895 -
Clark McConachy, New Zealand billiards player (d.
1980)
*
1896 -
Nikolay Nikolayevich Semyonov, Russian chemist,
Nobel laureate (d.
1986)
*
1901 -
Joe Davis, English snooker player (d.
1978)
*
1902 -
Fernando Pessa, Portuguese journalist (d.
2002)
*
1907 -
Nikolaas Tinbergen, Dutch ornithologist,
Nobel laureate (d.
1988)
*
1912 -
Kim Il Sung,
President of North Korea (d.
1994)
*
1916 -
Alfred S. Bloomingdale, American businessman (d.
1982)
*
1917 -
Hans Conried, American actor (d.
1982)
*
1920 -
Richard von Weizsäcker,
President of Germany*
1921 -
Georgi Beregovoi, Soviet cosmonaut (d.
1995)
*
1922 -
Michael Ansara, Syrian-American actor
* 1922 -
Harold Washington, American politician (d.
1987)
*
1924 - Sir
Neville Marriner, English conductor
*
1927 -
Robert Mills, American physicist (d.
1999)
*
1930 -
Vigdís Finnbogadóttir,
President of Iceland*
1933 -
Roy Clark, American musician
* 1933 -
Elizabeth Montgomery, American actress (d.
1995)
* 1933 -
Boris Strugatsky, Russian author
*
1936 -
Raymond Poulidor, French cyclist
*
1938 -
Hso Khan Pha, Burmese politician
*
1939 -
Claudia Cardinale, Tunisian-born actress
*
1940 -
Jeffrey Archer, British author
* 1940 -
Robert Walker Jr., American actor
* 1940 -
Willie Davis, American baseball player
*
1942 -
Francis X. DiLorenzo, American Catholic prelate
* 1942 -
Walt Hazzard, American baketball player
* 1942 -
Kenneth Lay, American businessman (d.
2006)
*
1944 -
Dzhokhar Dudaev, Chechen leader (d.
1996)
* 1944 -
Dave Edmunds, Welsh musician
*
1945 -
Frank DiLeo, American actor
*
1947 -
Lois Chiles, American actress
* 1947 -
Mike Chapman, British songwriter
*
1948 -
Michael Kamen, American composer (d.
2003)
*
1949 -
Tonio K, American singer
* 1949 -
Alla Pugacheva, Russian singer
*
1950 -
Amy Wright, American actress
*
1951 -
Heloise, American newspaper columnist
*
1954 -
Seka, American pornographic actress
*
1955 -
Dodi Al-Fayed, Egyptian businessman (d.
1997)
*
1957 -
Evelyn Ashford, American athlete
*
1958 -
Benjamin Zephaniah, British writer
*
1959 -
Emma Thompson, English actress
* 1959 -
Thomas F. Wilson, American actor
*
1960 -
Tony Jones (snooker), English snooker player
* 1960 -
Pedro Delgado, Spanish cyclist
*
1962 -
Nawal El Moutawakel, Morrocan hurdler
*
1963 -
Bobby Pepper, American journalist
*
1965 -
Linda Perry, American musician
*
1966 -
Samantha Fox, English singer
*
1967 -
Frankie Poullain, British musician (
The Darkness)
* 1967 -
Dara Torres, American swimmer
*
1968 -
Ed O'Brien, British musician (
Radiohead)
* 1968 -
Stacey Williams, American model
*
1969 -
Jeromy Burnitz, American baseball player
* 1969 -
Milton Bradley, American baseball player
*
1970 -
Flex Alexander, American actor
*
1972 -
Arturo Gatti, Canadian boxer
*
1974 -
Danny Pino, American actor
* 1974 -
Josh Todd, American musician (
Buckcherry)
*
1975 -
Paul Dana, American race car driver (d.
2006)
*
1977 -
Chandra Levy, American Congressional intern (d.
2001)
*
1978 -
Austin Aries, American wrestler
*
1980 -
Raúl López, Spanish basketball player
* 1980 -
Victor Núñez, Costa Rican footballer
* 1980 -
Fränk Schleck, Luxembourgish cyclist
*
1981 -
Andrés d'Alessandro, Argentine football player
* 1981 -
Seth Wulsin, American artist
*
1983 -
Ilya Kovalchuk, Russian hockey player
*
1986 -
Quincy Owusu-Abeyie, Dutch footballer
*
1990 -
Emma Watson, English actress
*
1992 -
Amy Diamond, Swedish singer
*
1053 -
Godwin, Earl of Wessex*
1220 -
Adolf of Altena, Archbishop of Cologne
*
1415 -
Manuel Chrysoloras, Greek humanist
*
1446 -
Filippo Brunelleschi, Italian architect (b.
1377)
*
1610 -
Robert Parsons, English Jesuit priest (b.
1546)
*
1621 -
John Carver, first governor of Plymouth Colony
*
1641 -
Domenico Zampieri, Italian painter (b.
1581)
*
1659 -
Simon Dach, German poet (b.
1605)
*
1704 -
Johann van Waveren Hudde, Dutch mathematician (b.
1628)
*
1719 -
Françoise d'Aubigné, marquise de Maintenon, second wife of
Louis XIV of France (b.
1635)
*
1754 -
Jacopo Riccati, Italian mathematician (b.
1676)
*
1761 -
Archibald Campbell, 3rd Duke of Argyll, Scottish politician (b.
1682)
* 1761 -
William Oldys, English antiquarian and bibliographer (b.
1696)
*
1764 -
Madame de Pompadour, mistress of King
Louis XIV of France (b.
1721)
*
1765 -
Mikhail Lomonosov, Russian scientist and writer (b.
1711)
*
1788 -
Giuseppe Bonno, Austrian composer (b.
1711)
*
1793 -
Ignacije Szentmartony, Croatian Jesuit missionary and geographer (b.
1718)
*
1804 -
Charles Pichegru, French general (strangled in prison) (b.
1761)
*
1854 -
Arthur Aikin, English chemist, mineralogist, and scientific writer (b.
1773)
*
1865 -
Abraham Lincoln,
16th President of the United States (b.
1809)
*
1868 -
Gaston Leroux, French writer (d.
1927)
*
1888 -
Matthew Arnold, English poet (b.
1822)
*
1888 -
Father Damien, Belgian missionary (b.
1840)
*
1898 -
Kepa Te Rangihiwinui, Maori military leader
*
1912 - Victims of the
RMS Titanic**
Edward Smith, Captain of the Titanic (b.
1850)
**
John Jacob Astor IV, American businessman (b.
1864)
**
Benjamin Guggenheim, American businessman (b.
1865)
*
1938 -
César Vallejo, Peruvian poet (b.
1892)
*
1942 -
Robert Musil, German novelist (b.
1880)
*
1943 -
Aristarkh Lentulov, Russian artist (d.
1882)
*
1948 -
Radola Gajda, Czech military commander and politician (d.
1892)
*
1949 -
Wallace Beery, American actor (b.
1885)
*
1962 -
Clara Blandick, American actress (b.
1881)
*
1969 -
Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg, Queen of Spain (b.
1887)
*
1970 -
Ripper Collins, baseball player (b.
1904)
*
1971 -
Dan Reeves - Owner of the
Cleveland/Los Angeles Rams (b.
1912)
*
1974 -
Giovanni D'Anzi, Italian songwriter (b.
1906)
*
1975 -
Richard Conte, American actor (b.
1910)
*
1980 -
Raymond Bailey, American actor (b.
1904)
* 1980 -
Jean-Paul Sartre, French philosopher and writer,
Nobel Prize laureate (declined) (b.
1905)
*
1982 -
Arthur Lowe, British actor (b.
1915)
*
1983 -
Corrie ten Boom, Dutch author and
Holocaust survivor (b.
1892)
*
1984 -
Tommy Cooper, Welsh comedy magician (b.
1921)
*
1986 -
Jean Genet, French author (b.
1910)
*
1988 -
Kenneth Williams, English actor and comedian (b.
1926)
*
1989 -
Nesuhi Ertegun, Co-founder of Atlantic Records (b.
1917)
* 1989 -
Hu Yaobang, leader of China (b.
1915)
*
1990 -
Greta Garbo, Swedish actress (b.
1905)
*
1993 -
John Tuzo Wilson, Canadian geologist (b.
1908)
* 1993 -
Leslie Charteris, Singapore-born author (b.
1907)
*
1994 -
John Curry, English figure skater (b.
1949)
*
1998 -
Pol Pot, Cambodian dictator (b.
1925)
*
2000 -
Edward Gorey, American illustrator (b.
1925)
*
2001 -
Joey Ramone, American musician and singer (
The Ramones) (b.
1951)
*
2002 -
Damon Knight, American author (b.
1922)
* 2002 -
Byron "Whizzer" White, American football player and U.S. Supreme Court Justice (b.
1917)
*
2003 -
Erin Fleming, Canadian actress (b.
1941)
*
2004 -
Ray Condo, Canadian rockabilly musician (b.
1950)
*In the
United States,
is the official deadline for filing
tax returns: all forms mailed to the
IRS must be
postmarked no later than this day, so many
post offices across the country stay open until midnight to accommodate procrastinators (or those who owe tax and want to wait as late as possible to pay). (If this day falls on the weekend, as in
2006, the following Monday becomes the deadline. Additionally in 2006,
Patriot's Day moved the tax deadline to Tuesday, April 18, for those in the seven states and the
District of Columbia which celebrate Patriot's Day.)
*Ancient
Latvia —
Tipsa Diena was observed.
*
Arirang Festival is held in
North Korea to commemorate
Kim Il-sung's birth.
*
Father Damien Day — celebrated annually in
Hawai'i.
*
Roman Empire — the
Fordicia was celebrated in honor of
Terra.
*
Major League Baseball celebrates "
Jackie Robinson Day" each April 15 in all
MLB ballparks.
*
Saint Petrus Gonzalez *
Saint Paternus*
Blessed Waltman of Antwerp*
Saint Basilissa*
Saint Hunna*
BBC: On This Day*
The New York Times: On This Day*
On This Day in CanadaApril 14 -
April 16 -
March 15 -
May 15 --
listing of all days
