July 15
is the 196th day (197th in
leap years) of the year in the
Gregorian Calendar, with 169 days remaining.
*
1099 -
First Crusade:
Christian soldiers take
Church of the Holy Sepulchre in
Jerusalem after a difficult siege.
*
1162 -
Ladislaus II of Hungary declared
King of Hungary.
*
1207 -
John of England expels
Canterbury monks for supporting
Archbishop of Canterbury Stephen Langton.
*
1240 - A
Novgorodian army led by
Alexander Nevsky defeats the
Swedes in the
Battle of the Neva.
*
1381 -
John Ball, a leader in the
Peasants' Revolt,
hanged, drawn and quartered in the presence of
Richard II of England.
*
1410 -
Battle of Grunwald, allied forces of the
Kingdom of Poland and the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania defeat the army of the
Teutonic Order.
*
1685 -
James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth is executed at
Tower Hill,
England after his defeat at the
Battle of Sedgemore on
6 July 1685.
*
1789 -
Gilbert du Motier, marquis de La Fayette, by acclamation, named
colonel-general of the new
National Guard of Paris.
*
1799 -
Rosetta Stone is found in the
Egyptian village of
Rosetta, by
French Captain Pierre-François Bouchard.
*
1806 -
Pike expedition: Near
St. Louis, Missouri,
United States Army Lieutenant Zebulon Pike begins an expedition from
Fort Belle Fountaine to explore the west.
*
1815 -
Napoléon Bonaparte surrenders from aboard
HMS Bellerophon.
*
1862 -
American Civil War:
Confederates break naval blockade of
Vicksburg, Mississippi.
*
1870 -
Post-American-Civil-War Reconstruction:
Georgia becomes the last of the former
Confederate states to be readmitted to the
Union.
*1870 -
Rupert's Land and the
North-Western Territory are transferred to
Canada from the
Hudson's Bay Company, and the province of
Manitoba and the
North-West Territories are established from these vast territories.
*
1895 -
Archie MacLaren scores
County Championship record
cricket innings of 424 for
Lancashire against
Somerset at
Taunton.
*
1916 - In
Seattle, Washington,
William Boeing and
George Conrad Westervelt incorporate
Pacific Aero Products (later renamed
Boeing).
*
1918 -
World War I:
Second Battle of the Marne - The battle begins near the
River Marne with a
German attack.
*
1926 -
BEST buses make its début in
Mumbai.
*
1927 -
Massacre of July 15, 1927: 89 protesters are killed by the
Austrian police in
Vienna.
*
1929 - First weekly radio broadcast of
Mormon Tabernacle Choir radio show,
Music and the Spoken Word.
*
1931 -
Kid Chocolate becomes
Cuba's first world
boxing champion.
*
1945 -
President Harry Truman disembarks the heavy cruiser the
USS Augusta (CA-31) in
Antwerp en route to
Potsdam for the
Potsdam Conference.
*
1953 -
John Reginald Christie,
British serial killer executed.
*
1954 - First flight of the
Boeing 707, the first
American jet passenger airliner.
*
1955 - Eighteen
Nobel laureates signed the
Mainau Declaration against
nuclear weapons, later co-signed by thirty-four others.
*
1957 - Full-scale production of the
Edsel automobile begins.
*
1958 - In
Lebanon, 5,000
United States Marines land in the capital
Beirut in order to provide military support to the pro-Western government there.
*
1974 - In
Nicosia,
Cyprus,
Greek-sponsored nationalists launch a
coup d'état, deposing
President Makarios and installing
Nikos Sampson as
Cypriot president.
*1974 -
Christine Chubbuck becomes the first person to commit suicide on-air.
*
1975 -
Apollo Soyuz Test Project:
Apollo and
Soyuz spacecraft take off for
U.S.-
Soviet link-up in space.
*
1979 -
U.S. President Jimmy Carter gives his famous "
malaise" speech, where he characterizes the greatest threat to the country as "this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation."
*
1994 -
Albert Belle of the
Cleveland Indians caught with a
corked bat.
*
1995 - First item sold on
Amazon.com*
1996 -
MSNBC cable-DBS channel launched.
*1996 - A
Belgian Air Force C-130 Hercules carrying the
Royal Netherlands Army marching band crashes on landing at
Eindhoven Airport.
*
1997 - In
Miami, Florida,
serial killer Andrew Phillip Cunanan guns down
Gianni Versace outside his home.
*
1999 -
Safeco Field opens in
Seattle, Washington.
*
2000 -
Alex Jones and
cameraman Mike Hanson successfully infiltrate the controversial
Bohemian Club and expose the
occultist rituals taking place there.
*
2002 - "
American Taliban"
John Walker Lindh pleads guilty to supplying aid to the enemy and for the possession of explosives during the commission of a
felony.
*2002 -
Anti-Terrorism Court of
Pakistan awarded death sentence to
British born
Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and life term to three other suspects in murdering
Wall Street Journal reporter
Daniel Pearl.
*
2003 -
AOL Time Warner disbands
Netscape Communications Corporation. The
Mozilla Foundation is established on the same day.
*2003 - the
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention removed its
SARS-related travel advisory for
Taiwan, the last area to have such a travel alert.
*
2004 -
Monorail service begins in
Las Vegas.
*2004 - The
BBC airs the documentary
The Secret Agent, exposing racism by members of the
British National Party.
*
2005 -
Jack Nicklaus plays his last hole of competitive golf during
The Open Championship at
Hole 18 at
St Andrews, finishing with a birdie.
*2005 -
Disneyland "re-launches"
Space Mountain in
Anaheim,
California.
*
2006 -
Mogadishu Int'l Airport in
Somalia's capital of
Mogadishu, re-opens after an eleven-year closure, mainly due to the
Somali civil war.
*
2006 -
2006 Israel-Lebanon-Hezbollah conflict:
Israeli Air Force strikes on
Lebanon kill 18 people, including 9 children.
*
1353 -
Vladimir the Bold, Russian prince (d.
1410)
*
1471 -
Eskender,
Emperor of Ethiopia (d.
1494)
*
1553 -
Archduke Ernest of Austria (d.
1595)
*
1573 -
Inigo Jones, English architect (d.
1652)
*
1606 -
Rembrandt, Dutch artist (d.
1669)
*
1631 -
Jens Juel, Danish diplomat (d.
1700)
*
1704 -
August Gottlieb Spangenberg, German religious leader (d.
1792)
*
1779 -
Clement Clarke Moore, American educator, author, and poet (d.
1863)
*
1796 -
Thomas Bulfinch, American mythologist (d.
1867)
*
1808 -
Henry Edward Cardinal Manning, English Catholic archbishop (d.
1892)
*
1812 -
James Hope-Scott, English barrister (d.
1873)
*
1848 -
Vilfredo Pareto, Italian economist and sociologist (d.
1923)
*
1850 -
Mother Cabrini, Italian-born Catholic saint (d.
1917)
*
1870 -
Vladimir Dmitrievich Nabokov, Russian publisher and politician (d.
1922)
*
1871 -
Kunikida Doppo, Japanese writer (d.
1908)
*
1892 -
Walter Benjamin, German literary critic and writer (d.
1940)
*
1894 -
Tadeusz Sendzimir, a Polish-American engineer and inventor (d.
1989)
*
1899 -
Sean F. Lemass, Irish leader (d.
1971)
*
1902 -
Jean Rey, Belgian politician and
President of the European Commission {d.
1983)
*
1911 -
Edward Shackleton, English explorer (d.
1994)
*
1914 -
Hammond Innes, English writer (d.
1998)
* 1914 -
Howard Vernon, Swiss actor (d.
1996)
*
1918 -
Bertram N. Brockhouse, Canadian physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
2003)
*
1919 -
Iris Murdoch, Irish writer (d.
1999)
*
1921 -
Robert Bruce Merrifield, American chemist,
Nobel Prize laureate
*
1922 -
Leon M. Lederman, American physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate
*
1923 -
Philip Carey, American actor
*
1926 -
Driss Chraïbi, Moroccan author
* 1926 -
Leopoldo Galtieri, Argentine dictator (d.
2003)
*
1928 -
Carl Woese, American microbiologist
*
1930 -
Jacques Derrida, French philosopher (d.
2004)
* 1930 -
Stephen Smale, American mathematician
*
1931 -
Clive Cussler, American author
*
1933 -
Julian Bream, English guitarist and lutenist
* 1933 -
Guido Crepax, Italian comics artist (d.
2003)
*
1934 -
Harrison Birtwistle, English composer
* 1934 -
Risto Jarva, Finnish filmmaker (d.
1977)
*
1935 -
Donn Clendenon, baseball player (d.
2005)
*
1942 -
Mil Mascaras, Mexican professional wrestler
*
1943 -
Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Irish astrophysicist
*
1944 -
Millie Jackson, American singer
* 1944 -
Jan-Michael Vincent, American actor
*
1945 -
Jürgen Möllemann, German politician (d.
2003)
*
1946 -
Linda Ronstadt, American singer
* 1946 -
Hassanal Bolkiah,
Sultan of Brunei*
1947 -
Peter Banks, British guitarist (
Yes)
*
1948 -
Alicia Bridges, American singer
*
1949 -
Carl Bildt, Swedish politician
*
1949 -
Trevor Horn, British music producer, bassist and vocalist (
Buggles,
Art of Noise,
Yes)
*
1950 -
Arianna Huffington, Greek-born newspaper columnist
*
1951 -
Jesse Ventura, professional wrestler and former Governor of Minnesota
*
1952 -
Johnny Thunders, American guitarist and singer (
The New York Dolls,
Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers) (d.
1991)
* 1952 -
Terry O'Quinn, American actor
*
1953 -
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Former
President of Haiti* 1953 -
John Denham, British politician
*
1954 -
Mario Kempes, Argentine football player
*
1956 -
Ian Curtis, British musician, singer, and lyricist (
Joy Division) (d.
1980)
* 1956 -
Barry Melrose, Canadian hockey player, coach, and commentator
* 1956 -
Marky Ramone, American musician (
The Ramones)
* 1956 -
Joe Satriani, American guitarist
*
1958 -
Mac Thornberry, American politician
*
1959 -
Vincent Lindon, French actor
*
1960 -
Kim Alexis, American supermodel and actress
*
1961 -
Scott Ritter, UN weapons inspector in Iraq
* 1961 -
Forest Whitaker, American actor
* 1961 -
Lolita Davidovich, Canadian-born actress
*
1963 -
Steve Thomas, Canadian
ice hockey player
*
1966 -
Irène Jacob, French-born Swiss actress
*
1967 -
Adam Savage, American actor
*
1968 -
Eddie Griffin, American comedian
* 1968 -
Stan Kirsch, American actor
*
1970 -
Chi Cheng, American musician
*
1971 -
Danijela, Croatian singer
*
1972 -
Beth Ostrosky, American model
*
1973 -
John Dolmayan, Lebanese-born drummer (
System of a Down)
* 1973 -
Brian Austin Green, American actor
*
1977 -
Ray Toro, American musician (
My Chemical Romance)
*
1980 -
Jonathan Cheechoo, professional ice hockey player
*
1992 -
Koharu Kusumi, Japanese singer (
Morning Musume)
*
518 -
Roman Emperor Anastasius I*
1085 -
Robert Guiscard, French adventurer
*
1262 -
Richard de Clare, 6th Earl of Hertford, English soldier (b.
1222)
*
1274 -
Bonaventure, Italian theologian and saint (b.
1221)
*
1291 -
Rudolph I of Germany,
Holy Roman Emperor (b.
1218)
*
1381 -
John Ball, English priest
*
1406 - Duke
William of Austria*
1410 -
Ulrich von Jungingen, German Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights (killed in battle) (b.
1360)
*
1544 -
René of Châlon, Prince of the House of Orange (b.
1519)
*
1571 -
Shimazu Takahisa, Japanese samurai and warlord (b.
1514)
*
1609 -
Annibale Carracci, Italian painter (b.
1560)
*
1614 -
Pierre de Bourdeille, seigneur de Brantôme, French historian and biographer
*
1655 -
Girolamo Rainaldi, Italian architect (b.
1570)
*
1685 -
James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, illegitimate son of
Charles II of England (b.
1649)
*
1750 -
Vasily Tatishchev, Russian statesman (b.
1686)
*
1765 -
Charles-André van Loo, French painter (b.
1705)
*
1767 -
Michael Bruce, Scottish poet (b.
1746)
*
1782 -
Farinelli, Italian castrato (b.
1705)
*
1789 -
Jacques Duphly, French composer (b.
1715)
*
1828 -
Jean Antoine Houdon, French sculptor (b.
1741)
*
1839 -
Winthrop Mackworth Praed, English poet (b.
1802)
*
1844 -
Claude Charles Fauriel, French historian (b.
1772)
*
1857 -
Carl Czerny, Austrian composer (b.
1791)
*
1890 -
Gottfried Keller, Swiss writer (b.
1819)
*
1898 -
Jean Baptiste Salpointe, second
Archbishop of Santa Fe (d.
1825)
*
1904 -
Anton Chekhov, Russian writer (b.
1860)
*
1919 -
Hermann Emil Fischer, German chemist,
Nobel Prize laureate (b.
1852)
*
1929 -
Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Austrian writer (b.
1874)
*
1930 -
Leopold Auer, Hungarian violinist and composer (b.
1845)
*
1931 -
Ladislaus Bortkiewicz, Russian economist (b.
1868)
*
1933 -
Irving Babbitt, American literary critic (b.
1865)
* 1933 -
Freddie Keppard, American musician (b.
1890)
*
1940 -
Robert Wadlow, American--at 8 ft. 11.5 in, the tallest human ever known (b.
1918)
*
1946 -
Razor Smith, English cricketer (b.
1877)
*
1947 -
Walter Donaldson, American songwriter (b.
1893)
*
1948 -
John J. Pershing, U.S. general (b.
1860)
*
1957 -
James M. Cox, American politician (b.
1870)
*
1959 -
Ernest Bloch, Swiss composer (b.
1880)
*
1960 -
Lawrence Tibbett, American actor (b.
1896)
* 1960 -
Set Persson, Swedish communist politician (b.
1897)
*
1961 -
John E. Brownlee, Canadian politician (b.
1884)
*
1965 -
Francis Cherry, American politician (b.
1908)
*
1986 -
Billy Haughton, American harness driver and trainer (b.
1923)
*
1991 -
Bert Convy, American actor (b.
1933)
*
1992 -
Hammer DeRoburt, first
President of Nauru (b.
1922)
*
1996 -
Dana Hill, American actress (b.
1964)
*
1997 -
Gianni Versace, Italian fashion designer (b.
1946)
*
2003 -
Roberto Bolaño, Chilean writer (b.
1953)
* 2003 -
Tex Schramm, American football team president and general manager (b.
1920)
*
2006 -
Robert H. Brooks, founder of
Hooters of America (b.
1937)
*
Saint Donald's feast day.
*
Botswana -
President's Day.
*
Brunei - Birthday of the
Sultan and
Yang Di-Pertuan of
Brunei Darussalam.
*
Palermo,
Sicily - Festival of
Santa Rosalia.
*
Japan - Third day of
Obon feast period.
*
Saint Swithun's feast day (
Anglican Church).
*
Saint Vladimir the Great's day (
Eastern Orthodox;
Roman Catholic).
*
Confuflux (
Discordianism).
*
Brazil -
International Men's Day.
*
BBC: On This Day*
Epic Idiot: On This DayJuly 14 -
July 16 -
June 15 -
August 15 --
listing of all days
