1915

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1915 by topic
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Categories: Births – Deaths – Works – Introductions – Establishments – Disestablishments – Awards

1915 (MCMXV) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday^[1] of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar).

Contents Events of 1915 Jan. · Feb. · March · April · May · June · July · Aug. · Sept. · Oct. · Nov. · Dec. · Undated · Ongoing Births Deaths Nobel Prizes See also · Notes · External links

Events of 1915

January-February

• January – While working as a cook at New York's Sloan Hospital under an assumed name, Typhoid Mary infects 25 people, and is placed in quarantine for life.
• January 1 – World War I: The battleship HMS Formidable is sunk off Lyme Regis, Dorset, England, by a German U-Boat.
• January 12
  • The Rocky Mountain National Park is established by an act of the U.S. Congress.
  • The United States House of Representatives rejects a proposal to give women the right to vote.
• January 13 – An earthquake (6.8 in Richter scale) in Avezzano, Italy, kills more than 29,000.
• January 18 – Twenty-One Demands from Japan to China are made.
• January 19
  • Georges Claude patents the neon discharge tube for use in advertising.
  • German zeppelins bomb the cities of Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn in the United Kingdom for the first time, killing more than 20.
• January 21 – Kiwanis International is founded in Detroit, Michigan.
• January 28 – An act of the U.S. Congress designates the United States Coast Guard, begun in 1790, as a military branch.
• January 31 – World War I: Germany uses poison gas against the Russians.

• February 8 – The controversial film, The Birth of a Nation, directed by D.W. Griffith, premieres in Los Angeles, California.
• February 12 – In Washington, D.C. the first stone of the Lincoln Memorial is put into place.
• February 20 – In San Francisco, CA the Panama-Pacific International Exposition is opened.

March-April

• March – The 1915 locust plague breaks out in Palestine; it continues until October.
• March 3 – NACA, the predecessor of NASA, is founded.
• March 14
  • World War I: Off the coast of Chile, the Royal Navy force SMS Dresden to scuttle.
  • Britain, France and Russia agree to give Constantinople and the Bosporus to Russia in case of victory (the treaty is later nullified by the Bolshevik Revolution).
• March 18 – World War I: A British attack on the Dardanelles fails.
• March 19 – Pluto is photographed for the first time but is not then classified as a planet.
• March 25 – The U.S. submarine F-4 sinks off Hawaii; 21 are killed.
• March 28 – The first Roman Catholic Liturgy is celebrated by Archbishop John Ireland at the newly consecrated Cathedral of Saint Paul in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

• April 24 – The murder of 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks; the Armenian Genocide, started. Lasted until approximately 1918.
• April 25 – World War I: Start of the Gallipoli Campaign. Lasted until January 1916.

May-June

• May 3 – John McCrae writes In Flanders Fields.
• May 5 – World War I: The Turks begin shelling Anzac Cove from a new position behind their lines.
• May 6 – Babe Ruth hits his first career home run off of Jack Warhop.
• May 7 – World War I: The RMS Lusitania is sunk by a German U-boat, killing 1,198.
• May 9 – World War I – Second Battle of Artois: German and French forces fight to a standstill.
• May 17 – The last purely Liberal government in the United Kingdom ends when Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith forms an all party coalition.
• May 22 – The Quintinshill railway disaster in Scotland leaves more than 200 dead.
• May 23 – World War I: Italy joins the Allies after they declare war on Austria-Hungary.
• May 25 – China agrees to Twenty-One Demands.
• May 29 – Teófilo Braga becomes president of Portugal.
• June 3 – Mexican Revolution: Troops of Obregon and Villa clash at León: Obregon loses his right arm in grenade attack but Villa is decisively defeated.
• June 9 – U.S. Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan resigns over a disagreement regarding his nation's handling of the RMS Lusitania sinking.
• June 16 – The British Women's Institute is founded.

July-August

• July 7 – An extremely overloaded International Railway (New York – Ontario) trolley with 157 passengers crashes near Queenston, Ontario, resulting in 15 casualties.
• July 24 – The steamer Eastland capsizes in central Chicago, with the loss of 844 lives.
• July 28 – The United States occupation of Haiti begins.
• August 5–August 23 – Hurricane Two of the 1915 Atlantic hurricane season over Galveston and New Orleans leaves 275 dead.
• August 6 – World War I – Battle of Sari Bair: The Allies mount a diversionary attack timed to coincide with a major Allied landing of reinforcements at Suvla Bay.
• August 16 – The Entente promises the Kingdom of Serbia, should victory be achieved over Austro-Hungary and its allied Central Powers, the territories of Baranja, Srem and Slavonia from the Cisleithanian part of the Dual Monarchy; Bosnia and Herzegovina; and eastern Dalmatia (from the river of Krka to Bar).
• August 17 – Jewish American Leo Frank is lynched for the alleged murder of a 13-year-old girl in Atlanta, Georgia.
• August 31 – Jimmy Lavender of the Chicago Cubs pitches a no hitter against the New York Giants.

September-October

• September 6 – The first prototype tank is tested for the British Army for the first time.
• September 7 – Former cartoonist John B. Gruelle is given a patent for his Raggedy Ann doll.
• September 8 – A Zeppelin raid destroys No.61Farringdon Road, London. It was rebuilt in 1917 and called The Zeppelin Building.
• September 11 – The Pennsylvania Railroad begins electrified commuter rail service between Paoli and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, using overhead AC trolley wires for power. This type of system is later used in long-distance passenger trains between New York City, Washington, D.C., and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
• October 12 – World War I: British nurse Edith Cavell is executed by a German firing squad for helping Allied soldiers escape from Belgium.
• October 15 – World War I: Austria-Hungary invades the Kingdom of Serbia. Kingdom of Bulgaria enters the war, invading Kingdom of Serbia. The retreat of the Serbian First Army towards Greece begins the Serbian Campaign (World War I).
• October 19 – Mexican Revolution: The U.S. recognizes the Mexican government of Venustiano Carranza de facto (not de jure until 1917).
• October 27 – William Morris Hughes becomes the 7th Prime Minister of Australia.

November-December

• November – Sykes-Picot Agreement: The governments of Britain and France secretly agree to overtake the Middle-Eastern regions of the Ottoman Empire (mostly Syria and Iraq), and establish their own zones of influence.
• November 14 – A vision is allegedly encountered by various military personnel in Europe at 22:30 hours (as recounted on the television series One Step Beyond).
• November 18 – Release of the U.S. silent film Inspiration, the first mainstream movie in which a leading actress (Audrey Munson) appears nude.
• November 23 – The Triangle Film Corporation opens its new motion picture theater in Massillon, Ohio.
• November 25 – The theory of general relativity is formulated.
• December 12 – Chinese president Yuan Shikai declares himself Emperor.
• December 23 – The HMHS Britannic, the largest individual British loss in World War I, departs Liverpool on her maiden voyage.
• December 25 – In World War I, British and German forces declare a Christmas truce, get out of the trenches and have a free-for-all kick-around football game in no-man's land.
• December 26 – The Irish Republican Brotherhood Military Council decides to stage a rising on Easter Sunday 1916.

Undated

• Alfred Wegener proposes the theory of Pangaea.
• Emory College is rechartered as Emory University, and plans to move its main campus from Oxford, Georgia to Atlanta.
• Lord Beaverbrook buys the Daily Express.
• The first stop sign appears in Detroit, Michigan.
• Women's suffrage is introduced in Denmark and Iceland.
• Franz Kafka's short novel Die Verwandlung is first published in Germany.

Ongoing

• World War I (1914–1918).

Births

1915 in other calendars

Gregorian calendar	1915 MCMXV
Ab urbe condita	2668
Armenian calendar	1364 ԹՎ ՌՅԿԴ
Bahá'í calendar	71 – 72
Bengali calendar	1322
Berber calendar	2865
Buddhist calendar	2459
Burmese calendar	1277
Byzantine calendar	7423 – 7424
Chinese calendar	甲寅年十一月十六日 (4551/4611-11-16) — to — 乙卯年十一月廿五日 (4552/4612-11-25)
Coptic calendar	1631 – 1632
Ethiopian calendar	1907 – 1908
Hebrew calendar	5675 – 5676
Hindu calendars
- Bikram Samwat	1971 – 1972
- Shaka Samvat	1837 – 1838
- Kali Yuga	5016 – 5017
Holocene calendar	11915
Iranian calendar	1293 – 1294
Islamic calendar	1333 – 1334
Japanese calendar	Taishō 4 (大正4年)
Korean calendar	4248
Thai solar calendar	2458

January–February

• January 2 – John Hope Franklin, American historian (d. 2009)
• January 3
  • Sid Hudson, American baseball player (d. 2008)
  • Mady Rahl, German stage and film actress (d. 2009)
• January 5 – Arthur H. Robinson, American geographer and cartographer (d. 2004)
• January 6 – Don Edwards, American politician
• January 9 – Anita Louise, American actress (d. 1970)
• January 11 – Robert Blair Mayne, British soldier and co-founder of the Special Air Service (d. 1955)
• January 14 – Mark Goodson, American television game show producer (d. 1992)
• January 15 – Leo Mol, Ukrainian Canadian artist and sculptor (d. 2009)
• January 16 – Leslie H. Martinson, American television and film director
• January 18 – Santiago Carrillo, Spanish politician
• January 20 – Ghulam Ishaq Khan, President of Pakistan (d. 2006)
• January 23 – Arthur Lewis, British economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1991)
• January 24 – Robert Motherwell, American painter (d. 1991)
• January 28 – Nien Cheng, Chinese-born American writer (d. 2009)
• January 29 – John Serry, Sr., American musician, composer, arranger (d. 2003)
• January 30
  • Joachim Peiper, German S.S. officer (d. 1976)
  • John Profumo, British cabinet minister (d. 2006)
• January 31
  • Alan Lomax, American folklorist and musicologist (d. 2002)
  • Thomas Merton, American monk and author (d. 1968)
• February 1
  • Artur London, Czech statesman (d. 1986)
  • Sir Stanley Matthews, English footballer (d. 2000)
  • Alicia Rhett, American actress and painter
• February 2 – Khushwant Singh, Indian writer
• February 4 – Sir Norman Wisdom, English comedian, singer, and actor
• February 5 – Robert Hofstadter, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1990)
• February 7 – Teoctist Arăpaşu, Ex-Romanian Orthodox Church Patriarch (d. 2007)
• February 10 – Karl Winsch, American professional baseball player and manager (d. 2001)
• February 11 – Patrick Leigh Fermor, British author and soldier
• February 14 – Ray Evans, American composer (d. 2007)
• February 16
  • Jim O'Hora, American college football coach (d. 2005)
  • Elisabeth Eybers, South African poet (d. 2007)
• February 19 – John Freeman, British politician
• February 23 – Paul Tibbets, American World War II bomber pilot (Enola Gay) (d. 2007)
• February 26 – Preacher Roe, American baseball player (d. 2008)
• February 28
  • Zero Mostel, American film and stage actor (A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum) (d. 1977)
  • Peter Medawar, Brazilian-born scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1987)

March–April

• March 4 – Carlos Surinach, Spanish composer (d. 1997)
• March 6 – Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin, Leader of the Dawoodi Bohra Community
• March 9 – John Edgar "Johnnie" Johnson, English pilot (d. 2001)
• March 10 – Harry Bertoia, Italian artist and designer (d. 1978)
• March 11 – Vijay Hazare, Indian cricketer (d. 2004)
• March 14 – Alexander Brott, Canadian conductor and composer (d. 2005)
• March 17 – Bill Roycroft, Australian equestrian
• March 19 – Patricia Morison, American actress
• March 20
  • Rudolf Kirchschlaeger, Austrian politician (d. 2000)
  • Sviatoslav Richter, Ukrainian pianist (d. 1997)
• March 23 – Vasily Zaitsev, Soviet sniper (d. 1991)
• March 27 – Robert Lockwood Jr., American musician (d. 2006)
• March 30
  • Arsenio Erico, Paraguayan footballer (d. 1977)
  • Pietro Ingrao, Italian politician
• March 31 – Albert Hourani, English historian (d. 1993)
• April 3 – Piet de Jong, Dutch politician, Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 1967 until 1971
• April 4 – Muddy Waters, African-American musician (d. 1983)
• April 7
  • Albert O. Hirschman, German-born economist
  • Billie Holiday, African-American singer (d. 1959)
• April 8 – Ivan Supek, Croatian physicist, author, and human rights activist (d. 2007)
• April 10 – Harry Morgan, American actor (Dragnet)
• April 12 – Július Tomin, Czech writer (d. 2003)
• April 15 – Elizabeth Catlett, American-born artist
• April 21 – Anthony Quinn, Mexican actor (d. 2001)
• April 29 – Donald Mills, lead tenor of The Mills Brothers (d. 1999)
• April 30 – Elio Toaff, Italian rabbi

May–June

• May 1 – Archie Williams, American athlete (d. 1993)
• May 2 – Doris Fisher, American singer and songwriter (d. 2003)
• May 3 – Stu Hart, Canadian wrestling trainer (d. 2003)
• May 5 – Alice Faye, American entertainer (d. 1998)
• May 6 - Orson Welles, American actor and director (d. 1985)
• May 8 – Milton Meltzer, American author (d. 2009)
• May 10 – Denis Thatcher, British businessman, husband of UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (d. 2003)
• May 12 – Frère Roger, Swiss founder of the Taizé Community (d. 2005)
• May 15
  • Hilda Bernstein, English-born author, artist, and activist (d. 2006)
  • Mario Monicelli, Italian film director
  • Paul Samuelson, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2009)
• May 20 - Moshe Dayan, Israeli military leader and politician (d. 1981)
• May 27
  • Esther Soré, Chilean musician (d. 1996)
  • Herman Wouk, American author
• May 29 – Karl Münchinger, German conductor (d. 1990)
• June 1 – John Randolph, American actor (d. 2004)
• June 9 – Les Paul, American inventor and musician (d. 2009)
• June 10 – Saul Bellow, Canadian-born writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2005)
• June 10 – Peride Celal, Turkish author
• June 12 – David Rockefeller, American banker and philanthropist
• June 15 – Thomas Huckle Weller, American virologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2008)
• June 17 – Karl Targownik, Hungarian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor (d. 1996)
• June 17 – Mario Echandi Jiménez, President of Costa Rica
• June 24 – Sir Fred Hoyle, British astronomer (d. 2001)
• June 26
  • Charlotte Zolotow, American author
  • Paul Castellano, American gangster (d. 1985)
• June 27 – Grace Lee Boggs, American feminist and author
• June 28 – David Honeyboy Edwards, American musician

July–August

• July 2 – Arthur Wellesley, 8th Duke of Wellington
• July 5 – John Woodruff, American athlete (d. 2007)
• July 15 – Albert Ghiorso, American nuclear scientist
• July 17 – Fred Ball, American movie studio executive, actor, and the brother of comedienne Lucille Ball (d. 2007)
• July 24 – Enrique Fernando, Chief Justice of the Philippine Supreme Court (d. 2004)
• July 26 – Pattabhi Jois, Indian yogi (d. 2009)
• July 28
  • Charles Townes, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
  • Frankie Yankovic, American accordion player (d. 1998)
• July 28 – Dick Sprang,American comic book artist during the golden age of comics and an explorer (d. 2000)
• August 3
  • Pete Newell, Canadian-born basketball coach (d. 2008)
  • Frank Arthur Calder, Canadian politician (d. 2006)
• August 12 – Michael Kidd, American choreographer (d. 2007)
• August 19 – Ring Lardner Jr., American film screenwriter (d. 2000)
• August 22 – Hugh Paddick, British actor (d. 2000)
• August 25 – Walter Trampler, American violist (d. 1997)
• August 27 – Norman F. Ramsey, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• August 28
  • Tasha Tudor, American illustrator (d. 2008)
  • Max Robertson, British sports commentator (d. 2009)
• August 29 – Ingrid Bergman, Swedish actress (d. 1982)
• August 30
  • Princess Lilian, Duchess of Halland
  • Robert Strassburg, American composer (d. 2003)

September–October

• September 2 – Meinhardt Raabe, American actor (d. 2010)
• September 3 – Knut Nystedt, Norwegian composer
• September 8
  • Frank Cady, American actor
  • Frank Pullen, English business person and racehorse owner (d. 1992)
• September 10
  • Viva Leroy Nash, American murderer, oldest death row inmate (d. 2010)
• September 12 – Frank McGee, American television personality (d. 1974)
• September 14
  • John Dobson, American astronomer
  • Douglas Kennedy, American actor (d. 1973)
• September 15 – Ismail Yasin, Egyptian comedian and actor (d. 1972)
• September 17
  • M. F. Husain, Indian artist
  • Adolfo Sánchez Vázquez, Spanish-born philosopher
• September 23
  • Julius Baker, American flautist (d. 2003)
  • Clifford Shull, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2001)
• September 29 – Vincent DeDomenico, American entrepreneur (d. 2007)
• September 30 – Lester Maddox, Governor of Georgia (d. 2003)
• October 1 – T. Llew Jones, Welsh author and poet (d. 2009)
• October 13 – Terry Frost, English artist (d. 2003)
• October 15
  • Nellie Lutcher, American singer (d. 2007)
  • Yitzhak Shamir, Israeli politician
• October 17 – Arthur Miller, American playwright (d. 2005)
• October 19 – Farid al-Atrash, Arab composer, singer, virtuoso oud player, and actor (d. 1974)
• October 24
  • Bob Kane, American comic book artist/writer, creator of Batman (d. 1998)
  • Tito Gobbi, Italian operatic baritone (d. 1984)
• October 28 – Dody Goodman, American actress and dancer (d. 2008)
• October 29 – William Berenberg, American physician (d. 2005)
• October 30 – Jane Randolph, American actress (d. 2009)

November–December

• November 4 – Wee Kim Wee, 4th president of Singapore (d. 2005)
• November 9
  • André François, French cartoonist (d. 2005)
  • Sargent Shriver, American politician
• November 11 – William Proxmire, U.S. Senator (d. 2005)
• November 12 – Roland Barthes, French philosopher and literary critic (d. 1980)
• November 17 – David "Stringbean" Akeman, American country music banjo player (d. 1973)
• November 19 – Earl Wilbur Sutherland Jr., American physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1974)
• November 25
  • Augusto Pinochet, President of Chile (d. 2006)
  • Stanley Wilson, American musician (d. 1970)
• November 28 – Evald Okas, Estonian painter
• November 30 – Brownie McGhee, American musician (d. 1996)
• November 30 – Henry Taube, Canadian-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2005)
• December 7 – Eli Wallach, American actor
• December 8 – Ernest Lehman, American screenwriter (d. 2005)
• December 9 – Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, German-born soprano (d. 2006)
• December 12 – Frank Sinatra, American entertainer (d. 1998)
• December 13 – Ross Macdonald, American-Canadian writer (d. 1983)
• December 17 – Robert A. Dahl, American political scientist
• December 19 – Édith Piaf, French singer (d. 1963)
• December 21 – Werner von Trapp, member of the Trapp Family Singers (d. 2007)
• December 22 – Barbara Billingsley, American actress (Leave It To Beaver)
• December 27 – Gyula Zsengellér, Hungarian footballer (d. 1999)

Deaths

January–June

• January 13 – Mary Slessor, Scottish Christian missionary (b. 1848)
• January 14 – Richard Meux Benson, English founder of an Anglican religious order (b. 1824)
• January 23 – Anne Whitney American sculptor and poet (b. 1821)
• February 3 (executed for their part in the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria):
  • Veljko Čubrilović (b. 1886)
  • Danilo Ilić (b. 1891)
• February 5 – Ross Barnes, American baseball player (b. 1850)
• February 18 – Frank James American outlaw (b. 1843)
• March 4 – William Willett, English promoter of daylight saving time (b. 1856)
• March 9 – François Faber, Luxembourgian cyclist (b. 1887) (killed in action)
• March 15 – George Llewelyn Davies, English soldier, inspiration for the "Lost Boys" of Peter Pan (b. 1893) (killed in action)
• March 31 – Wyndham Halswelle, Scottish runner (b. 1882) (killed in action)
• April 16 – Nelson W. Aldrich, U.S. Senator from Rhode Island (b. 1841)
• April 23 – Rupert Brooke, English poet (b. 1887) (sepsis from an infected mosquito bite)
• April 23 – Frederick Fisher, Canadian VC recipient (killed in action) (b. 1894)
• April 27 – Alexander Scriabin, Russian composer (b. 1872)
• May 7 – Charles Frohman, American theater producer, died on Lusitania (b. 1856)
• May 7 – Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt I, American sportsman, died on Lusitania (b. 1877)
• May 19 – Tony Wilding, New Zealand tennis player (born 1883)
• May 24 – Private John Condon, youngest British soldier to die during the First World War (b. c. 1901)
• May 26 – Julian Grenfell, poet (killed in action) (b. 1888)
• May 31 – Victor Child Villiers, 7th Earl of Jersey, 18th Governor of New South Wales (b. 1845)
• June 7 – Charles Reed Bishop, preeminent businessman and philanthropist in Hawaii (b. 1822)
• June 25 - Tok Janggut, Malay rebel leader (b. 1853) (killed in battle)

July–December

• July 2 – Porfirio Díaz, President of Mexico (b. 1830)
• July 16 – Ellen G. White, American prophetess, co-founder of Seventh-Day Adventism, most translated American author (b. 1827)
• August 20 – Paul Ehrlich, German scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1854)
• August 26 – John Bunny American silent film comedian (b. 1863)
• August 31 – Adolphe Pegoud, aviator (KIA) (b. 1889)
• September 9 – Albert Spalding, baseball player and sporting goods manufacturer (b. 1850)
• September 11 – William Sprague IV, America politician from Rhode Island (b. 1830)
• September 13 – Andrew L. Harris, American Civil War hero and Governor of Ohio (b. 1835)
• September 27 – Fergus Bowes-Lyon, brother of Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (killed in battle) (b. 1889)
• October 12
  • Edith Cavell, nurse and war heroine (shot) (b. 1865)
  • Charles Sorley, British poet (killed in action) (b. 1895)
• October 23 – W. G. Grace, English cricketer (b. 1848)
• October 26 - August Bungert, German composer and poet (b. 1845)
• October 30 – Charles Tupper, Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1821)
• November 15 – Booker T. Washington, American educator (b. 1856)
• November 28 – Mubarak Al-Sabah, Emir of Kuwait (b. 1896)
• December 31 – Tommaso Salvini, Italian actor (b. 1829)

Nobel Prizes

• Chemistry – Richard Willstätter
• Literature – Romain Rolland
• Medicine – not awarded
• Peace – not awarded
• Physics – William Henry Bragg and William Lawrence Bragg

Notes

1. ↑ "Calendar in year 1915 (Russia)" (Julian calendar), webpage:Julian-1915 (Romania used Julian in 1919, when Russia adopted Gregorian).

External links

• 1915 Coin Pictures