April 15

April 15 is the 105th day of the year (106th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 260 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

• 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.
• 1715 – Pocotaligo Massacre triggers the start of the Yamasee War in colonial South Carolina.
• 1738 – Premiere in London of Serse, an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel.
• 1755 – Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language is published in London.
• 1783 – Preliminary articles of peace ending the Revolutionary War are ratified.
• 1802 – William Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy see a "long belt" of daffodils, inspiring the former to pen I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.
• 1865 – Abraham Lincoln dies without regaining consciousness after being shot the previous evening by actor John Wilkes Booth.
• 1892 – The General Electric Company is formed.

Titanic disaster.

• 1912 – The British passenger liner, the RMS Titanic, sinks in the North Atlantic at 2:20 a.m., two and a half hours after hitting an iceberg. 1,517 people are killed.
• 1920 – Two security guards are murdered during a robbery in South Braintree, Massachusetts. Anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti would be convicted of and executed for the crime, amid much controversy.
• 1921 – Black Friday: mine owners announce more wage and price cuts, leading to the threat of a strike all across England.
• 1923 – Insulin becomes generally available for use by people with diabetes.
• 1924 – Rand McNally publishes its first road atlas.
• 1940 – The Allies begin their attack on the Norwegian town of Narvik which is occupied by Nazi Germany.
• 1941 – In the Belfast Blitz, two-hundred bombers of the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) attack Belfast, Northern Ireland killing one thousand people.
• 1942 – The George Cross is awarded to "to the island fortress of Malta – its people and defenders" by King George VI.
• 1945 – The Bergen-Belsen concentration camp is liberated.
• 1947 – Jackie Robinson debuts for the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking baseball's color line.
• 1952 – The maiden flight of the B-52 Stratofortress
• 1955 – McDonald's restaurant dates its founding to the opening of a franchised restaurant by Ray Kroc, in Des Plaines, Illinois
• 1957 – White Rock, British Columbia officially separates from Surrey, British Columbia and is incorporated as a new city.
• 1958 – Walter O'Malley's Los Angeles Dodgers host the first Major League Baseball game played on the West Coast of the United States.
• 1970 – During the Cambodian Civil War, massacres of the Vietnamese minority results in 800 bodies flowing down the Mekong River into South Vietnam.
• 1979 – A disastrous earthquake (of M 7.1) occurs on Montenegro coast.
• 1986 – The United States launches Operation El Dorado Canyon, its bombing raids against Libyan targets in response to a bombing in West Germany that killed two U.S. servicemen.
• 1989 – Hillsborough disaster: A human crush occurs at Hillsborough Stadium, home of Sheffield Wednesday, in the FA Cup Semi Final, resulting in the deaths of 96 Liverpool F.C. fans.
• 1989 – Upon Hu Yaobang's death, the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 begin in the People's Republic of China.
• 1992 – The 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 initiating the World Trade Organization (effective January 1, 1995).
• 2002 – An Air China Boeing 767-200, flight CA129 crashes into a hillside during heavy rain and fog near Busan, South Korea, killing 128.
• 2010 – Volcanic ash from the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland leads to the closure of airspace over most of Europe.

Births

• 1452 – Leonardo da Vinci, Italian Renaissance polymath (d. 1519)
• 1469 – Guru Nanak Dev, the first of the ten Sikh Gurus (d. 1539)
• 1489 – Mimar Sinan, Ottoman architect (d. 1588)
• 1552 – Pietro Cataldi, Italian mathematician (d. 1626)
• 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)
• 1646 – Pierre Poiret, French mystic (d. 1719)
• 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)
• 1741 – Charles Willson Peale, American painter, soldier and naturalist (d. 1827)
• 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)
• 1841 – Joseph E. Seagram, Canadian distillery founder (d. 1919)
• 1843 – Henry James, American author (d. 1916)
• 1856 – Jean Moréas, Greek poet (d. 1910)
• 1858 – Émile Durkheim, French sociologist (d. 1917)
• 1861 – Bliss Carman, Canadian poet (d. 1929)
• 1874 – George Harrison Shull, American plant geneticist (d. 1954)
• 1874 – Johannes Stark, German physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 1957)
• 1875 – James J. Jeffries, American heavyweight boxer (d. 1953)
• 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 (d. 1947)
• 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, Dutch author and Holocaust survivor (d. 1983)
• 1892 – Theo Osterkamp, World War I and World War II German fighter pilot (d. 1975)
• 1894 – Nikita Khrushchev, Premier of the Soviet Union (d. 1971)
• 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)
• 1904 – Arshile Gorky, Armenian artist (d. 1948)
• 1907 – Nikolaas Tinbergen, Dutch ethologist, Nobel laureate (d. 1988)
• 1908 – Eden Ahbez, American songwriter (d. 1995)
• 1908 – Lita Grey, American actress (d. 1995)
• 1910 – Miguel Najdorf, Argentine chess grandmaster (d. 1997)
• 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)
• 1917 – James Kee, American politician (d. 1989)
• 1920 – Thomas Szasz, Hungarian-American psychiatrist
• 1920 – Richard von Weizsäcker, President of Germany
• 1921 – Georgi Beregovoi, Russian 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 – David Hamilton, British photographer, film director and producer
• 1933 – Elizabeth Montgomery, American actress (d. 1995)
• 1933 – Boris Strugatsky, Russian author
• 1936 – Raymond Poulidor, French cyclist
• 1937 – Bob Luman, American country singer (d. 1978)
• 1938 – Hso Khan Pha, Burmese politician
• 1939 – Claudia Cardinale, Tunisian-born actress
• 1939 – Marty Wilde, British singer
• 1940 – Jeffrey Archer, British author
• 1940 – Willie Davis, American baseball player
• 1940 – Woodie Fryman, American baseball player
• 1940 – Robert Lacroix, French Canadian professor of economics
• 1940 – Robert Walker Jr., American actor
• 1941 – Howard Berman, American politician
• 1942 – Francis X. DiLorenzo, American Catholic prelate
• 1942 – Walt Hazzard, American basketball player
• 1942 – Kenneth Lay, American businessman (d. 2006)
• 1944 – Dzhokhar Dudaev, Chechen leader (d. 1996)
• 1944 – Dave Edmunds, Welsh musician
• 1947 – Lois Chiles, American actress
• 1947 – Cristina Husmark Pehrsson, Swedish politician
• 1947 – Mike Chapman, British songwriter
• 1947 – Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, American writer and television producer
• 1947 – Woolly Wolstenholme, British musician
• 1948 – Michael Kamen, American composer (d. 2003)
• 1949 – Tonio K, American singer
• 1949 – Alla Pugacheva, Russian singer
• 1949 – Craig Zadan, American film producer
• 1950 – Josiane Balasko, French actress, director and screenwriter
• 1950 – Amy Wright, American actress
• 1951 – Heloise, American newspaper columnist
• 1952 – Bengt Gingsjö, Swedish swimmer
• 1952 – Kym Gyngell, Australian comedian
• 1952 – Sam McMurray, American actor
• 1953 – Rodi Kratsa-Tsagaropoulou, Greek politician
• 1954 – Seka, American pornographic actress
• 1955 – Dodi Al-Fayed, Egyptian businessman (d. 1997)
• 1956 – Michael Cooper, American basketball player
• 1957 – Evelyn Ashford, American athlete
• 1958 – Keith Acton, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
• 1958 – Dolores Gordon-Smith, British writer
• 1958 – Memos Ioannou, Greek basketball player
• 1958 – Noni Ιoannidou, Greek fashion model and actress
• 1958 – Benjamin Zephaniah, British writer
• 1959 – Fruit Chan, Hong Kong film director
• 1959 – Emma Thompson, English actress
• 1959 – Thomas F. Wilson, American actor
• 1959 – Kevin Lowe, Canadian ice hockey player and general manager
• 1960 – Tony Jones, English snooker player
• 1960 – Pedro Delgado, Spanish cyclist
• 1960 – HRH Prince Philippe, Duke of Brabant, heir to the Belgian throne
• 1962 – Surjit Bindrakhia, Punjabi Bhangra singer
• 1962 – Nawal El Moutawakel, Morrocan hurdler
• 1962 – Tom Kane, American voice actor
• 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 – Jimmy Waite, Canadian ice hockey goaltender
• 1970 – Flex Alexander, American actor
• 1971 – Katy Hill, British television presenter
• 1971 – Jason Sehorn, American football player
• 1971 – Kate Harbour, English voice actress
• 1972 – Lou Romano, American voice actor
• 1972 – Arturo Gatti, Canadian boxer (d. 2009)
• 1974 – Mike Quinn, American football player
• 1974 – Keith Malley, American comedian and podcaster (Keith and The Girl)
• 1974 – Danny Pino, American actor
• 1974 – Douglas Spain, American actor
• 1975 – Paul Dana, American race car driver (d. 2006)
• 1975 – Phil Labonte, American vocalist (All That Remains)
• 1976 – Jason Bonsignore, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1976 – Susan Ward, American actress
• 1977 – Brian Pothier, American ice hockey player
• 1978 – Austin Aries, American wrestler
• 1978 – Milton Bradley, American baseball player
• 1978 – Tim Corcoran, American baseball player
• 1979 – Anna Torv, Australian actress
• 1980 – Natalie Casey, British actress
• 1980 – James Foster, English cricketer
• 1980 – Raúl López, Spanish basketball player
• 1980 – Willie Mason, Australian rugby league player
• 1980 – Victor Núñez, Costa Rican footballer
• 1980 – Fränk Schleck, Luxembourgish cyclist
• 1980 – Billy Yates, American football player
• 1981 – Andrés D'Alessandro, Argentine football player
• 1981 – Seth Wulsin, American artist
• 1982 – Anthony Green, American musician
• 1982 – Seth Rogen, Canadian actor and writer
• 1982 – Albert Riera, Spanish footballer
• 1982 – Michael Aubrey, American baseball player
• 1983 – Ilya Kovalchuk, Russian ice hockey player
• 1983 – Alice Braga, Brazilian actress
• 1983 – Dudu Cearense, Brazilian footballer
• 1983 – Bronson La'Cassie, Australian professional golfer
• 1984 – Cam Janssen, American ice hockey player
• 1984 – Ben Kasica, guitarist (rock band Skillet)
• 1985 – Chris Cates, American baseball player
• 1985 – John Danks, American baseball player
• 1985 – Aaron Laffey, American baseball player
• 1985 – Amy Reid, German pornographic actress
• 1986 – Quincy Owusu-Abeyie, Ghanaian footballer
• 1986 – Tom Heaton, English footballer
• 1987 – Sapphire Elia, English actres
• 1988 – Thomas Albanese, Italian footballer
• 1990 – Emma Watson, English actress
• 1991 – Daiki Arioka, Japanese actor & singer
• 1992 – Richard Sandrak, American bodybuilder
• 1992 – Amy Diamond, Swedish singer
• 1997 – Khizer Mahmood, an expert wizard

Deaths

• 1053 – Godwin, Earl of Wessex (b. 1001)
• 1220 – Adolf of Altena, Archbishop of Cologne (b. 1157)
• 1415 – Manuel Chrysoloras, Greek humanist and grammarian (b. 1355)
• 1446 – Filippo Brunelleschi, Italian architect (b. 1377)
• 1610 – Robert Parsons, English Jesuit priest (b. 1546)
• 1621 – John Carver, first governor of Plymouth Colony (b. 1576)
• 1632 – George Calvert, Proprietor of the Avalon (Maryland) Colony (b. 1580)
• 1641 – Domenico Zampieri, Italian painter (b. 1581)
• 1652 – Patriarch Joseph, head of the Russian Orthodox Church
• 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 XV of France (b. 1721)
• 1764 – Peder Horrebow, Danish astronomer (b. 1679)
• 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 writer (b. 1773)
• 1865 – Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States (b. 1809)
• 1888 – Matthew Arnold, English poet (b. 1822)
• 1889 – Father Damien, Flemish missionary (b. 1840)
• 1898 – Kepa Te Rangihiwinui, Maori military leader
• 1912 – Edward Smith, captain of the RMS Titanic (b. 1850)
• 1912 – Jack Phillips, British wireless telegraphist. (b. 1887)
• 1912 – John Jacob Astor IV, billionaire (b. 1864)
• 1912 – Thomas Andrews, Irish-born businessman and shipbuilder (b. 1873)
• 1912 – William T. Stead American author and journalist (b. 1849)
• 1927 – Gaston Leroux, French writer (b. 1868)
• 1938 – César Vallejo, Peruvian poet (b. 1892)
• 1942 – Robert Musil, Austrian novelist (b. 1880)
• 1943 – Aristarkh Lentulov, Russian artist (b. 1882)
• 1945 – Hermann Florstedt, Nazi leader (b. 1895)
• 1948 – Radola Gajda, Czech military commander and politician (b. 1892)
• 1949 – Wallace Beery, American actor (b. 1885)
• 1957 – Pedro Infante, Mexican actor and singer (b. 1917)
• 1962 – Clara Blandick, American actress (b. 1881)
• 1962 – Arsenio Lacson, Filipino politician and sportswriter (b. 1911)
• 1963 – Edward "Carji" Greeves, Australian rules footballer (b. 1903)
• 1969 – Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg, Queen of Spain (b. 1887)
• 1970 – Ripper Collins, American baseball player (b. 1904)
• 1971 – Dan Reeves, American football team owner (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 laureate (b. 1905)
• 1982 – Arthur Lowe, British actor (b. 1915)
• 1983 – Corrie ten Boom, Dutch author and Holocaust survivor (b. 1892)
• 1983 – John Engstead, American photographer (b. 1909)
• 1984 – Tommy Cooper, Welsh comedy magician (b. 1921)
• 1984 – Alexander Trocchi, Scottish writer (b. 1925)
• 1986 – Jean Genet, French author (b. 1910)
• 1988 – Kenneth Williams, English actor and comedian (b. 1926)
• 1988 – Youri Egorov, Soviet classical pianist (b. 1954)
• 1989 – Nesuhi Ertegün, American record executive (b. 1917)
• 1989 – Hu Yaobang, Chinese politician (b. 1915)
• 1990 – Greta Garbo, Swedish actress (b. 1905)
• 1992 – Otis Barton, American deep-sea diver (b. 1899)
• 1993 – John Tuzo Wilson, Canadian geologist (b. 1908)
• 1993 – Leslie Charteris, Singapore-born author (b. 1907)
• 1994 – John Curry, English figure skater (b. 1949)
• 1995 – Harry Shoulberg, American painter, serigrapher (b. 1903)
• 1998 – Pol Pot, Cambodian dictator (b. 1925)
• 1999 – Harvey Postlethwaite, British engineer and racing car designer (b. 1944)
• 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 United States Supreme Court Justice (b. 1917)
• 2003 – Erin Fleming, Canadian actress (b. 1941)
• 2003 – Reg Bundy, British performer (b. 1941)
• 2004 – Ray Condo, Canadian musician (b. 1950)
• 2005 – John Fred, American singer (b. 1941)
• 2007 – Brant Parker, American cartoonist (b. 1920)
• 2008 – Krister Stendahl, Swedish theologian and bishop (b. 1921)
• 2008 – Benoît Lamy, Belgian movie director (b. 1945)
• 2008 – Sean Costello, American blues musician (b. 1979)
• 2009 – Clement Freud, British writer, broadcaster, and MP (b. 1924)
• 2009 – Ed Blake, American baseball player (b. 1925)
• 2009 – László Tisza, Hungarian-born American physicist (b. 1907)
• 2010 – Jack Herer, American author and cannabis activist (b. 1939)

Holidays and observances

• Arirang Festival, held to commemorate Kim Il-sung's birth. (North Korea)
• Christian Feast Day:
  • Abbo II of Metz
  • Father Damien Day (Hawaii)
  • Hunna
  • Paternus of Avranches
  • April 15 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
• Fordicidia, in honor of Tellus. (Roman Empire)
• Jackie Robinson Day (Major League Baseball)
• Latest day on which New Year festivals in South and Southeast Asian cultures can fall. (see April 14)
• Tax Day, the official deadline for filing an individual tax return (or requesting an extension). (United States)

External links

• BBC: On This Day
• The New York Times: On This Day
• On This Day in Canada