April 15
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April 15 is the 105th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (106th in leap years). There are 260 days remaining.
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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.
- 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 passenger liner RMS Titanic sinks at about 2:20 am after hitting an iceberg almost three hours earlier.
- 1915 - The Armenian Genocide began when the Ottoman Empire undertook the systematic annihilation of Armenian intellectuals and entrepreneurs within the city of Constantinople and later the entire Armenian population of the Empire.
- 1920 - Anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti allegedly 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.
- 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.
- 1983 - Tokyo Disneyland opens.
- 1985 - Marvin Hagler defeats Thomas Hearns by a knockout in round three to retain boxing's world Middleweight championship in a fight nicknamed The War.
- 1989 - Hillsborough disaster: A human stampede occurs at Hillsborough, a football stadium in Sheffield, England, 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.
- 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.
- 2001 - Easter day (not again until 2063).
- 2002 - An Air China Boeing 767-200, flight CA129 crashes into hillside during heavy rain and fog near Pusan, South Korea killing 128.
Births
- 1452 - Leonardo da Vinci, Italian artist (d. 1519)
- 1642 - Suleiman II, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1691)
- 1684 - Catherine I of Russia (d. 1727)
- 1688 - Johann Friedrich Fasch, German composer (d. 1758)
- 1707 - Leonhard Euler, German mathematician (d. 1783)
- 1793 - Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve, astronomer (d. 1864)
- 1800 - James Clark Ross, explorer (d. 1862)
- 1832 - Wilhelm Busch, poet, graphic artist, and painter (d. 1908)
- 1843 - Henry James, American author (d. 1916)
- 1858 - Émile Durkheim, sociologist (d. 1917)
- 1861 - Bliss Carman, poet (d. 1929)
- 1878 - Robert Walser, writer (d. 1956)
- 1879 - Melville Henry Cane, American lawyer and poet (d. 1980)
- 1883 - Stanley Bruce, eighth Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1967)
- 1889 - Thomas Hart Benton, American muralist (d. 1975)
- 1889 - A. Philip Randolph, American activist (d. 1979)
- 1894 - Bessie Smith, American blues singer (d. 1937)
- 1895 - Clark McConachy, billiards and snooker player (d. 1980)
- 1898 - Marian Jordan, American actress (d. 1961)
- 1901 - Joe Davis, English snooker player (d. 1978)
- 1902 - Fernando Pessa, Portuguese journalist (d. 2002)
- 1912 - Kim Il Sung, dictator of North Korea (d. 1994)
- 1912 - William Congdon, American artist (d. 1998)
- 1916 - Helene Hanff, author (d. 1997)
- 1916 - Alfred S. Bloomingdale, American businessman (d. 1982)
- 1917 - Hans Conried, actor (d. 1982)
- 1920 - Richard von Weizäcker, President of Germany 1984-1994
- 1921 - Georgi Beregovoi, cosmonaut (d. 1995)
- 1922 - Michael Ansara, Syrian-American actor
- 1922 - Harold Washington, Mayor of Chicago (d. 1987)
- 1923 - Harvey Lembeck, American actor and comedian (d. 1982)
- 1924 - Sir Neville Marriner, English conductor and violinist
- 1930 - Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, President of Iceland
- 1931 - Raymond McNally, author (d. 2002)
- 1933 - Roy Clark, country musician
- 1933 - Elizabeth Montgomery, actress (d. 1995)
- 1933 - Boris Strugatsky, author
- 1938 - Claudia Cardinale, actress
- 1940 - Jeffrey Archer, British author and Member of Parliament
- 1940 - Robert Walker Jr., American actor
- 1942 - Walt Hazzard, basketball star
- 1942 - Francis X. DiLorenzo, Roman Catholic prelate
- 1944 - Dave Edmunds, musician
- 1944 - Dzhokhar Dudaev, Chechen leader (d. 1996)
- 1947 - Lois Chiles, American actress
- 1947 - Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, American television producer
- 1948 - Michael Kamen, American composer (d. 2003)
- 1950 - Amy Wright, actress
- 1951 - Heloise, newspaper columnist
- 1954 - Seka, film actress
- 1955 - Dodi Al-Fayed, businessman (d. 1997)
- 1957 - Evelyn Ashford, athlete
- 1959 - Emma Thompson, actress
- 1959 - Thomas F. Wilson, actor
- 1960 - Tony Jones, English snooker player
- 1962 - Nawal El Moutawakel, hurdler
- 1965 - Linda Perry, musician
- 1966 - Samantha Fox, singer
- 1967 - Dara Torres, swimmer
- 1968 - Stacey Williams, supermodel
- 1968 - Ed O'Brien, British musician (Radiohead)
- 1970 - Flex Alexander, American actor
- 1972 - Arturo Gatti, boxer
- 1977 - Chandra Levy, American Congressional intern (d. 2001)
- 1983 - Ilya Kovalchuk, Russian hockey player
- 1990 - Emma Watson, actress
Deaths
- 1621 - John Carver, first governor of Plymouth Colony
- 1718 - Ignacije Szentmartony, Croatian geographer (b. 1793)
- 1843 - Noah Webster, American lexicographer (b. 1758)
- 1854 - Arthur Aikin, English chemist, mineralogist and scientific writer (b. 1773)
- 1865 - Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States (b. 1809)
- 1888 - Matthew Arnold, English poet (b. 1822)
- 1888 - Father Damien, Belgian missionary (b. 1840)
- 1898 - Kepa Te Rangihiwinui, Maori military leader
- 1911 - Antoine Lumière, photographer, industrialist, father of Auguste and Louis Lumière
- 1912 - Edward J. Smith, Captain of the Titanic (b. 1850)
- 1912 - John Jacob Astor IV, American businessman (aboard the Titanic) (b. 1864)
- 1912 - Benjamin Guggenheim, American businessman (aboard the Titanic) (b. 1865)
- 1942 - Robert Musil, German novelist (b. 1880)
- 1949 - Wallace Beery, actor (b. 1885)
- 1962 - Clara Blandick, American actress
- 1964 - Rachel Carson, American biologist and author (b. 1907)
- 1969 - Victoria Eugenie Julia Ena Maria Christina of Battenberg, Queen of Spain
- 1974 - Giovanni D'Anzi, Italian songwriter (b.1906)
- 1975 - Richard Conte, American actor
- 1980 - Jean-Paul Sartre, philosopher and writer (b. 1905)
- 1980 - Raymond Bailey, American actor
- 1982 - Arthur Lowe, British actor (b. 1915)
- 1983 - Ernestine Wade, American actress
- 1984 - Tommy Cooper, comedy magician (b. 1921)
- 1986 - Jean Genet, French author (b. 1910)
- 1986 - Tim McIntire, American actor
- 1988 - Kenneth Williams, actor and comedian (b. 1926)
- 1989 - Hu Yaobang, leader of China (b. 1915)
- 1990 - Greta Garbo, actress (b. 1905)
- 1993 - John Tuzo Wilson, geologist (b. 1908)
- 1993 - Leslie Charteris, author (b. 1907)
- 1994 - John Curry, British figure skater
- 1998 - Pol Pot, Cambodian dictator (b. 1925)
- 1998 - William Congdon, American artist
- 2000 - Edward Gorey, illustrator (b. 1925)
- 2001 - Joey Ramone (Jeffrey Hyman), American musician, singer with The Ramones (b. May 19, 1951)
- 2002 - Damon Knight, science fiction author (b. 1922)
- 2002 - Byron "Whizzer" White, American football player and U.S. Supreme Court justice
- 2003 - Erin Fleming, actress
Holidays and observances
- Ancient Latvia - Tipsa Diena observed.
- April 15 or, if it falls on the weekend, the following Monday is the deadline for Americans to file their tax returns - post offices across the United States stay open until midnight to accommodate procrastinators
- Father Damien Day - celebrated annually in Hawai'i
- Feast day of Saint Paternus
- Roman Empire - the Fordicia was celebrated in honor of Terra
- Major League Baseball designated that April 15 each year would be marked as "Jackie Robinson Day" in all MLB ballparks.
External links
- BBC: On This Day (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/15)
- Today in History: April 15 (http://www.tnl.net/when/4/15)
April 14 - April 16 - March 15 - May 15 -- listing of all days
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