15 Apr - Definition and Overview

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

Events

1400-1899

• 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.
• 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 - Andrew Johnson is inaugurated as the 17th President of the United States.

1900-1999

• 1912 - The passenger liner RMS Titanic sinks at about 2:20 am after hitting an iceberg 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.
• 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 at The War.
• 1989 - The Hillsborough disaster, one of the biggest tragedies of European football, occurs as Liverpool F.C. fans get involved in a crowd stampede that kills 96 people.
• 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.

2000-2099

• 2001 - Easter day (not again until 2063).
• 2002 - An Air China Boeing 767-200 crashes into hillside during heavy rain and fog near Pusan, South Korea killing 128.

Births

1400-1899

• 1452 - Leonardo da Vinci, artist (d. 1519)
• 1642 - Suleiman II, Sultan, Ottoman Empire (d. 1691)
• 1684 - Catherine I of Russia (d. 1727)
• 1688 - Johann Friedrich Fasch, composer (d. 1758)
• 1707 - Leonhard Euler, mathematician (d. 1783)
• 1793 - Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve, astronomer (d. 1864)
• 1800 - James Clark Ross, explorer (d. 1862)
• 1815 - Mary Ann Day Brown, wife of John Brown (d. 1884)
• 1832 - Wilhelm Busch, poet, graphic artist and painter (d. 1908)
• 1843 - Henry James, author (d. 1916)
• 1858 - Émile Durkheim, sociologist (d. 1917)
• 1861 - Bliss Carman, poet (d. 1929)
• 1878 - Robert Walser, lyricist and narrator (d. 1956)
• 1879 - Melville Henry Cane, U.S. lawyer and poet (d. 1980)
• 1883 - Stanley Bruce, eighth Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1967)
• 1889 - Thomas Hart Benton, U.S. muralist (d. 1975)
• 1894 - Bessie Smith, blues singer (d. 1937)
• 1895 - Clark McConachy, billiards and snooker player (d. 1980)

1900-1999

• 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)
• 1916 - Helene Hanff, author (d. 1997)
• 1917 - Hans Conried, actor (d. 1982)
• 1920 - Richard von Weizäcker, President of Germany 1984-1994
• 1921 - Georgi Beregovoi, cosmonaut (d. 1995)
• 1924 - Sir Neville Marriner, English conductor and violinist
• 1930 - Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, former 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, author, Member of Parliament
• 1942 - Walt Hazzard, basketball star
• 1944 - Dave Edmunds, musician
• 1950 - Amy Wright, actress
• 1951 - Heloise, newspaper columnist
• 1954 - Seka, pornographic film actress
• 1955 - Dodi Fayed, businessman (d. 1997)
• 1957 - Evelyn Ashford, track 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
• 1972 - Arturo Gatti, world champion boxer
• 1983 - Ilya Kovalchuk, Russian NHL player
• 1987 - Harutyun Gyurjyan
• 1990 - Emma Watson, actress

Deaths

1700-1899

• 1718 - Ignacije Szentmartony, Croat 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 priest in Hawaii (b. 1840)
• 1898 - Kepa Te Rangihiwinui, Maori military leader

1900-1999

• 1911 - Antoine Lumière, photographer, industrialist, father of Auguste and Louis Lumière
• 1912 - John Jacob Astor IV, businessman (b. 1864)
• 1912 - Benjamin Guggenheim, businessman (b. 1865)
• 1942 - Robert Musil, novelist (The Man Without Qualities) (b. 1880)
• 1949 - Wallace Beery, actor (b. 1885)
• 1964 - Rachel Carson, American biologist and author (b. 1907)
• 1969 - Victoria Eugenie Julia Ena Maria Christina of Battenberg, Queen consort of Spain
• 1974 - Giovanni D'Anzi, Italian songwriter
• 1980 - Jean-Paul Sartre, philosopher and writer (b. 1905)
• 1982 - Arthur Lowe, British actor (b. 1915)
• 1984 - Tommy Cooper, comedy magician (b. 1921)
• 1986 - Jean Genet, author (b. 1910)
• 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)
• 1998 - Pol Pot, Cambodian dictator (b. 1925)

2000-2099

• 2000 - Edward Gorey, illustrator (b. 1925)
• 2001 - Joey Ramone, lead singer for The Ramones (b. 1951)
• 2002 - Damon Knight, science fiction author (b. 1922)
• 2002 - Byron White, US athlete and Supreme Court justice

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

April 14 - April 16 - March 15 - May 15 -- listing of all days