April 15
April 15 is the 105th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (106th in leap years ). There are 260 days remaining.
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 - Bergen-Belsen concentration camp 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 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.
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.
2063 - Easter day (for the first time since 2001 )
Births
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 )
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
1969 - Nicolás Pinkus , Argentina , Master in Communications, Poet
1972 - Arturo Gatti , world champion boxer
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 priest in Hawaii (b. 1840 )
1898 - Kepa Te Rangihiwinui , Maori military leader
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 - 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
External links
April 14 - April 16 - March 15 - May 15 -- listing of all days
