April 15
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
April 15 is the 106th day of the year (107th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 259 days remaining after April 15 until the end of the year.
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[change] Births
- 1452 – Leonardo da Vinci, Italian polymath (d. 1519)
- 1469 – Guru Nanak Dev, Sikh guru (d. 1539)
- 1642 – Suleiman II, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1691)
- 1646 – King Christian V of Denmark (d. 1699)
- 1684 – Catherine I of Russia (d. 1727)
- 1707 – Leonhard Euler, Swiss mathematician (d. 1783)
- 1721 – Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland (d. 1765)
- 1800 – James Clark Ross, English explorer (d. 1862)
- 1832 – Wilhelm Busch, German poet and writer (d. 1908)
- 1843 – Henry James, American author (d. 1916)
- 1858 – Emile Durkheim, French sociologist and ethnologist (d. 1917)
- 1874 – Johannes Stark, German physicist (d. 1957)
- 1883 – Stanley Bruce, 8th Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1967)
- 1892 – Corrie ten Boom, Dutch author, activist, and Holocaust survivor (d. 1983)
- 1894 – Bessie Smith, American blues singer (d. 1937)
- 1896 – Nikolay Nikolayevich Semyonov, Russian chemist (d. 1986)
- 1907 – Nikolaas Tinbergen, Dutch ethologist (d. 1988)
- 1912 – Kim Il-Sung, President of North Korea (d. 1994)
- 1920 – Richard von Weizsaecker, former President of Germany
- 1921 – Georgi Beregovoi, Soviet-Russian cosmonaut (d. 1995)
- 1930 – Vigdis Finnbogadottir, 4th President of Iceland
- 1939 – Marty Wilder, British rock singer
- 1940 – Jeffrey Archer, British politician and author
- 1946 – Pete Rouse, American politician
- 1955 – Dodi al-Fayed, Egyptian businessman (d. 1997)
- 1958 – Benjamin Zephaniah, British writer
- 1959 – Emma Thompson, British actress
- 1960 – Prince Philippe, Duke of Brabant, heir to the throne of Belgium
- 1961 – Carol W. Greider, American molecular biologist
- 1968 – Ed O'Brien, British musician (Radiohead)
- 1972 – Arturo Gatti, Canadian boxer (d. 2009)
- 1978 – Milton Bradley, American baseball player
- 1982 – Albert Riera, Spanish footballer
- 1982 – Seth Rogen, Canadian actor and writer
- 1983 – Matt Cardle, English singer
- 1983 – Ilya Kovalchuk, Russian ice hockey player
- 1988 – Eliza Doolittle, English singer
- 1990 – Emma Watson, English actress
- 1992 – Amy Diamond, Swedish singer
[change] Deaths
- 1446 – Filippo Brunelleschi, Italian architect (b. 1377)
- 1659 – Simon Dach, German poet (b. 1605)
- 1697 – King Charles XI of Sweden (b. 1665)
- 1764 – Madame de Pompadour, mistress to King Louis XV of France (b. 1721)
- 1765 – Mikhail Lomonosov, Russian scientist and writer (b. 1711)
- 1865 – Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States (b. 1809)
- 1889 – Father Damien, Belgian Roman Catholic priest and missionary (b. 1840)
- 1912 – Edward Smith, captain of the RMS Titanic (b. 1850) (Titanic sinking)
- 1912 – Jack Phillips, British wireless telegraphist (b. 1887) (Titanic sinking)
- 1912 – John Jacob Astor IV, American businessman and billionaire (b. 1864) (Titanic sinking)
- 1913 – Gabdulla Tukay, Tatar poet (b. 1886)
- 1925 – Fritz Haarmann, German serial killer (b. 1879)
- 1942 – Robert Musil, Austrian writer (b. 1880)
- 1969 – Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg (b. 1887)
- 1971 – Gurgen Boryan, Armenian poet and playwright (b. 1915)
- 1972 – Frank Knight, American economist (b. 1885)
- 1980 – Jean-Paul Sartre, French philosopher (b. 1905)
- 1983 – Corrie ten Boom, Dutch author, activist and Holocaust survivor (b. 1892)
- 1984 – Tommy Cooper, Welsh comedy magician (b. 1921)
- 1986 – Jean Genet, French writer (b. 1910)
- 1988 – Kenneth Williams, British actor and comedian (b. 1926)
- 1990 – Greta Garbo, Swedish actress (b. 1905)
- 1994 – John Curry, British figure skater (b. 1949)
- 1998 – Pol Pot, Cambodian dictator (b. 1925)
- 2001 – Joey Ramone, American Punk Rocker (b. 1951)
- 2008 – Sean Costello, American blues musician (b. 1979)
- 2009 – Clement Freud, British writer, broadcaster and Member of Parliament (b. 1924)
[change] 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.
- 1935 – Roerich Pact signed in Washington D.C.
- 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 – Bernhard Langer becomes the first German to win the US Masters golf tournament.
- 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.
- 2010 – In response to the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull in Iceland, Norway, the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland shut all of their airspace for a week. Several European countries also have to shut their airspace in the following days and weeks, due to the volcanic ash cloud.
[change] Observances
- Tax Day (United States)
- Kim Il-Sung's birthday (North Korea)
- Father Damien Day (Hawaii)
- Jackie Robinson Day in Major League Baseball
