April 15

From TheBestLinks.com

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

Table of contents

1 Events

2 Births

3 Deaths

4 Holidays and observances

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.
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.
1912 - The passenger liner RMS Titanic sinks at about 2:20 am after hitting an iceberg hours earlier.
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.
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

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 - Emile 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 Weiz�cker, President of Germany 1984-1994
1921 - Georgi Beregovoi, cosmonaut (d. 1995)
1930 - Vigd�s Finnbogad�ttir, 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
1979 - Eric Kelley-Dodds, architect and philosopher
1983 - Ilya Kovalchuk, Russian NHL player
1990 - Emma Watson, actress

Deaths

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 - Father Damien, missionary priest in Hawaii (b. 1840)
1898 - Kepa Te Rangihiwinui, Maori military leader
1911 - Antoine Lumi�re, photographer, industrialist, father of Auguste and Louis Lumi�re
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)
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)
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)

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