APRIL 15

• 1450 - Battle of Formigny; 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.
• 1865 - Andrew Johnson is inaugurated as the 17th President of the United States.
• 1912 - The passenger liner RMS Titanic sinks
• 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
• 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
• 1989 - Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 begin.
• 1990 - The Hubble space telescope deployed from the space shuttle Discovery
• 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)
• 2001 - Easter day (not again till 2063).
• 2002 - An Air China Boeing 767-200 crashes into hillside during heavy rain and fog near Pusan, South Korea killing 122

Births

• 1452 - Leonardo da Vinci, artist (+ 1519)
• 1684 - Catherine I of Russia (+ 1727)
• 1688 - Johann Friedrich Fasch, composer (+ 1758)
• 1707 - Leonhard Euler, mathematician (+ 1783)
• 1793 - Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve, astronomer (+ 1864)
• 1800 - James Clark Ross explorer (+ 1862)
• 1811 - Siamese twins Chang and Eng Bunker (+ 1874).
• 1832 - Wilhelm Busch, poet, graphic artist and painter (+ 1908)
• 1843 - Henry James, author (+ 1916)
• 1861 - Bliss Carman, poet (+ 1929)
• 1878 - Robert Walser, lyricist and narrator (+ 1956)
• 1879 - Melville Henry Cane, U.S. lawyer and poet (+ 1980)
• 1889 - Thomas Hart Benton, U.S. muralist (+ 1975)
• 1894 - Bessie Smith, blues singer (+ 1937)
• 1902 - Fernando Pessa, Portuguese journalist (+2002)
• 1912 - Kim Il Sung, dictator of North Korea (+ 1994)
• 1916 - Helene Hanff, author
• 1920 - Richard von Weizäcker, President of Germany 1984-1994
• 1921 - Georgi Beregovoi, cosmonaut (+ 1995)
• 1930 - Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, former President of Iceland
• 1931 - Raymond McNally, author (+ 2002)
• 1933 - Elizabeth Montgomery, actress (+ 1995)
• 1933 - Roy Clark, country musician
• 1933 - Boris Strugatsky, author
• 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 (+ 1997)
• 1957 - Evelyn Ashford, track athlete
• 1959 - Emma Thompson, actress
• 1959 - Thomas F. Wilson, actor
• 1962 - Nawal El Moutawakel, hurdler
• 1966 - Samantha Fox, singer
• 1972 - Arturo Gatti, world champion boxer
• 1979 - Eric Kelley-Dodds, architect and philosopher
• 1990 - Emma Watson, actress

Deaths

• 69 - Otho, Roman Emperor
• 1865 - Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States
• 1911 - Antoine Lumière, photographer, industrialist, father of Auguste and Louis Lumière
• 1912 - John Jacob Astor IV, businessman
• 1912 - Benjamin Guggenheim, businessman
• 1942 - Robert Musil, novelist (The Man Without Qualities)
• 1949 - Wallace Beery, actor
• 1969 - Victoria Eugenie Julia Ena Maria Christina of Battenberg, Queen consort of Spain
• 1980 - Jean-Paul Sartre, philosopher and writer
• 1986 - Jean Genet, author
• 1988 - Kenneth Williams, actor & comedian.
• 1990 - Greta Garbo, actress
• 1990 - Ava Gardner, actress
• 1993 - John Tuzo Wilson, geologist (* 1908)
• 1993 - Leslie Charteris, author
• 1998 - Pol Pot, Cambodian dictator
• 2000 - Edward Gorey, illustrator
• 2001 - Joey Ramone, lead singer for The Ramones
• 2002 - Damon Knight, science fiction author

Holidays and Observances

• April 15 or the following Monday (if it falls on the weekend) is the deadline for Americans to file their tax returns. Post offices across the United States stay open until midnight to accommodate the procrastinators.
• Roman Empire - the Fordicia was celebrated in honor of Terra
• Ancient Latvia - Tipsa Diena observed

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

January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December