# July 15

**July 15** is the 196th day of the year (197th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 169 days remaining until the end of the year.

## Events

### Up to 1900

* 1099 – First Crusade: Christian soldiers take Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem after a difficult siege.
* 1149 – The rebuilt Church of the Holy Sepulchre is consecrated in Jerusalem.
* 1207 – John of England expels Canterbury monks for supporting Archbishop of Canterbury Stephen Langton.
* 1240 – Swedish–Novgorodian Wars: A Novgorodian army led by Alexander Nevsky defeats the Swedes at the Battle of the Neva.
* 1381 – John Ball, a leader in the Peasants' Revolt, hanged, drawn and quartered in the presence of Richard II of England.
* 1410 – Battle of Grunwald (a.k.a. Tannenberg or Zalgiris): power of the Teutonic Knights broken by a defeat from Poles and Lithuanians.
* 1482 – Muhammad XII of Granada becomes the 22nd and last Nasrid King of Granada.
* 1685 – James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth is executed at Tower Hill, England after his defeat at the Battle of Sedgemore on 6 July 1685.
* 1741 – Aleksei Chirikov sights land in Southeast Alaska and sends men ashore in a longboat, making them the first European to land in mainland Alaska.
* 1789 – Gilbert du Motier, marquis de La Fayette, by acclamation, named colonel-general of the new National Guard of Paris.
* 1799 – Rosetta Stone is found in the Egyptian village of Rosetta, by French Captain Pierre-François Bouchard.
* 1806 – Pike expedition: Near St. Louis, Missouri, United States Army Lieutenant Zebulon Pike begins an expedition from Fort Belle Fountaine to explore the west.
* 1815 – Napoléon Bonaparte surrenders from aboard HMS *Bellerophon*.
* 1834 – The Spanish Inquisition is officially disbanded after nearly 356 years.
* 1862 – American Civil War: Confederates break naval blockade of Vicksburg, Mississippi.
* 1870 – Post-American-Civil-War Reconstruction: Georgia becomes the last of the former Confederate states to be readmitted to the Union.
* 1870 – Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory are transferred to Canada from the Hudson's Bay Company, and the province of Manitoba and the North-West Territories are established from these vast territories.
* 1888 – The Bandai volcano in Japan erupts, killing 477 people.
* 1895 – Archie MacLaren scores County Championship record cricket innings of 424 for Lancashire against Somerset at Taunton.

### 1901 – 2000

* 1916 – In Seattle, Washington, William Boeing and George Conrad Westervelt incorporate Pacific Aero Products (later renamed Boeing).
* 1918 – World War I: Second Battle of the Marne – The battle begins near the River Marne with a German attack.
* 1922 – The Japanese Communist Party is created in Japan.
* 1926 – BEST buses make its début in Mumbai.
* 1927 – Massacre of July 15, 1927: 89 protesters are killed by the Austrian police in Vienna.
* 1929 – First weekly radio broadcast of Mormon Tabernacle Choir radio show, *Music and the Spoken Word*.
* 1931 – Kid Chocolate becomes Cuba's first world boxing champion.
* 1945 – US President Harry Truman disembarks the heavy cruiser the USS Augusta (CA-31) in Antwerp en route to Potsdam for the Potsdam Conference.
* 1953 – John Reginald Christie, British serial killer executed.
* 1954 – First flight of the Boeing 707, the first American jet passenger airliner.
* 1955 – Eighteen Nobel Prize winners sign the Mainau Declaration against nuclear weapons, later co-signed by 34 others.
* 1958 – In Lebanon, 5,000 United States Marines land in the capital Beirut in order to provide military support to the pro-Western government there.
* 1965 – The Mariner 4 sends the first close-up pictures of a planet other than Earth, when it sends pictures from Mars.
* 1974 – In Nicosia, Cyprus, Greek-sponsored nationalists launch a coup d'état, deposing President Makarios and installing Nikos Sampson as Cypriot president.
* 1974 – Christine Chubbock, a TV host in Sarasota, Florida commits suicide during the taping of her show live on air.
* 1975 – Apollo Soyuz Test Project: Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft take off for U.S.–Soviet link-up in space.
* 1977 – Griffith N.S.W, Anti – Drug campaigner Donald Mackay disappears presumed murdered.
* 1979 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter gives his famous "malaise" speech, where he characterizes the greatest threat to the country as "this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation."
* 1988 – *Die Hard* opens in theaters, starring Bruce Willis
* 1989 – Punk rock band Bad Religion releases their sixth album, No Control.
* 1992 – A major fire consumes an entire city block in tourist destination Gatlinburg, Tennessee, destroying the Ripley's Believe It Or Not! Museum and several other local businesses in the process. The block was rebuilt and re-opened in 1995.
* 1994 – Albert Belle of the Cleveland Indians caught with a corked bat.
* 1995 – *Fluid Concepts & Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought* by Douglas Hofstadter becomes the first item sold on Amazon.com
* 1996 – MSNBC cable-DBS channel launched
* 1996 – A Royal Belgian Air Force C-130 Hercules carrying the Royal Netherlands Army marching band crashes on landing at Eindhoven Airport. Thirty-two people die in the flames, two people die of their injuries, and Seven people sustain severe burns.
* 1997 – In Miami, Florida, serial killer Andrew Phillip Cunanan guns down Gianni Versace outside his home.
* 1999 – Safeco Field opens in Seattle, Washington.
* 1999 – The first flights from the United Kingdom to Argentina since the Falklands War occur.

### From 2001

* 2002 – "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh pleads guilty to supplying aid to the enemy and for the possession of explosives during the commission of a felony. Lindh agrees to serve 10 years in prison for each of the charges.
* 2002 – Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and three other suspects convicted of murdering *Wall Street Journal* reporter Daniel Pearl.
* 2003 – AOL Time Warner disbands Netscape Communications Corporation. The Mozilla Foundation is established on the same day.
* 2004 – Monorail service begins in Las Vegas.
* 2004 – The BBC airs the documentary *The Secret Agent*, exposing racism by members of the British National Party.
* 2005 – Jack Nicklaus plays his last hole of competitive golf during The Open Championship at Hole 18 at St Andrews, finishing with a birdie.
* 2005 – Disneyland "re-launches" Space Mountain in Anaheim, California.
* 2006 – Twitter is launched.
* 2007 – Shimon Peres becomes President of Israel.
* 2009 – Caspian Airlines Flight 7908 crashes in Northwestern Iran, killing 153 people.
* 2016 – Sections of the military attempt a coup in Turkey.
* 2018 – 2018 FIFA World Cup: France defeat first-time finalists Croatia 4–2 in the Final to win their second FIFA World Cup trophy.
* 2019 – It is announced that Alan Turing will appear on the new 50–pound Bank of England note.

## Births

### Up to 1900

* 1273 – Ewostatewos, Ethiopian monk and saint (d. 1352)
* 1353 – Vladimir the Bold, Russian prince (d. 1410)
* 1471 – Eskender, Emperor of Ethiopia (d. 1494)
* 1553 – Archduke Ernest of Austria (d. 1595)
* 1573 – Inigo Jones, English architect (d. 1652)
* 1606 – Rembrandt, Dutch artist (d. 1669)
* 1626 – Christiane Sehested, daughter of Christian IV of Denmark (d. 1671)
* 1626 – Hedvig Uffeldt, daughter of Christian IV of Denmark (d. 1678)
* 1631 – Jens Juel, Danish Governor-General of Norway (d. 1700)
* 1638 – Giovanni Buonaventura Viviani, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1693)
* 1737 – Princess Louise Marie of France (d. 1787)
* 1765 – Charles Goldsborough, American politician, Governor of Maryland (d. 1834)
* 1779 – Clement Clarke Moore, American educator, writer, and poet (d. 1863)
* 1790 – William Henry Playfair, Scottish architect (d. 1857)
* 1796 – Thomas Bulfinch, American mythologist (d. 1796)
* 1799 – Reuben Chapman, American politician, 13th Governor of Alabama (d. 1882)
* 1804 – Jane Stirling, Scottish pianist (d. 1859)
* 1808 – Henry Edward Cardinal Manning, English Catholic archbishop (d. 1892)
* 1812 – James Hope-Scott, English barrister (d. 1873)
* 1817 – Sir John Fowler, 1st Baronet, English civil engineer (d. 1898)
* 1827 – William Wallace Thayer, American politician, 6th Governor of Oregon (d. 1899)
* 1837 – Stephanie von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, Queen Consort of Portugal (d. 1859)
* 1848 – Vilfredo Pareto, Italian economist and sociologist (d. 1923)
* 1850 – Mother Cabrini, Italian-born Roman Catholic saint (d. 1917)
* 1851 – Eduardo Gutiérrez, Argentine author (d. 1889)
* 1858 – Emmeline Pankhurst, English activist (d. 1928)
* 1864 – Marie Tempest, English actress and singer (d. 1942)
* 1865 – Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe, Irish-English publisher (d. 1922)
* 1865 – Wilhelm Wirtinger, Austrian mathematician (d. 1945)
* 1867 – Jean-Baptiste Charcot, French scientist (d. 1936)
* 1870 – Vladimir Dmitrievich Nabokov, Russian publisher and politician (d. 1922)
* 1871 – Kunikida Doppo, Japanese writer (d. 1908)
* 1884 – Phraya Manopakorn Nititada, 1st Prime Minister of Siam, present-day Thailand (d. 1948)
* 1892 – Walter Benjamin, German literary critic and writer (d. 1940)
* 1897 – Sam H. Jones, American politician, Governor of Louisiana (d. 1978)
* 1899 – Seán F. Lemass, Irish leader and Taoiseach (d. 1971)

### 1901 – 1950

* 1902 – Jean Rey, Belgian politician and President of the European Commission (d. 1983)
* 1911 – Edward Shackleton, English explorer (d. 1994)
* 1913 – Hammond Innes, English writer (d. 1998)
* 1913 – Cowboy Copas, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1963)
* 1913 – Abraham Sutzkever, Russian poet (d. 2010)
* 1914 – Howard Vernon, Swiss actor (d. 2010)
* 1917 – Robert Conquest, English-American historian (d. 2015)
* 1918 – Nuur Muhammad Taraki, President of Afghanistan (d. 1979)
* 1918 – Bertram N. Brockhouse, Canadian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2003)
* 1918 – Brenda Milner, English-Canadian neuropsychologist and academic
* 1919 – Iris Murdoch, English writer (d. 1999)
* 1921 – Robert Bruce Merrifield, American chemist (d. 2006)
* 1922 – Leon M. Lederman, American physicist (d. 2018)
* 1924 – Jeremiah Denton, American admiral and politician (d. 2014)
* 1925 – Philip Carey, American actor (d. 2009)
* 1925 – Taylor Hardwick, American architect (d. 2014)
* 1925 – D. A. Pennebaker, American documentary filmmaker (d. 2019)
* 1926 – Raymond Gosling, English physicist and academic (d. 2015)
* 1926 – Leopoldo Galtieri, Argentine dictator (d. 2003)
* 1926 – Driss Chraïbi, Moroccan writer (d. 2007)
* 1927 – Nan Clow Martin, actress
* 1927 – Carmen Zapata, American actress (d. 2014)
* 1928 – Carl Woese, American microbiologist (d. 2012)
* 1930 – Jacques Derrida, French philosopher (d. 2004)
* 1930 – Stephen Smale, American mathematician
* 1931 – Clive Cussler, American writer
* 1932 – Ed Litzenberger, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2010)
* 1933 – Julian Bream, English guitarist and lutenist
* 1933 – Guido Crepax, Italian comics artist (d. 2003)
* 1934 – Harrison Birtwistle, English composer
* 1934 – Risto Jarva, Finnish movie maker (d. 1977)
* 1935 – Diahann Carroll, American actress
* 1936 – George Voinovich, American politician, 65th Governor of Ohio (d. 2016)
* 1939 – Abdulhussain Abdulredha, Kuwaiti actor and writer (d. 2017)
* 1939 – Aníbal Cavaco Silva, former President of Portugal
* 1939 – Patrick Wayne, American actor
* 1940 – Robert Winston, British scientist, politician and television presenter
* 1942 – Mil Mascaras, Mexican professional wrestler
* 1943 – Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Northern Irish astrophysicist, astronomer and academic
* 1944 – Millie Jackson, American singer
* 1945 – Jürgen Möllemann, German politician (d. 2003)
* 1946 – Linda Ronstadt, American singer
* 1946 – Hassanal Bolkiah, Sultan of Brunei
* 1946 – Dieter Herzog, German footballer
* 1947 – Peter Banks, English guitarist (d. 2013)
* 1948 – Twinkle, English singer-songwriter (d. 2015)
* 1948 – Artimus Pyle, American drummer and songwriter (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
* 1949 – Carl Bildt, Swedish politician, former Prime Minister of Sweden
* 1949 – Trevor Horn, English musician
* 1950 – Colin Barnett, Australian politician, 29th Premier of Western Australia
* 1950 – Arianna Huffington, Greek-American journalist (Huffington Post)

### 1951 – 1975

* 1951 – Gregory Isaacs, Jamaican musician (d. 2010)
* 1951 – Jesse Ventura, American professional wrestler and former Governor of Minnesota
* 1952 – David A. Granger, 9th President of Guyana
* 1952 – Celia Imrie, English actress
* 1952 – Yuriko Koike, Japanese politician, Governor of Tokyo
* 1952 – Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, United States Congresswoman from Florida
* 1953 – Sultanah Haminah Hamidun, Queen of Malaysia
* 1953 – Jean-Bertrand Aristide, former President of Haiti
* 1953 – John Denham, British politician
* 1954 – Mario Kempes, Argentine footballer
* 1954 – Tarak Dhiab, Tunisian footballer
* 1954 – Jeff Jarvis, American journalist and blogger
* 1956 – Ian Curtis, British musician, singer and lyricist (Joy Division) (d. 1980)
* 1956 – Barry Melrose, Canadian hockey player, coach, and commentator
* 1956 – Marky Ramone, American musician (The Ramones)
* 1958 – Mac Thornberry, American politician
* 1960 – Willie Aames, American actor
* 1961 – Forest Whitaker, American actor
* 1961 – Scott Ritter, American weapons inspector
* 1961 – Jean-Christophe Grangé, French journalist and screenwriter
* 1963 – Brigitte Nielsen, Danish-American model, actress and singer
* 1965 – Alistair Carmichael, Scottish politician
* 1965 – David Miliband, English politician
* 1966 – Jason Bonham, English drummer
* 1966 – Irène Jacob, French-born Swiss actress
* 1968 – Eddie Griffin, American actor
* 1968 – Stan Kirsch, American actor
* 1968 – Shirley Robertson, Scottish sailor
* 1970 – Angela Constance, Scottish politician
* 1970 – Gabriel Weston, English surgeon and author
* 1970 – Chi Cheng, American musician
* 1971 – John Dolmayan, Lebanese-born drummer (System of a Down)
* 1971 – Jim Rash, American actor, producer and screenwriter
* 1972 – Yao Defen, Chinese world's tallest-living woman record holder (d. 2012)
* 1972 – Scott Foley, American actor
* 1972 – Beth Ostrosky Stern, American model and actress
* 1973 – Brian Austin Green, American actor

### From 1976

* 1976 – Diane Kruger, German actress and model
* 1976 – Shuba Jay, Malaysian actress (d. 2014)
* 1976 – Marco Di Vaio, Italian footballer
* 1977 – Kitana Baker, American model and actress
* 1977 – Lana Parrilla, American actress
* 1979 – Alexander Frei, Swiss footballer
* 1981 – Alou Diarra, French footballer
* 1981 – Peter Odemwingie, Nigerian footballer
* 1981 – Taylor Kinney, American actor and model
* 1983 – Heath Slater, American wrestler
* 1986 – Tyler Kennedy, Canadian ice hockey player
* 1989 – Alisa Kleybanova, Russian tennis player
* 1989 – Anthony Randolph, American basketball player
* 1989 – Tristan Wilds, American actor and singer
* 1990 – Olly Alexander, English singer-songwriter and actor (Years and Years)
* 1990 – Zach Bogosian, American ice hockey player
* 1990 – Tyler Honeycutt, American basketball player (d. 2018)
* 1990 – Damian Lillard, American basketball player
* 1991 – Derrick Favors, American basketball player
* 1991 – Yuki Kashiwagi, Japanese singer and actress
* 1992 – Koharu Kusume, Japanese singer, former member of Morning Musume
* 1992 – Tobias Harris, American basketball player
* 1992 – Wayde van Niekerk, South African sprinter
* 1992 – Porter Robinson, American DJ and producer
* 1996 – Vivianne Miedema, Dutch footballer

## Deaths

### Up to 1900

* 756 – Yang Guifei, Chinese consort (b. 719)
* 1085 – Robert Guiscard, Norman adventurer (b. c. 1015)
* 1274 – Bonaventure, Italian bishop and saint (b. 1221)
* 1291 – Rudolph I of Germany, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1218)
* 1406 – William, Duke of Austria (b. 1370)
* 1445 – Jean Beaufort, Queen of Scots (b. 1406)
* 1521 – Juan Ponce de León, Spanish explorer and Conquistador (b. c. 1474)
* 1571 – Shimazu Takahisa, Japanese samurai and warlord (b. 1514)
* 1655 – Girolamo Rainaldi, Italian architect (b. 1570)
* 1685 – James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, illegitimate son of Charles II of England (b. 1649)
* 1750 – Vasily Tatishchev, Russian ethnographer and politician (b. 1686)
* 1767 – Michael Bruce, Scottish poet (b. 1746)
* 1782 – Farinelli, Italian castrato (b. 1705)
* 1828 – Jean Antoine Houdon, French sculptor (b. 1741)
* 1839 – Winthrop Mackworth Praed, English poet (b. 1802)
* 1844 – Claude Charles Fauriel, French historian (b. 1772)
* 1851 – Juan Felipe Ibarra, Argentine soldier and politician (b. 1787)
* 1857 – Carl Czerny, Austrian composer (b. 1791)
* 1890 – Gottfried Keller, Swiss writer (b. 1819)

### 1901 – 2000

* 1904 – Anton Chekhov, Russian writer (b. 1860)
* 1907 – Qiu Jin, Chinese revolutionary (b. 1875)
* 1916 – Elie Metchnikoff, Russian scientist (b. 1845)
* 1919 – Hermann Emil Fischer, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1852)
* 1929 – Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Austrian writer (b. 1874)
* 1930 – Leopold Auer, Hungarian violinist and composer (b. 1845)
* 1931 – Ladislaus Bortkiewicz, Russian economist (b. 1868)
* 1933 – Irving Babbitt, American literary critic (b. 1865)
* 1933 – Freddie Keppard, American musician (b. 1890)
* 1940 – Robert Wadlow, American, tallest human on record (b. 1918)
* 1940 – Eugen Bleuler, Swiss psychiatrist and physician (b. 1857)
* 1946 – Razor Smith, English cricketer (b. 1877)
* 1947 – Walter Donaldson, American songwriter (b. 1893)
* 1948 – John J. Pershing, American general (b. 1860)
* 1953 – John Reginald Christie, British murderer (b. 1899)
* 1957 – George Cleveland, Canadian actor (b. 1885)
* 1957 – James M. Cox, American politician (b. 1870)
* 1958 – Julia Lennon, mother of John Lennon (b. 1914)
* 1959 – Ernest Bloch, Swiss composer (b. 1880)
* 1960 – Lawrence Tibbett, American actor (b. 1896)
* 1961 – John E. Brownlee, Canadian politician (b. 1884)
* 1965 – Francis Cherry, American politician (b. 1908)
* 1979 – Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, 29th President of Mexico (b. 1911)
* 1989 – Laurie Cunningham, English footballer (b. 1956)
* 1990 – Margaret Lockwood, English actress and singer (b. 1913)
* 1991 – Bert Convy, American actor (b. 1933)
* 1992 – Hammer DeRoburt, first President of Nauru (b. 1922)
* 1992 – Chingiz Mustafayev, Azerbaijani journalist and author (b. 1960)
* 1996 – Dana Hill, American actress (b. 1964)
* 1997 – Gianni Versace, Italian fashion designer (b. 1946)

### From 2001

* 2003 – Adi Preißler, German footballer (b. 1921)
* 2003 – Roberto Bolaño, Chilean writer (b. 1953)
* 2008 – Karl Unterkircher, Austrian mountaineer (b. 1970)
* 2009 – Natalya Estemirova, Russian activist (b. 1958)
* 2012 – Celeste Holm, American actress and singer (b. 1917)
* 2014 – James MacGregor Burns, American historian and political scientist (b. 1918)
* 2014 – Robert A. Roe, American politician (b. 1924)
* 2015 – Wan Li, Chinese politician (b. 1916)
* 2015 – Fred Wendorf, American archaeologist (b. 1924)
* 2016 – Qandeel Baloch, Pakistani model and social media celebrity (b. 1990)
* 2016 – Janez Bernik, Slovenian painter (b. 1933)
* 2016 – Duncan M. Gray, Jr., American prelate (b. 1926)
* 2017 – Anne Buttimer, Irish geographer (b. 1938)
* 2017 – Martin Landau, American actor (b. 1928)
* 2017 – Babe Parilli, American football player (b. 1930)
* 2017 – Bob Wolff, American broadcaster (b. 1920)
* 2017 – Vjekoslav Vojo Radoicic, Croatian painter, sculptor and stage designer (b. 1930)
* 2018 – Ray Emery, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1982)
* 2019 – Mortimer Caplin, American lawyer and educator (b. 1916)
* 2019 – Ousmane Tanor Dieng, Senegalese politician (b. 1947)
* 2019 – Craig Fallon, British judoka (b. 1982)
* 2019 – Werner Müller, German politician and businessman (b. 1946)

## Observances

* Saint Swithin's Day (England), according to legend, supposed to predict weather for the rest of the Summer
* Sultan's birthday (Brunei)