April 15

Events
Up to 1900
1071 - Norman forces under Robert Guiscard conquer Bari, present-day Italy.
1191 - Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor is crowned.
1450 - Battle of Formigny; Toward the end of the Hundred Years' War, the French attack and nearly destroy 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.
1638 - Tokugawa shogunate forces put down the Shimabara Rebellion when they retake Hara Castle from the rebels.
1736 - Corsicans rebel against the Republic of Genoa and declare the Westphalian Theodor von Neuhoff as King.
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 the American 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.
1861 - Abraham Lincoln calls for a volunteer force of 25,000 to stop the insurrection that soon became the American Civil War.
1865 - Abraham Lincoln dies after being shot the previous evening by John Wilkes Booth. 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.
1896 - Closing ceremony of the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens.
1900 - Philippine-American War: Filipino guerrillas launch a surprise attack on the United States infantry and begin the four-day Siege of Catubig, Philippines.
1901 2000
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 destruction of Armenian intellectuals and entrepreneurs within the city of Constantinople and later the entire Armenian population of the Empire.
1917 - Troop transporter Cameronia is sunk by a German U-boat east of Malta.
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.
1936 - First day of the Arab revolt in Palestine.
1936 - Aer Lingus is founded, as the national airline of the Republic of Ireland.
1940 - The Allies start their attack on the Norwegian town of Narvik which was occupied by Nazi Germany.
1941 - World War II: The German Luftwaffe attack Belfast in a bombing raid, killing 1,000 people.
1942 - George Cross given to "to the island fortress of Malta - its people and defenders" by King George VI of the United Kingdom.
1945 - The Bergen-Belsen concentration camp is liberated.
1947 - Jackie Robinson's first time playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team, breaking that sport's color line.
1955 - The first McDonald's restaurant opens in Des Plaines, Illinois.
1962 - Georges Pompidou becomes Prime Minister of France.
1969 - North Korea shoots down a United States Navy aircraft over the Sea of Japan, killing all 31 people on board.
1970 - Cambodian Civil War: Massacres of the Vietnamese minority result in bodies flowing down the Mekong River to South Vietnam.
1983 - Tokyo Disneyland opens.
1984 - The first World Youth Day is held in St. Peter's Square, Vatican City.
1985 - Bernhard Langer becomes the first German to win The Masters Tournament (a 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.
1986 - The United States launches Operation El Dorado Canyon, its bombing raids against Libyan targets in response to a bombing in West Germany that killed two American servicemen.
1989 - Hillsborough disaster: A human stampede occurs at Hillsborough, a football stadium in Sheffield, England, resulting in the loss of 96 lives. All of the people killed had come to support Liverpool FC against Nottingham Forest in an FA Cup match.
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.
From 2001
2001 - Easter day (not again until 2063).
2002 - An Air China Boeing 767-200, flight CA129 crashes into a hillside during heavy rain and fog near Pusan, South Korea, killing 128.
2010 - Response to the eruption of the volcano 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.
2013 - 2013 Boston Marathon bombings: Two bombs explode near the finishing line of the Boston Marathon, killing 3 people and injuring over 140.
2014 - A lunar eclipse in which the Moon turns dark red is seen throughout the Americas and parts of the South Pacific Ocean.
2017 - A bomb attack on a bus convoy outside Aleppo, Syria, kills at least 126 people, most of them children.
2018 - The 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, come to an end.
2019 - Notre-Dame de Paris fire: Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris is heavily damaged by fire.
2023 - 2023 Sudan conflict happens in Khartoum.
Births
Up to 1900
1282 - Frederick IV, Duke of Lorraine (d. 1329)
1367 - King Henry IV of England (d. 1413)
1452 - Leonardo da Vinci, Italian polymath (d. 1519)
1469 - Guru Nanak Dev, Sikh guru (d. 1539)
1552 - Pietro Cataldi, Italian mathematician (d. 1626)
1563 - Guru Arjun Dev, Sikh guru (d. 1606)
1641 - Robert Sibbald, Scottish physician (d. 1722)
1642 - Suleiman II, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1691)
1646 - King Christian V of Denmark (d. 1699)
1646 - Pierre Poiret, French mystic and philosopher (d. 1719)
1684 - Catherine I of Russia (d. 1727)
1707 - Leonhard Euler, Swiss mathematician (d. 1783)
1710 - Marie-Anne de Cupis de Camargo, French dancer (d. 1770)
1710 - William Cullen, Scottish physician and chemist (d. 1790)
1721 - Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland (d. 1765)
1744 - Charles Wilson Peale, American painter (d. 1827)
1783 - Maria Branwell, mother of the Bronte siblings (d. 1821)
1793 - Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve, German astronomer (d. 1864)
1797 - Adolphe Thiers, French writer and politician (d. 1877)
1800 - James Clark Ross, English explorer (d. 1862)
1809 - Hermann Grassmann, German polymath (d. 1877)
1814 - John Lothrop Motley, American diplomat (d. 1877)
1817 - Benjamin Jowett, English educator and theologian (d. 1893)
1821 - Joseph E. Brown, American politician, Governor of Georgia (d. 1894)
1828 - Jean Danjou, French captain (d. 1863)
1832 - Wilhelm Busch, German poet and writer (d. 1908)
1832 - Herbert Vaughan, English cardinal (d. 1903)
1841 - Joseph E. Seagram, Canadian politician and philanthropist (d. 1919)
1843 - Henry James, American writer (d. 1916)
1851 - Ponnambalam Ramanathan, Ceylonese-Tamil statesman (d. 1930)
1858 - Emile Durkheim, French sociologist and ethnologist (d. 1917)
1865 - Olga Boznanska, Polish painter (d. 1940)
1866 - Robert Livingston Beeckman, Governor of Rhode Island (d. 1935)
1874 - George Harrison Shull, American geneticist (d. 1954)
1874 - Johannes Stark, German physicist (d. 1957)
1877 - W. D. Ross, Scottish philosopher (d. 1971)
1883 - Stanley Bruce, 8th Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1967)
1886 - Nikolay Gumilyov, Russian poet (d. 1921)
1890 - Percy Shaw, English inventor (d. 1976)
1891 - Wallace Reid, American actor (d. 1923)
1892 - Corrie ten Boom, Dutch writer, activist, and Holocaust survivor (d. 1983)
1894 - Bessie Smith, American blues singer (d. 1937)
1894 - Nikita Khrushchev, leader of the Soviet Union (d. 1971)
1896 - Nikolay Nikolayevich Semyonov, Russian chemist (d. 1986)
1898 - Harry Edward, English sprinter (d. 1973)
1901 1950
1901 - Rene Pleven, Prime Minister of France (d. 1993)
1901 - Joe Davis, English snooker player (d. 1978)
1901 - Ajoy Mukherjee, Indian politician, Chief Minister of West Bengal (d. 1986)
1904 - Arshile Gorky, Armenian-American painter (d. 1948)
1907 - Nikolaas Tinbergen, Dutch ethologist (d. 1988)
1908 - Lita Grey, American actress (d. 1995)
1910 - Miguel Najdorf, Polish-Argentine chess player (d. 1997)
1912 - Kim Il-Sung, President of North Korea (d. 1994)
1915 - Elizabeth Catlett, American-Mexican artist and sculptor (d. 2012)
1915 - Walter Washington, American politician, Mayor of Washington, DC (d. 2003)
1917 - Hans Conried, American actor (d. 1982)
1920 - Richard von Weizsaecker, former President of Germany (d. 2015)
1920 - Thomas Szasz, Hungarian-American psychiatrist (d. 2012)
1921 - Georgi Beregovoi, Soviet-Russian cosmonaut (d. 1995)
1922 - Harold Washington, American politician, Mayor of Chicago (d. 1987)
1922 - Michael Ansara, Syrian-American actor (d. 2013)
1924 - Neville Marriner, English conductor and violinist (d. 2016)
1924 - Rikki Fulton, Scottish actor and comedian (d. 2004)
1927 - Ernie Copland, Scottish footballer
1927 - Robert Mills, American physicist (d. 1999)
1929 - Adrian Cadbury, English rower and businessman (d. 2015)
1930 - Vigdis Finnbogadottir, 4th President of Iceland
1931 - Giovanni Reale, Italian historian and philosopher (d. 2014)
1931 - Tomas Transtromer, Swedish poet (d. 2015)
1932 - Eva Figes, German-born English author (d. 2012)
1933 - Roy Clark, American singer, musician and television host
1933 - Elizabeth Montgomery, American actress (d. 1995)
1936 - Raymond Poulidor, French cyclist
1938 - Claudia Cardinale, Tunisian-born Italian actress
1938 - Hso Khan Pha, Burmese-Canadian geologist and politician
1938 - Jay Garner, American lieutenant general
1939 - Marty Wilder, British rock singer
1940 - Jeffrey Archer, British politician and writer
1940 - Yossef Romano, Israeli weightlifter (d. 1972)
1940 - Penelope Coelen, South African actress, model and beauty queen
1941 - Howard Berman, American politician
1942 - Walt Hazzard, American basketball coach (d. 2011)
1943 - Robert Lefkowitz, American physician and Nobel Prize winner
1943 - Mighty Sam McClain, American singer-songwriter (d. 2015)
1944 - Dzhokhar Dudayev, Chechen general and politician (d. 1996)
1944 - Dave Edmunds, Welsh singer and guitarist
1944 - Kunishige Kamamoto, Japanese footballer
1946 - Pete Rouse, American politician
1946 - Michael Tucci, American actor
1947 - Mike Chapman, Australian songwriter
1949 - Alla Pugacheva, Russian singer and composer
1949 - David Rendel, English politician (d. 2016)
1949 - Craig Zadan, American director, producer and screenwriter
1950 - Josiane Balasko, French actress, director and screenwriter
1950 - Paul Luond, Swiss musician (d. 2014)
1951 1975
1951 - John L. Phillips, American astronaut
1951 - Stuart Prebble, English broadcaster
1951 - Choei Sato, Japanese footballer
1955 - Jeff Golub, American musician (d. 2015)
1955 - Dodi al-Fayed, Egyptian businessman (d. 1997)
1956 - Michael Cooper, American basketball player and coach
1957 - Evelyn Ashford, American athlete
1957 - Hwang Kyo-ahn, South Korean politician, former Prime minister of South Korea
1958 - Benjamin Zephaniah, British writer
1958 - Abu Hamza al-Masri, Egyptian Islamic fundamentalist preacher
1959 - Emma Thompson, British actress
1960 - King Philippe of Belgium
1960 - Pedro Delgado, Spanish cyclist
1960 - Susanne Bier, Danish movie director
1961 - Carol W. Greider, American molecular biologist and Nobel Prize winner
1961 - Luca Barbarossa, Italian singer
1962 - Tom Kane, American voice actor
1963 - Beata Szydlo, Polish politician, Prime Minister of Poland
1966 - Samantha Fox, British singer, actress and model
1967 - Dara Torres, American swimmer
1967 - Frankie Poullain, British musician
1968 - Ed O'Brien, British musician (Radiohead)
1968 - Vano Merabishvili, Georgian politician
1969 - Jimmy Waite, Canadian ice hockey player
1972 - Trine Dyrholm, Danish actress and singer
1972 - Arturo Gatti, Canadian boxer (d. 2009)
1972 - Lou Romano, American voice actor
1973 - Teddy Lucic, Swedish footballer
1974 - Danny Way, American skateboarder
1975 - Adolfo Cambiaso, Argentine polo player
From 1976
1976 - John Lamont, Scottish politician
1976 - Seigo Narazaki, Japanese footballer
1977 - Sudarshan Pattnaik, Indian sand artist
1977 - Lilia Vaygina-Efremova, Ukrainian biathlete
1978 - Soumaila Coulibaly, Malian footballer
1978 - Milton Bradley, American baseball player
1979 - Luke Evans, Welsh actor
1982 - Albert Riera, Spanish footballer
1982 - Seth Rogen, Canadian actor and writer
1983 - Alice Braga, Brazilian actress
1983 - Matt Cardle, English singer
1983 - Dudu Cearense, Brazilian footballer
1983 - Ilya Kovalchuk, Russian ice hockey player
1986 - Tom Heaton, English footballer
1986 - Quincy Owusu-Abeyje, Ghanaian footballer
1988 - Steven Defour, Belgian footballer
1988 - Eliza Doolittle, English singer
1988 - Leonie Elliott, English actress
1989 - Shawn Nicklaw, American footballer
1989 - Brandur Enni, Faroese singer
1990 - Emma Watson, English actress
1990 - Lily Carter, American pornographic actress
1991 - Daiki Arioka, Japanese actor and singer
1991 - Anastasia Vinnikova, Belarussian singer
1992 - Amy Deasismont, Swedish singer
1992 - Richard Sandrak, American bodybuilder, martial artist and actor
1992 - John Guidetti, Swedish footballer
1993 - Madeleine Martin, American actress
1997 - Maisie Williams, British actress
1999 - Denis Shapovalov, Israeli-born Canadian tennis player
Deaths
Up to 1900
571 - Emperor Kimmei of Japan
628 - Empress Suiko of Japan (b. 554)
1053 - Godwin, Earl of Wessex
1220 - Adolf of Altena, German archbishop (b. 1157)
1415 - Manuel Chrysolaris, Greek humanist and grammarian (b. 1355)
1446 - Filippo Brunelleschi, Italian architect (b. 1377)
1558 - Roxelana, Polish wife of Suleiman the Magnificent (b. 1500)
1621 - John Carver, English merchant and Governor of Plymouth Colony (b. 1576)
1641 - Domenico Zampieri, Italian painter (b. 1581)
1659 - Simon Dach, German poet (b. 1605)
1697 - King Charles XI of Sweden (b. 1665)
1719 - Francoise d'Aubigne, marquise de Maintenon, Queen of France (b. 1635)
1754 - Jacopo Riccati, Italian mathematician (b. 1676)
1764 - Madame de Pompadour, mistress of King Louis XV of France (b. 1721)
1765 - Mikhail Lomonosov, Russian scientist and writer (b. 1711)
1854 - Arthur Aikin, English chemist, mineralogist and writer (b. 1773)
1865 - Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States (b. 1809)
1889 - Father Damien, Belgian Roman Catholic priest and missionary (b. 1840)
1894 - James M. Harvey, American politician, 5th Governor of Kansas (b. 1833)
1898 - Kepa Te Rangihiwini, Maori military leader
1901 2000
1912 - People who died in the sinking of the RMS Titanic, including:
Edward Smith, captain of the RMS Titanic (b. 1850)
Thomas Andrews, Irish shipbuilder (b. 1873)
Jack Phillips, British wireless telegraphist (b. 1887)
John Jacob Astor IV, American businessman and billionaire (b. 1864)
Benjamin Guggenheim, American businessman (b. 1865)
1913 - Gabdulla Tukay, Tatar poet (b. 1886)
1925 - Fritz Haarmann, German serial killer (b. 1879)
1925 - John Singer Sargent, American painter (b. 1856)
1927 - Gaston Leroux, French writer (b. 1868)
1935 - Anna Ancher, Danish painter (b. 1859)
1938 - Cesar Vallejo, Peruvian poet (b. 1892)
1942 - Robert Musil, Austrian writer (b. 1880)
1944 - Nikolai Fyodorovich Vatutin, Soviet military commander (b. 1901)
1949 - Wallace Beery, American actor (b. 1885)
1957 - Pedro Infante, Mexican actor and singer (b. 1917)
1962 - Clara Blandick, American actress (b. 1880)
1962 - Arsenio Lacson, Mayor of Manila (b. 1912)
1967 - Toto, Italian comedian, actor, writer and singer-songwriter (b. 1898)
1969 - Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg (b. 1887)
1971 - Gurgen Boryan, Armenian poet and playwright (b. 1915)
1972 - Frank Knight, American economist (b. 1885)
1974 - Giovanni D'Anzi, Italian songwriter (b. 1906)
1980 - Jean-Paul Sartre, French philosopher (b. 1905)
1983 - Corrie ten Boom, Dutch writer, 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)
1989 - Hu Yaobang, Chinese politician (b. 1915)
1989 - Charles Vanel, French actor and director (b. 1892)
1990 - Greta Garbo, Swedish actress (b. 1905)
1994 - John Curry, British figure skater (b. 1949)
1998 - Pol Pot, Cambodian dictator (b. 1925)
From 2001
2001 - Joey Ramone, American punk rocker (b. 1951)
2002 - Byron White, American football player, lawyer and jurist (b. 1917)
2004 - Mitsuteru Yokoyama, Japanese manga artist (b. 1934)
2008 - Sean Costello, American blues musician (b. 1979)
2009 - Clement Freud, British writer, broadcaster and Member of Parliament (b. 1924)
2009 - Laszlo Tisza, Hungarian-American physicist (b. 1907)
2011 - Vittorio Arrigoni, Italian activist (b. 1975)
2012 - Murray Rose, British-born Australian swimmer (b. 1939)
2013 - Richard Collins, Canadian actor (b. 1947)
2013 - Richard LeParmentier, British-American actor (b. 1946)
2013 - Sal Castro, American activist and teacher (b. 1933)
2014 - Owen Woodhouse, New Zealand judge (b. 1916)
2014 - Shane Gibson, American guitarist (b. 1979)
2014 - John Houbolt, American aerospace engineer (b. 1919)
2014 - Hugo Villar, Uruguayan physician and politician (b. 1925)
2015 - Surya Bahadur Thapa, Prime Minister of Nepal (b. 1928)
2015 - Alexander Nadson, Belarussian religious leader (b. 1926)
2015 - Jonathan Crombie, Canadian actor (b. 1966)
2015 - Tadahiko Ueda, Japanese footballer (b. 1947)
2016 - Anne Grommerch, French politician (b. 1970)
2017 - David Brumbaugh, American politician (b. 1956)
2017 - Clifton James, American actor (b. 1920)
2017 - Emma Morano, Italian supercentenarian, last-surviving person born in the 1800s (b. 1899)
2017 - Sylvia Moy, American songwriter and record producer (b. 1938)
2018 - R. Lee Ermey, American actor (b. 1944)
2018 - Michael Halliday, English-Australian linguist (b. 1925)
2018 - Judy Kennedy, American politician (b. 1944)
2018 - Waqar Ahmad Shah, Indian politician (b. 1943)
2018 - Frank Skartados, Greek-American politician (b. 1956)
2018 - Vittorio Taviani, Italian movie director (b. 1929)
2018 - Bob Braden, American computer scientist (b. 1934)
2018 - Frank Drowota, American judge (b. 1938)
2019 - Owen Garriott, American astronaut (b. 1930)
2019 - Aleksandar Kostov, Bulgarian footballer (b. 1938)
2019 - Les Reed, English songwriter (b. 1935)
2019 - Winston L. Shelton, American inventor and entrepreneur (b. 1922)
2019 - Joaquim Alberto Silva, Angolan footballer (b. 1974)
Observances
Tax Day (United States)
Kim Il-Sung's birthday (North Korea)
Father Damien Day (Hawaii)
Jackie Robinson Day in Major League Baseball
Bengali New Year
World Art Day
Days of the year