July 15

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-Francois 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 - Napoleon 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 debut 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'etat, 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 Gutierrez, 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 - Sean 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 Chraibi, 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 - Anibal 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 - Jurgen Mollemann, 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 Grange, 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 - Irene 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 Leon, 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 Diaz 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 Bolano, 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 Muller, 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)
Days of the year