1915

Events from the year **1915 in the United States**.

Governors
* Governor of Alabama: Emmet O'Neal (Democratic) (until January 18), Charles Henderson (Democratic) (starting January 18)
* Governor of Arizona: George W. P. Hunt (Democratic)
* Governor of Arkansas: George Washington Hays (Democratic)
* Governor of California: Hiram Johnson (Republican)
* Governor of Colorado: Elias M. Ammons (Democratic) (until January 12), George Alfred Carlson (Republican) (starting January 12)
* Governor of Connecticut: Simeon E. Baldwin (Democratic) (until January 6), Marcus H. Holcomb (Republican) (starting January 6)
* Governor of Delaware: Charles R. Miller (Republican)
* Governor of Florida: Park Trammell (Democratic)
* Governor of Georgia: John M. Slaton (Democratic) (until June 26), Nathaniel E. Harris (Democratic) (starting June 26)
* Governor of Idaho: John M. Haines (Republican) (until January 4), Moses Alexander (Democratic) (starting January 4)
* Governor of Illinois: Edward F. Dunne (Democratic)
* Governor of Indiana: Samuel M. Ralston (Democratic)
* Governor of Iowa: George W. Clarke (Republican)
* Governor of Kansas: George H. Hodges (Democratic) (until January 11), Arthur Capper (Republican) (starting January 11)
* Governor of Kentucky: James B. McCreary (Democratic) (until December 7), Augustus O. Stanley (Democratic) (starting December 7)
* Governor of Louisiana: Luther Egbert Hall (Democratic)
* Governor of Maine: William T. Haines (Republican) (until January 6), Oakley C. Curtis (Democratic) (starting January 6)
* Governor of Maryland: Phillips Lee Goldsborough (Republican)
* Governor of Massachusetts: David I. Walsh (Democratic)
* Governor of Michigan: Woodbridge N. Ferris (Democratic)
* Governor of Minnesota:
	+ until January 5: Adolph O. Eberhart (Republican)
	+ January 5-December 30: Winfield S. Hammond (Democratic)
	+ starting December 30: J. A. A. Burnquist (Republican)
* Governor of Mississippi: Earl L. Brewer (Democratic)
* Governor of Missouri: Elliot Woolfolk Major (Democratic)
* Governor of Montana: Sam V. Stewart (Democratic)
* Governor of Nebraska: John H. Morehead (Democratic)
* Governor of Nevada: Tasker L. Oddie (Republican) (until January 4), Emmet D. Boyle (Democratic) (starting January 4)
* Governor of New Hampshire: Samuel D. Felker (Democratic) (until January 1), Rolland H. Spaulding (Republican) (starting January 1)
* Governor of New Jersey: James Fairman Fielder (Democratic)
* Governor of New Mexico: William C. McDonald (Democratic)
* Governor of New York: Charles S. Whitman (Republican)
* Governor of North Carolina: Locke Craig (Democratic)
* Governor of North Dakota: L. B. Hanna (Republican)
* Governor of Ohio: James M. Cox (Democratic) (until January 11), Frank B. Willis (Democratic) (starting January 11)
* Governor of Oklahoma: Lee Cruce (Democratic) (until January 11), Robert L. Williams (Democratic) (starting January 11)
* Governor of Oregon: Oswald West (Democratic) (until January 12), James Withycombe (Republican) (starting January 12)
* Governor of Pennsylvania: John K. Tener (Republican) (until January 19), Martin Grove Brumbaugh (Republican) (starting January 19)
* Governor of Rhode Island: Aram J. Pothier (Republican) (until January 5), R. Livingston Beeckman (Republican) (starting January 5)
* Governor of South Carolina:
	+ until January 14: Coleman Livingston Blease (Democratic)
	+ January 14-January 19: Charles Aurelius Smith (Democratic)
	+ starting January 19: Richard Irvine Manning III (Democratic)
* Governor of South Dakota: Frank M. Byrne (Republican)
* Governor of Tennessee: Ben W. Hooper (Republican) (until January 17), Tom C. Rye (Democratic) (starting January 17)
* Governor of Texas: Oscar Branch Colquitt (Democratic) (until January 19), James E. Ferguson (Democratic) (starting January 19)
* Governor of Utah: William Spry (Republican)
* Governor of Vermont: Allen M. Fletcher (Republican) (until January 7), Charles W. Gates (Republican) (starting January 7)
* Governor of Virginia: Henry Carter Stuart (Democratic)
* Governor of Washington: Ernest Lister (Democratic)
* Governor of West Virginia: Henry D. Hatfield (Republican)
* Governor of Wisconsin: Francis E. McGovern (Republican) (until January 4), Emanuel L. Philipp (Republican) (starting January 4)
* Governor of Wyoming: Joseph M. Carey (Democratic) (until January 4), John B. Kendrick (Democratic) (starting January 4)

Lieutenant Governors
* Lieutenant Governor of Alabama: Walter D. Seed Sr. (Democratic) (until January 18), Thomas E. Kilby (Democratic) (starting January 18)
* Lieutenant Governor of California: A. J. Wallace (Republican) (until January 5), John Morton Eshleman (Progressive) (starting January 5)
* Lieutenant Governor of Colorado: Stephen R. Fitzgarrald (Democratic) (until month and day unknown), Moses E. Lewis (Republican) (starting month and day unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: Lyman T. Tingier (Democratic) (until January 6), Clifford B. Wilson (Republican) (starting January 6)
* Lieutenant Governor of Delaware: Colen Ferguson (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Idaho: Herman H. Taylor (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: Barratt O'Hara (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Indiana: William P. O'Neill (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Iowa: William L. Harding (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Kansas: Sheffield Ingalls (Republican) (until January 11), William Yoast Morgan (Republican) (starting January 11)
* Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: Edward J. McDermott (Democratic) (until December 7), James D. Black (Democratic) (starting December 7)
* Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana: Thomas C. Barret (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: Edward P. Barry (Democratic) (until month and day unknown), Grafton D. Cushing (Republican) (starting month and day unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of Michigan: John Q. Ross (Republican) (until month and day unknown), Luren D. Dickinson (Republican) (starting month and day unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota: Joseph A. A. Burnquist (Republican) (until December 30), vacant (starting December 30)
* Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi: Theodore G. Bilbo (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Missouri: William Rock Painter (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Montana: W. W. McDowell (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Nebraska: Samuel R. McKelvie (Republican) (until month and day unknown), James Pearson (Democratic) (starting month and day unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of Nevada: Gilbert C. Ross (political party unknown) (until January 4), Maurice J. Sullivan (Democratic) (starting January 4)
* Lieutenant Governor of New Mexico: Ezequiel Cabeza De Baca (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of New York: Edward Schoeneck (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina: Elijah L. Daughtridge (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of North Dakota: Anton T. Kraabel (Republican) (until month and day unknown), John H. Fraine (Republican) (starting month and day unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of Ohio: W. A. Greenlund (Democratic) (until January 11), John H. Arnold (Republican) (starting January 11)
* Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma: J. J. McAlester (Democratic) (until month and day unknown), Martin E. Trapp (Democratic) (starting month and day unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania: John Merriman Reynolds (Republican) (until January 19), Frank B. McClain (Republican) (starting January 19)
* Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: Rosewell Burchard (Republican) (until January 5), Emery J. San Souci (Republican) (starting January 5)
* Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina:
	+ until January 14: Charles Aurelius Smith (Democratic)
	+ January 14-January 19: vacant
	+ starting January 19: Andrew Bethea (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of South Dakota: Edward Lincoln Abel (Republican) (until month and day unknown), Peter Norbeck (Republican) (starting month and day unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of Tennessee:
	+ until month and day unknown: Newton H. White (Democratic)
	+ month and day unknown: Hugh C. Anderson (Democratic)
	+ starting month and day unknown: Albert E. Hill (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Texas: vacant (until January 19), William P. Hobby (Democratic) (starting January 19)
* Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: Frank E. Howe (Republican) (until January 19), Hale K. Darling (Republican) (starting January 19)
* Lieutenant Governor of Virginia: James Taylor Ellyson (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Washington: Louis Folwell Hart (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin: Thomas Morris (Republican) (until January 4), Edward F. Dithmar (Republican) (starting January 4)

## Events

### January - March

* January 1 – While working as a cook at New York's Sloan Hospital under an assumed name, *Typhoid Mary* infects 25 people, and is placed in quarantine for life.
* January 9 – Woman's Peace Party organized.
* January 12
	+ The Rocky Mountain National Park is established by an act of the U.S. Congress.
	+ The United States House of Representatives rejects a proposal to give women the right to vote.
* January 21 – Kiwanis International is founded in Detroit, Michigan.
* January 26 – Rocky Mountain National Park is established.
* January 28 – An act of the U.S. Congress designates the United States Coast Guard, begun in 1790, as a military branch over 19 years.
* February 2 – Vanceboro international bridge bombing
* February 8 – The controversial film, *The Birth of a Nation*, directed by D. W. Griffith, premieres in Los Angeles.
* February 12 – In Washington, D.C. the first stone of the Lincoln Memorial is put into place.
* February 20 – In San Francisco, California the Panama-Pacific International Exposition is opened.
* March 3 – NACA, the predecessor of NASA, is founded.
* March 25 – The USS *F-4* submarine sinks off Hawaii; 23 are killed.
* March 28 – The first Roman Catholic Liturgy is celebrated by Archbishop John Ireland at the newly consecrated Cathedral of Saint Paul in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

### April - June

* May 6 – Babe Ruth hits his first career home run off of Jack Warhop.
* May 7 – The RMS *Lusitania* is sunk on passage from New York to Britain by a German U-boat, killing 1,198.
* May 22 – Lassen Peak, one of the Cascade Volcanoes in Northern California, erupts, sending an ash plume 30,000 feet in the air and devastating the nearby area with pyroclastic flows and lahars. It is the only volcano to erupt in the contiguous United States between 1900 and the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens.
* June 9 – U.S. Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan resigns over a disagreement regarding his nation's handling of the Lusitania sinking.
* June 12 – "The class the stars fell on" graduates from the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.
* June 21 – *Guinn v. United States* is decided by the Supreme Court of the United States, finding grandfather clause exemptions to literacy tests for voters to be unconstitutional.
* June 22 – The Imperial Valley earthquakes shook southeastern Southern California, causing six deaths and financial losses of $900,000. Each shock in this doublet earthquake measured 5.5 Mw and had a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (*Severe*).

### July - September

* July 24 – The steamer *Eastland* capsizes in central Chicago, with the loss of 844 lives.
* July 28 – The United States occupation of Haiti begins.
* August 5 – Hurricane Two of the 1915 Atlantic hurricane season over Galveston and New Orleans leaves 275 dead.
* August 17 – Jewish American Leo Frank is lynched for the alleged murder of a 13-year-old girl in Atlanta.
* August 31 – Jimmy Lavender of the Chicago Cubs pitches a no hitter against the New York Giants.
* September 11 – The Pennsylvania Railroad begins electrified commuter rail service between Paoli and Philadelphia, using overhead AC trolley wires for power. This type of system is later used in long-distance passenger trains between New York City, Washington, D.C., and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

### October - December

* October 2 – The 6.8 Mw Pleasant Valley earthquake shook north-central Nevada with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (*Extreme*), causing limited damage and pronounced fault scarps along the base of the Tobin Range.
* October 4 – Dinosaur National Monument is established.
* October 19 – Mexican Revolution: The U.S. recognizes the Mexican government of Venustiano Carranza *de facto* (not *de jure* until 1917).
* November 18 – Release of *Inspiration*, the first mainstream movie in which a leading actress (Audrey Munson) appears nude.
* November 23 – The Triangle Film Corporation opens its new motion picture theater in Massillon, Ohio.
* November 27 – Second Ku Klux Klan established in Stone Mountain, Georgia by William Joseph Simmons.

## Memoriam

* January 9 – Matthew Maguire, machinist (aged 72; NJ, USA)
* January 19 – Abram J. Buckles, soldier and jurist (aged 68; San Bernardino County, CA, USA)
* February 15 – Henry Clay Caldwell, judge (aged 82; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* February 18 – Frank James, outlaw (aged 72; Kearney, MO, USA)
* March 5 – Thomas R. Bard, U.S. Senator from California from 1900 to 1905 (aged 73; Port Hueneme, CA, USA)
* March 15 – Joseph Ackroyd, member of the New York State Senate (aged 67; Utica, NY, USA)
* March 24 - Melvin Amos Halsted, founder of Lowell, Indiana (aged 93; Auburn, KS, USA)
* April 1 – Laura Alberta Linton, American chemist (aged 61; Rochester, MN, USA)
* April 6 – Curtis Guild Jr., 43rd Governor of Massachusetts (aged 55; Boston, MA, USA)
* April 14 – John Englehart, Northwest Frontier painter (aged 47; Oakland, CA, USA)
* April 16 – Nelson W. Aldrich, U.S. Senator from Rhode Island from 1881 to 1911 (aged 73; New York City, NY, USA)
* April 25 – Edward C. Wall, grain commission merchant and politician (aged 71; Milwaukee, WI, USA)
* April 26 – John Bunny, silent film comedian (aged 51; New York City, NY, USA)
* April 29 – John R. Lindgren, founder of the banking firm Haugan & Lindgren (aged 60; Chicago, IL, USA)
* May 7
	+ Justus Miles Forman, writer (aged 39; Atlantic Ocean)
	+ Charles Frohman, theater producer (aged 58; Atlantic Ocean)
	+ Elbert Hubbard, writer and philosopher (aged 58; Atlantic Ocean)
	+ Alice Moore Hubbard, wife of Elbert (aged 53; Atlantic Ocean)
	+ Charles Klein, playwright (aged 48; Atlantic Ocean)
	+ Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, sportsman (aged 37; Atlantic Ocean)
* June 19 – Benjamin F. Isherwood, admiral (aged 92; New York City, NY, USA)
* July 16 – Ellen G. White, co-founder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church (aged 87; St. Helena, CA, USA)
* July 21 – Elmore W. Hurst, politician (aged 63; Rock Island, IL, USA)
* August 17 – John C. Black, U.S. Congressman (aged 76; Chicago, IL, USA)
* August 25 – Henry Overholser, businessman (aged 69; Oklahoma City, OK, USA)
* September 13 – Andrew L. Harris, Civil War hero and Governor of Ohio (aged 79; Eaton, OH, USA)
* October 10 – Albert Cashier, born Jennie Hodgers, soldier (aged 71; Saunemin, IL, USA)
* November 14 – Booker T. Washington, African-American educator (aged 59; Tuskegee, AL, USA)
* November 16 – Julius C. Burrows, U.S. Senator from Michigan from 1895 to 1911 (aged 78; Kalamazoo, MI, USA)
* November 21 – Dixie Haygood, magician (aged 54; Macon, GA, USA)
* November 24 – L. C. Hughes, 11th Governor of Arizona Territory (aged 73; Tucson, AZ, USA)
* December 12 – Abraham Jefferson Seay, lawyer, soldier, judge, and politician (aged 83; Long Beach, CA, USA)
* December 13 – Francis Cockrell, U.S. Senator from Missouri from 1875 to 1905 (aged 81; Washington, DC, USA)
* December 22 – Rose Talbot Bullard, physician (aged 51; Los Angeles, CA, USA)