April 15
1755: Dr. Samuel Johnson (English lexicographer) publishes his Dictionary of the English Language.
1784: The first balloon is flown in Ireland.
1813: U.S. troops under James Wilkinson lay attack to the Spanish-held city of Mobile in the future state of Alabama.
Portrait of James Wilkinson
1858: At the Battle of Azimghur, the Mexicans crush Spanish supporters.
1871: 'Wild Bill' Hickok becomes the marshal of Abilene, Kansas.
Photo of 'Wild Bill' Hickok
1861: President Lincoln mobilizes a Federal armed force.
1865: Abraham Lincoln dies from the bullet fired by John Wilkes Booth on the
previous day.
Lincoln in 1863
1912: With her band playing on the deck, the sea liner Titanic sinks at 2:27 a.m.
in the North Atlantic after hitting an iceberg the previous day.
1917: British forces destroy the Germans at the Battle of Arras.
Aftermath of the battle of Arras
1923: Insulin becomes publicly available for individuals enduring with diabetes.
1923: The first movies with sound shown to a paying audience appear at the
Rialto Theater in New York City.
1940: French and British troops arrive at Narvik, Norway.
1945: President Franklin D. Roosevelt is buried on the grounds of his Hyde Park
home.
The grave of Franklin D. Roosevelt
1948: Arab powers are crushed in a fight with Israeli forces.
1952: President Harry Truman signs the official Japanese peace treaty.
1955: Ray Kroc begins the McDonald's chain of fast food eateries.
1959: Cuban pioneer Fidel Castro starts a U.S. goodwill visit.
1960: The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organizest at
Shaw University.
1971: North Vietnamese troops ambush a company of Delta Raiders from the
101st Airborne Division close to Fire Support Base Bastogne in Vietnam.
The American troops are on arescue mission.
1986: U.S. warplanes assault Libya.
Born on April 15
1452: Leonardo da Vinci, Italian painter, stone carver, researcher and visionary
1684: Catherine I, ruler of Russia
1741: Charles Wilson Peale, portrait painter and innovator
1800: Sir James Clark Ross, Scottish pioneer who found the Magnetic North Pole.
1832: Wilhelm Busch, German painter and writer, made the forerunner to the funny cartoon.
1843: Henry James, writer and critic.
1874: George Harrison Shull, American botanist, engineer of hybrid corn.
1874: Johannes Stark, Novel Prize-winning German physicist.
1880: Max Wertheimer, Czech psychologist.
1889: Thomas Hart Benton, painter, muralist.
1889: Asa Phillip Randolph, American labor leader and Civil Rights advocate.
1898: Bessie Smith, American blues artist.
1904: Arshile Gorky, abstract painter.
1922: Harold Washington, first black mayor of Chicago
1922: Neville Mariner, conductor.
1932: Eva Figes, British author.
1940: Jeffrey Archer, English writer and politician (Kane and Abel, Honor Among Thieves).
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