1915
1915 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar).
Events
- January 12 - The Rocky Mountain National Park is established by an act of the U.S. Congress.
- January 12 - United States House of Representatives rejects proposal to give women the right to vote.
- January 13 – An earthquake (6.8 in Richter scale) in Avezzano , Italy - 32.610 dead
- January 19 - George Claude patents the neon discharge tube for use in advertising.
- January 19 - German zeppelins bomb the cities of Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn in the United Kingdom for the first time, killing more than 20.
- January 21 - Kiwanis International is founded in Detroit, Michigan.
- January 27 - United States Marines occupy Haiti.
- January 28 - An act of the U.S. Congress creates the United States Coast Guard.
- January 31 - World War I: Germany uses poison gas against Russians.
- February 8 - The controversial film The Birth of a Nation by D.W. Griffith premieres (Los Angeles, California).
- February 12 - In Washington, DC the first stone of the Lincoln Memorial is put into place.
- March 3 - NACA, the predecessor of NASA, is founded.
- March 14 - World War I: Off the coast of Chile, the Royal Navy sinks the German battleship SMS Dresden.
- March 14 - Britain, France and Russia agree to give Constantinople and the Bosporus to Russia in case of victory (the treaty is later nullified by the Bolshevik revolution)
- March 18 - World War I: British attack on the Dardanelles fails.
- March 19 - Pluto is photographed for the first time but was not recognized as a planet.
- April 22 - World War I: Second Battle of Ypres - German troops introduce poison gas at Ypres, Belgium.
- April 24 - Turkish troops attack the Armenian region of Van, starting the Armenian Genocide. In Constantinople, Turkish officers round up 300 ethnically Armenian intellectuals and execute them
- April 25 - The Anzac tradition begins during World War I with a landing at Gallipoli on the Turkish coast.
- April 30 - Australian submarine AE2 sunk in Sea of Marmora.
- May 3 - John McCrae writes In Flanders Fields
- May 7 - World War I: The RMS Lusitania is sunk by a German U-boat killing 1,198.
- May 9 - World War I: Second Battle of Artois - German and French forces fight.
- May 17 - The last purely Liberal government in the United Kingdom ends when Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith forms an all party coalition.
- May 22 - Quintinshill railway disaster, Scotland, UK. 200 killed.
- May 23 - World War I: Italy joins the Allies after they declare war on Austria-Hungary.
- June 9 - U.S. Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan resigns over a disagreement regarding his nation's handling of the RMS Lusitania sinking.
- June 16 - Foundation of the British Women's Institute
- June 29 – Roger Casement is sentenced to be hanged for treason
- July 24 - The steamer Eastland capsizes in central Chicago, with the loss of 845 lives.
- August 5 – 23 - hurricane over Galveston and New Orleans – 275 dead
- August 6 - World War I: Battle of Sari Bair begins - The Allies mount a diversionary attack timed to coincide with a major Allied landing of reinforcements at Suvla Bay.
- August 17 - Jewish American Leo Frank is lynched for the alleged murder of a 13-year-old girl in Atlanta, Georgia.
- September 6 - The first prototype tank is tested for the British Army for the first time.
- October 12 - World War I: British nurse Edith Cavell is executed by a German firing squad for helping Allied soldiers escape from Belgium.
- October 27 - William Morris Hughes becomes 7th Prime Minister of Australia.
Ongoing events
Births
- January 5 - Arthur H. Robinson, cartographer (d. 2004)
- January 14 - Mark Goodson, game show producer and television pioneer (d. 1992)
- January 20 - Ghulam Ishaq Khan, President of Pakistan
- January 24 – Robert Motherwell, American abstract expressionist painter (d. 1991)
- January 31 - Thomas Merton, monk and author (d. 1968)
- February 1 – Artur London, Czech statesman (d. 1986)
- February 4 - Sir Norman Wisdom, English comedian, singer and actor
- March 10 - Harry Bertoia, Italian artist and designer (d. 1978)
- March 11 - Vijay Hazare, Indian Cricket captain (d. 2004)
- March 14 - Alexander Brott, Canadian conductor and composer (d. 2005)
- March 20 - Sviatoslav Richter, Ukrainian pianist (d. 1997)
- March 23 - Vasily Zaitsev, Soviet sniper, World War II hero (d. 1991).
- March 30 - Arsenio Erico, Paraguayan footballer in Argentina (d. 1977)
- March 31 - Albert Hourani, historian (d. 1993)
- April 4 - Muddy Waters, blues musician (d. 1983)
- April 7 - Billie Holiday, jazz and blues singer (d. 1959)
- May 1 - Krystyna Skarbek, heroine of WW II (d. 1952)
- May 1 - Archie Williams, American athlete
- May 6 - Orson Welles, American director (Citizen Kane) (d. 1985)
- May 20 - Moshe Dayan, Israeli military leader, politician (d. 1981)
- May 29 - Karl Münchinger, German conductor (d. 1990)
- June 10 - Saul Bellow, Canadian author (d. 2005)
- August 22 - Hugh Paddick, British actor (d. 2000)
- October 17 - Arthur Miller, American playwright (d. 2005)
- October 24 - Tito Gobbi, Italian baritone (d. 1984)
- November 11 - William Proxmire, U.S. Senator
- November 25 - Augusto Pinochet, Chilean President
- December 7 - Eli Wallach, actor
- December 9 - Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, soprano
- December 12 - Frank Sinatra, American entertainer (d. 1998)
- December 19 - Edith Piaf, French singer (d. 1963)
- December 27 - Gyula Zsengellér, Hungarian footballer
Deaths
- January 15 - Mary Slessor, Scottish Christian missionary to West Africa (b. 1848)
- February 5 - Ross Barnes, baseball player (b. 1850)
- March 31 - Wyndham Halswelle, Scottish runner (b. 1882)
- April 16 - Nelson W. Aldrich, Senator from Rhode Island (b. 1841)
- April 23 - Rupert Brooke, English poet (b. 1887)
- July 16 - Ellen G. White, American prophetess, co-founder of Seventh-Day Adventism (b. 1827)
- September 9 - Albert Spalding, baseball player and sporting goods manufacturer (b. 1850)
- September 13 - Andrew L. Harris, American Civil War hero and Governor of Ohio (b. 1835)
- October 12 - Charles Sorley, English poet (b. 1895)
- November 15 - Booker T. Washington, African-American educator (b. 1856)
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