1915

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Year 1915 (MCMXV) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar).

Events of 1915

January

• January 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 1 - Sinking of the battleship HMS Formidable, off Lyme Regis, Dorset, England, by a German U-Boat.
• 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: more than 12,000 dead.
• January 19 - Georges 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 28 - An act of the U.S. Congress designates the United States Coast Guard, begun in 1790, as a military branch.
• January 31 - World War I: Germany uses poison gas against Russians.

February

• 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.
• February 20 - In San Francisco, CA the Panama-Pacific International Exposition is opened.

March

• March to October - 1915 locust plague
• March 3 - NACA, the predecessor of NASA, is founded.
• March 14 - World War I: Off the coast of Chile, the Royal Navy forces the German light cruiser SMS Dresden to scuttle.
• 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.
• March 25 - US submarine F-4 sinks off Hawaii: 21 dead.
• 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

• April 13 - Mexican Revolution - Pancho Villa's attack against Alvaro Obregon's troops in Celaya. Charge of Villa's troops is no match against Obregon's barbed wire and machine guns
• April 22 - World War I: Second Battle of Ypres - German troops introduce poison gas at Ypres, Belgium.
• April 24 - The Ottoman Empire arrests hundreds of Armenian intellectuals. Armenians mark this as the start of the Armenian Genocide.
• April 25 - The ANZAC tradition begins during World War I with a landing at Gallipoli on the Turkish coast.
• April 25 - The Great Fire of Reykjavík, Iceland's capital.
• April 30 - Australian submarine AE2 sunk in Sea of Marmara.

May

• May 3 - John McCrae writes In Flanders Fields.
• May 5 - World War I: The Turks begin shelling Anzac Cove from a new position behind their lines.
• May 6 Babe Ruth hits his first career home run off of Jack Warhop.
• 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.
• May 29 - Teófilo Braga becomes president of Portugal.

June

• June 3 - Troops of Obregon and Villa clash at León: Obregon loses his right arm in grenade attack but Villa is decisively defeated.
• 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

July

• July 7 - An extremely overloaded Great Gorge and International Railway trolley with 157 passengers crashes near Queenston, Ontario resulting in 15 casualties.
• July 24 - The steamer Eastland capsizes in central Chicago, with the loss of 845 lives.
• July 28 - United States occupation of Haiti begins

August

• August 5-August 23 - Hurricane Two of the 1915 Atlantic hurricane season 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 16 - The Entente promises the Kingdom of Serbia, should victory be achieved over Austro-Hungary and its allied Central Powers, the territories of Baranja, Srem and Slavonia from the Cisleithanian part of the Dual Monarchy; Bosnia and Herzegovina; and eastern ? of Dalmatia (from the river of Krka to Bar).
• August 17 - Jewish American Leo Frank is lynched for the alleged murder of a 13-year-old girl in Atlanta, Georgia.
• August 31 - Jimmy Lavender of the Chicago Cubs pitches a no hitter against the New York Giants.

September

• September 6 - The first prototype tank is tested for the British Army for the first time.
• September 7 - Former cartoonist John B. Gruelle is given a patent for his Raggedy Ann doll.
• September 11 - The Pennsylvania Railroad begins electrified commuter rail service between Paoli and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, using overhead AC trolley wires for power. This type of system would later be used in long-distance passenger trains between New York City, Washington, D.C., and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

October

• October 12 - World War I: British nurse Edith Cavell is executed by a German firing squad for helping Allied soldiers escape from Belgium.
• October 15 - World War I: Austria-Hungary invades Kingdom of Serbia. Bulgaria enters the war, invading Kingdom of Serbia. Retreat of the Serbian First Army towards Greece begins (Serbian campaign (WWI)
• October 19 - US recognizes Mexican government of Venustiano Carranza de facto (not de jure until 1917)
• October 27 - William Morris Hughes becomes 7th Prime Minister of Australia.

November

• November - Sykes-Picot Agreement, a secret understanding between the governments of Britain and France to overtake Middle-Eastern regions of the Ottoman Empire (mostly Syria and Iraq) and establish their own zone of influence.
• November 14 - Vision allegedly encountered by various military personnel in Europe at 22:30 hours, as recounted on the television series One Step Beyond.
• November 23 - Triangle Film Corporation opens its new motion picture theater in Massillon, Ohio.
• November 25 - The theory of general relativity is formulated.

December

• December 12 - Chinese president Yuan Shikai declares himself Emperor
• December 26 - Irish Republican Brotherhood Military Council decides to stage a rising on Easter Sunday 1916.

Undated

• Alfred Wegener proposes the theory of Pangaea.
• Emory College is rechartered as Emory University, and plans to move its main campus from Oxford, Georgia to Atlanta.
• Lord Beaverbrook buys the Daily Express.
• Automobile speed record of 102.6 m.p.h. set at Sheepshead Bay, N.Y.. by Gil Anderson driving a Stutz.
• The first stop sign appears in Detroit, Michigan.
• Women's suffrage is introduced in Denmark and Iceland.
• Franz Kafka's short novel Die Verwandlung is first published in Germany.

Ongoing

• World War I (1914-1918).

Births

January-February

• January 2 - John Hope Franklin, American historian
• January 3 - Sid Hudson, baseball player
• January 5 - Arthur H. Robinson, American geographer and cartographer (d. 2004)
• January 6 - Don Edwards, American politician
• January 9 - Anita Louise, American actress (d. 1970)
• January 11 - Robert Blair Mayne, British soldier and co-founder of the Special Air Service (d. 1955)
• January 14 - Mark Goodson, American television game show producer (d. 1992)
• January 18 - Santiago Carrillo, Spanish politician
• January 20 - Ghulam Ishaq Khan, President of Pakistan (d. 2006)
• January 23 - Arthur Lewis, British economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1991)
• January 24 - Robert Motherwell, American painter (d. 1991)
• January 29 - John Serry, Sr., American musician, composer, arranger (d. 2003)
• January 30 - Joachim Peiper, German SS officer (d. 1976)
• January 30 - John Profumo, British cabinet minister (d. 2006)
• January 31 - Alan Lomax, American folklorist and musicologist (d. 2002)
• January 31 - Thomas Merton, American monk and author (d. 1968)
• February 1 - Artur London, Czech statesman (d. 1986)
• February 1 - Sir Stanley Matthews, English footballer (d. 2000)
• February 1 - Alicia Rhett, American actress and painter
• February 2 - Khushwant Singh, Indian writer
• February 4 - Sir Norman Wisdom, English comedian, singer, and actor
• February 5 - Robert Hofstadter, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1990)
• February 7 - Teoctist Arăpaşu, Ex-Romanian Orthodox Church Patriarch (d. 2007)
• February 11 - Patrick Leigh Fermor, British author and soldier
• February 14 - Ray Evans, American composer (d. 2007)
• February 16 - Jim O'Hora, American college football coach (d. 2005)
• February 16 - Elisabeth Eybers, South African poet (d. 2007)
• February 19 - John Freeman, British politician
• February 23 - Paul Tibbets, American pilot (d. 2007)
• February 26 - Preacher Roe, baseball player
• February 28 - Zero Mostel, American film and stage actor (d. 1977)
• February 28 - Peter Medawar, Brazilian-born scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1987)

March-April

• March 3 - Wally Cassell, American actor
• March 4 - Carlos Surinach, Spanish composer (d. 1997)
• March 9 - John Edgar "Johnnie" Johnson, English pilot (d. 2001)
• March 10 - Harry Bertoia, Italian artist and designer (d. 1978)
• March 11 - Vijay Hazare, Indian cricketer (d. 2004)
• March 14 - Alexander Brott, Canadian conductor and composer (d. 2005)
• March 17 - Bill Roycroft, Australian equestrian
• March 19 - Patricia Morison, American actress
• March 20 - Sviatoslav Richter, Ukrainian pianist (d. 1997)
• March 23 - Vasily Zaitsev, Soviet sniper (d. 1991)
• March 27 - Robert Lockwood Jr., American musician (d. 2006)
• March 30 - Arsenio Erico, Paraguayan footballer (d. 1977)
• March 30 - Pietro Ingrao, Italian politician
• March 31 - Albert Hourani, English historian (d. 1993)
• April 3 - Piet de Jong, Prime Minister of the Netherlands
• April 4 - Muddy Waters, American musician (d. 1983)
• April 7 - Albert O. Hirschman, German-born economist
• April 7 - Billie Holiday, American singer (d. 1959)
• April 8 - Ivan Supek, Croatian physicist, author, and human rights activist (d. 2007)
• April 10 - Harry Morgan, American actor
• April 12 - Július Tomin, Czech writer (d. 2003)
• April 15 - Elizabeth Catlett, American-born artist
• April 21 - Anthony Quinn, Mexican actor (d. 2001)
• April 29 - Donald Mills, lead tenor of The Mills Brothers (d. 1999)
• April 30 - Elio Toaff, Italian rabbi

May-June

• May 1 - Archie Williams, American athlete (d. 1993)
• May 2 - Doris Fisher, American singer and songwriter (d. 2003)
• May 5 - Alice Faye, American entertainer (d. 1998)
• May 6 - Orson Welles, American film director (d. 1985)
• May 6 - George Perle, American composer
• May 8 - Milton Meltzer, American author
• May 12 - Frère Roger, Swiss founder of the Taizé Community (d. 2005)
• May 15 - Hilda Bernstein, English-born author, artist, and activist (d. 2006)
• May 15 - Mario Monicelli, Italian film director
• May 15 - Paul Samuelson, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
• May 20 - Moshe Dayan, Israeli military leader and politician (d. 1981)
• May 20 - Peter Copley, English actor
• May 26 - Sam Edwards, American actor (d. 2004)
• May 27 - Herman Wouk, American author
• May 29 - Karl Münchinger, German conductor (d. 1990)
• June 1 - John Randolph, American actor (d. 2004)
• June 9 - Les Paul, American inventor and musician
• June 10 - Saul Bellow, Canadian-born writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2005)
• June 10 - Peride Celal, Turkish author
• June 12 - David Rockefeller, American banker and philanthropist
• June 15 - Thomas Huckle Weller, American virologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• June 17 - Karl Targownik, Hungarian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor (d. 1996)
• June 17 - Mario Echandi Jiménez, President of Costa Rica
• June 20 - Paul Castellano, American gangster (d. 1985)
• June 24 - Sir Fred Hoyle, British astronomer (d. 2001)
• June 26 - Charlotte Zolotow, American author
• June 27 - Grace Lee Boggs, American feminist and author
• June 28 - David Honeyboy Edwards, American musician

July-August

• July 5 - John Woodruff, American athlete (d. 2007)
• July 15 - Albert Ghiorso, American nuclear scientist
• July 26 - Pattabhi Jois, Indian yogi
• July 28 - Charles Townes, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• July 28 - Frankie Yankovic, American accordion player (d. 1998)
• August 3 - Pete Newell, Canadian-born basketball coach
• August 3 - Frank Arthur Calder, Canadian politician (d. 2006)
• August 12 - Michael Kidd, American choreographer (d. 2007)
• August 19 - Ring Lardner Jr., American film screenwriter (d. 2000)
• August 22 - Hugh Paddick, British actor (d. 2000)
• August 25 - Walter Trampler, American violist (d. 1997)
• August 27 - Norman F. Ramsey, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• August 28 - Tasha Tudor, American illustrator
• August 28 - Max Robertson, British sports commentator
• August 29 - Ingrid Bergman, Swedish actress (d. 1982)
• August 30 - Princess Lilian, Duchess of Halland
• August 30 - Robert Strassburg, American composer (d. 2003)

September-October

• September 2 - Meinhardt Raabe, American actor
• September 3 - Knut Nystedt, Norwegian composer
• September 8 - Frank Cady, American actor
• September 12 - Frank McGee, American television personality (d. 1974)
• September 14 - John Dobson, American astronomer
• September 17 - M F Husain, Indian artist
• September 17 - Adolfo Sánchez Vázquez, Spanish-born philosopher
• September 23 - Julius Baker, American flautist (d. 2003)
• September 23 - Clifford Shull, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2001)
• September 29 - Vincent DeDomenico, American entrepreneur (d. 2007)
• September 30 - Lester Maddox, Governor of Georgia (d. 2003)
• October 9 - Clifford M. Hardin, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture
• October 13 - Terry Frost, English artist (d. 2003)
• October 15 - Nellie Lutcher, American singer (d. 2007)
• October 15 - Yitzhak Shamir Israeli politician
• October 17 - Arthur Miller, American playwright (d. 2005)
• October 24 - Bob Kane, American comic book creator (d. 1998)
• October 24 - Tito Gobbi, Italian baritone (d. 1984)
• October 28 - Dody Goodman, American actress and dancer
• October 29 - William Berenberg, American physician (d. 2005)

November-December

• November 4 - Wee Kim Wee, 4th president of Singapore (d. 2005)
• November 9 - André François, French cartoonist (d. 2005)
• November 9 - Sargent Shriver, American politician
• November 11 - William Proxmire, U.S. Senator (d. 2005)
• November 12 - Roland Barthes, French philosopher and literary critic (d. 1980)
• November 14 - Martha Tilton, British actress (d. 2006)
• November 17 - David "Stringbean" Akeman, American country music banjo player (d. 1973)
• November 19 - Earl Wilbur Sutherland Jr., American physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1974)
• November 25 - Augusto Pinochet, President of Chile (d. 2006)
• November 28 - Evald Okas, Estonian painter
• November 30 - Brownie McGhee, American musician (d. 1996)
• November 30 - Henry Taube, Canadian-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2005)
• December 7 - Eli Wallach, American actor
• December 8 - Ernest Lehman American screenwriter (d. 2005)
• December 9 - Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, German-born soprano (d. 2006)
• December 12 - Frank Sinatra, American entertainer (d. 1998)
• December 13 - Ross Macdonald, American-Canadian writer (d. 1983)
• December 17 - Robert A. Dahl, American political scientist
• December 19 - Édith Piaf, French singer (d. 1963)
• December 21 - Werner von Trapp, member of the Trapp Family Singers (d. 2007)
• December 22 - Barbara Billingsley, American actress
• December 27 - Gyula Zsengellér, Hungarian footballer (d. 1999)

Deaths

January - June

• January 14 - Richard Meux Benson, English founder of an Anglican religious order (b. 1824)
• January 15 - Mary Slessor, Scottish Christian missionary (b. 1848)
• February 5 - Ross Barnes, baseball player (b. 1850)
• March 4 - William Willett, English inventor of daylight saving time (b. 1856)
• March 9 - François Faber, Luxembourgian cyclist (b. 1887)
• March 15 - George Llewelyn-Davies, one of the 'Lost Boys' for the Peter Pan book (b. 1893)
• March 31 - Wyndham Halswelle, Scottish runner (b. 1882)
• April 16 - Nelson W. Aldrich, U.S. Senator from Rhode Island (b. 1841)
• April 23 - Rupert Brooke, English poet (b. 1887)
• April 23 - Frederick Fisher, Canadian VC recipient (killed in battle) (b. 1894)
• April 27 - Alexander Scriabin, Russian composer (b. 1872)
• May 24 - Private John Condon, the youngest British soldier to die during the First World War {b. c. 1901)
• May 26 - Julian Grenfell, poet (killed in battle) (b. 1888)
• May 31 - Victor Child Villiers, 7th Earl of Jersey, 18th Governor of New South Wales (b. 1845)

July - December

• July 2 - Porfirio Díaz, President of Mexico (b. 1830)
• July 16 - Ellen G. White, American prophetess, co-founder of Seventh-Day Adventism (b. 1827)
• August 20 - Paul Ehrlich, German scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1854)
• August 26 - John Bunny American silent film comedian (b. 1863)
• August 31 - Adolphe Pegoud, aviator (killed in action) (b. 1889)
• September 9 - Albert Spalding, baseball player and sporting goods manufacturer (b. 1850)
• September 11 - William Sprague IV, America politician from Rhode Island (b. 1830)
• September 13 - Andrew L. Harris, American Civil War hero and Governor of Ohio (b. 1835)
• September 27 - Fergus Bowes-Lyon, brother of Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (killed in battle) (b. 1889)
• October 12 - Edith Cavell, nurse and war heroine (shot) (b. 1865)
• October 12 - Charles Sorley, British poet (killed in battle) (b. 1895)
• October 30 - Charles Tupper, Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1821)
• November 15 - Booker T. Washington, American educator (b. 1856)
• November 28 - Mubarak Al-Sabah, Emir of Kuwait (b. 1896)

Nobel prizes

• Chemistry - Richard Willstätter
• Literature - Romain Rolland
• Medicine - not awarded
• Peace - not awarded
• Physics - William Henry Bragg and William Lawrence Bragg

Notes

External links

• 1915 Coin Pictures

Table of Contents

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