July 15

July 15 is the 196th day (197th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 169 days remaining.

Events

• 1099 - First Crusade: Christian soldiers take Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem after a difficult siege.
• 1207 - John of England expels Canterbury monks for supporting Archbishop of Canterbury Stephen Langton
• 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
• 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.
• 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 Rosette, by French Captain Pierre 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 - Napoléon Bonaparte surrenders from aboard HMS Bellerophon
• 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.
• 1895 - Archie MacLaren scores County Championship record cricket innings of 424 for Lancashire against Somerset at Taunton.
• 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.
• 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.
• 1953 - John Reginald Christie, British serial killer executed.
• 1954 - First flight of the Boeing 707, the first American jet passenger airliner.
• 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.
• 1974 - In Nicosia, Cyprus, Greek-sponsored nationalists launch a coup d'état, deposing President Makarios and installing Nikos Sampson as Cypriot president.
• 1975 - Apollo Soyuz Test Project: Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft take off for U.S.-Soviet link-up in space.
• 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 - Lockheed C-130 Hercules of the Royal Belgian Air Force carrying the Royal Netherlands Army marching band crashes on landing at Eindhoven Airport. Thirty-two people died in the flames, two people died of their injuries. Seven people sustained 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.
• 2002 - So-called "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 Open Championship in golf, known in North America as the British Open, takes place in Troon, Scotland.
• 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.

Births

• 1553 - Archduke Ernest of Austria (d. 1595)
• 1573 - Inigo Jones, English architect (d. 1652)
• 1606 - Rembrandt, Dutch artist (d. 1669)
• 1631 - Jens Juel, Danish diplomat (d. 1700)
• 1779 - Clement Clarke Moore, American educator, author, and poet (d. 1863)
• 1796 - Thomas Bulfinch, American mythologist (d. 1796)
• 1808 - Henry Edward Cardinal Manning, English Catholic archbishop (d. 1892)
• 1812 - James Hope-Scott, English barrister (d. 1873)
• 1848 - Vilfredo Pareto, Italian economist and sociologist (d. 1923)
• 1850 - Mother Cabrini, Italian-born Roman Catholic saint (d. 1917)
• 1865 - Alfred Charles William Northcliffe, newspaper publisher (d. 1922)
• 1870 - Vladimir Dmitrievich Nabokov, Russian publisher and politician (d. 1922)
• 1871 - Kunikida Doppo, Japanese writer (d. 1908)
• 1892 - Walter Benjamin, German literary critic and writer (d. 1940)
• 1899 - Sean F. Lemass, Irish leader (d. 1971)
• 1902 - Jean Rey, Belgian politician and President of the European Commission {d. 1983)
• 1911 - Edward Shackleton, English explorer (d. 1994)
• 1914 - Hammond Innes, English writer (d. 1998)
• 1918 - Bertram N. Brockhouse, Canadian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2003)
• 1919 - Iris Murdoch, English writer (d. 1999)
• 1922 - Leon M. Lederman, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1923 - Philip Carey, American actor
• 1926 - Leopoldo Galtieri, Argentine dictator (d. 2003)
• 1926 - Driss Chraïbi, Moroccan author
• 1927 - Nan Clow Martin, actress
• 1928 - Carl Woese, American microbiologist
• 1930 - Jacques Derrida, French philosopher (d. 2004)
• 1930 - Stephen Smale, American mathematician
• 1931 - Clive Cussler, American author
• 1933 - Julian Bream, English guitarist and lutenist
• 1933 - Guido Crepax, Italian comics artist (d. 2003)
• 1934 - Harrison Birtwistle, English composer
• 1934 - Risto Jarva, Finnish filmmaker (d. 1977)
• 1935 - Diahann Carroll, American actress
• 1942 - Mil Mascaras, Mexican professional wrestler
• 1944 - Millie Jackson, singer
• 1945 - Jürgen Möllemann, German politician (d. 2003)
• 1946 - Linda Ronstadt, American singer
• 1949 - Carl Bildt, Swedish politician
• 1949 - Trevor Horn, English musician
• 1951 - Jesse Ventura, professional wrestler and Governor of Minnesota.
• 1953 - Jean-Bertrand Aristide, President of Haiti
• 1953 - John Denham, British politician
• 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
• 1961 - Forest Whitaker, American actor
• 1961 - Scott Ritter, UNSCOM weapons inspector in Iraq
• 1966 - Irène Jacob, French-born Swiss actress
• 1968 - Eddie Griffin, American actor
• 1968 - Stan Kirsch, American actor
• 1970 - Chi Cheng, American musician
• 1971 - John Dolmayan, Lebanese-born drummer (System of a Down)
• 1973 - Brian Austin Green, American actor

Deaths

• 518 - Roman Emperor Anastasius I
• 1085 - Robert Guiscard, French adventurer
• 1262 - Richard de Clare, 6th Earl of Hertford
• 1291 - Rudolph I of Germany, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1218)
• 1381 - John Ball, English priest
• 1406 - William of Austria, Duke of Carinthia, Styria, and Carniola
• 1571 - Shimazu Takahisa, Japanese samurai and warlord (b. 1514)
• 1685 - James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, illegitimate son of Charles II of England (b. 1649)
• 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)
• 1857 - Carl Czerny, Austrian composer (b. 1791)
• 1869 - A.J. Hayne, soldier
• 1890 - Gottfried Keller, Swiss writer (b. 1819)
• 1904 - Anton Chekhov, Russian writer (b. 1860)
• 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)
• 1946 - Razor Smith, English cricketer (b. 1877)
• 1947 - Walter Donaldson, American songwriter (b. 1893)
• 1948 - John J. Pershing, U.S. general (b. 1860)
• 1957 - George Cleveland, actor
• 1957 - James M. Cox, American politician (b. 1870)
• 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)
• 1991 - Bert Convy, American actor (b. 1933)
• 1992 - Hammer DeRoburt, first President of Nauru (b. 1922)
• 1996 - Dana Hill, American actress (b. 1964)
• 1997 - Gianni Versace, Italian fashion designer (b. 1946)
• 2003 - Adi Preißler, German footballer
• 2003 - Roberto Bolaño, Chilean writer (b. 1953)

Holidays and observances

• Botswana - President's Day
• Brunei - Birthday of the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam
• Palermo, Sicily - Festival of Santa Rosalia
• Japan - Third day of Obon feast period
• Saint Swithun's feast day (Anglican Church)
• Saint Vladimir the Great's day (Eastern Orthodox; Roman Catholic)
• Confuflux (Discordianism)
• Brazil - International Men's Day

External links

• BBC: On This Day

July 14 - July 16 - June 15 - August 15 -- listing of all days