Historical EventsEvents 1 - 100 of 215778 - Battle of Roncevaux Pass: Roland, commander of the rearg...

1. Today in History for 15th August 2015
Historical Events
Events 1 - 100 of 215
778 - Battle of Roncevaux Pass: Roland,
commander of the rearguard of
Charlemagne's army is defeated by the
Basques
927 - The Saracens conquer and destroy
Taranto.
1040 - King Duncan I of Scotland killed in battle against his first cousin and rival Macbeth (not
murdered in his sleep as per Shakespeare's play). The latter does succeed him as King.
1185 - The cave city of Vardzia is consecrated by Queen Tamar of Georgia.
1248 - Construction of Cologne Cathedral begun
1308 - Johannieter knights conquer Rhodos on the Greece
1457 - Earliest dated book, "Mainz Psalter," completed
1461 - The Empire of Trebizond surrenders to the forces of Sultan Mehmet II. This is regarded by
some historians as the real end of the Byzantine Empire. Emperor David is exiled and later
murdered.
1517 - Seven Portuguese armed vessels led by Fernão Pires de Andrade meet Chinese officials at the
Pearl River estuary.
1519 - Panama City founded
1534 - Ignatius of Loyola forms society of Jesus/Jesuits
1537 - Asunción, Paraguay, is founded.
1540 - Arequipa, Peru, is founded.
1548 - Mary queen of Scotland (6) arrives in France

2. King of Scotland Macbeth
1549 - Jesuit priest Saint Francis Xavier comes ashore at Kagoshima (Traditional Japanese date: July
22, 1549).
1599 - Nine Years War: Battle of Curlew Pass - Irish forces led by Hugh Roe O'Donnell successfully
ambush English forces, led by Sir Conyers Clifford, sent to relieve Collooney Castle.
1620 - Mayflower sets sail from Southampton with 102 Pilgrims
1635 - 1st recorded US hurricane hit the Plymouth Colony
1653 - -16] Dutch ship "Sperwer" stranded at Tsjedzjoe Korea
1658 - France/Sweden/Bavarian/Brunswick/Munster/Hessen-Kassel form Confederation of the Rhine
1668 - Confederation of the Rhine disbands
1684 - Spain & Germany sign cease fire with France
1741 - French troops attack the Rhine
1748 - United Lutheran Church the American colonies organized
1760 - Battle at Leignitz: Prussia beats Austria & Russia
1785 - French cardinal De Rohan arrested
1795 - Joseph Haydn leaves England forever
1824 - Freed American slaves establish Liberia on the West African coast through the American
Colonization Society (ACS)
1832 - Gregory XVI encyclical On liberalism & religious indifferentism
1843 - National black convention meets (Buffalo NY)
1843 - Tivoli Park in Copenhagen opens
1848 - M Waldo Hanchett patents dental chair

3. 1858 - Regular mail to Pacific coast begins
1861 - Lincoln directs reinforcements to be sent to MO
1863 - Submarine "HL Hunley" arrives in Charleston on railroad cars
1863 - The Anglo-Satsuma War begins between the Satsuma Domain of Japan and the United
Kingdom (Traditional Japanese date: July 2, 1863).
1864 - Off New England coast, CSS Tallahassee captures 6 yankee schooners
1865 - Battle of Lone Jack, Missouri
1867 - 2nd Reform Bill extends suffrage in England
1869 - The Meiji government in Japan establishes six new ministries, including one for Shinto.
1870 - Transcontinental Railway actually completed in Colorado
1876 - US law removes Indians from Black Hills after gold find
1886 - Guy Hecker scores 7 runs in 1 game
1891 - San Sebastian Church in Manila, the first all-steel church in Asia, is officially inaugurated and
blessed.
British Prime Minister William Gladstone
1892 - 4th & last British government of William Gladstone forms
1893 - US no longer allowed exclusive rights in Bering Sea
1899 - Louisville's Henry Dowling struck out 5 times in a game
1900 - Russian troops advance further unto Manchuria
1900 - In China, the Empress and some of her family, the court, and retainers flee while foreign
troops move through Peking in an attempt to put down the Boxer Rebellion

4. 1901 - Arch Rock, danger to Bay shipping, blasted with 30 tons of nitro
1901 - Great Britain issues a proclamation calling on the Boers to surrender by 15 September or face
banishment and confiscation of their property
1903 - New Zealand's All Blacks play their first Rugby Test Match against Australia's Wallabies at
the Sydney Cricket Ground in Sydney; New Zealand win 22-3
1905 - Phila A's Rube Waddell no-hits St Louis Browns, 2-0 in 5 innings
1906 - 1st freight delivery tunnel system begins, underneath Chicago
1906 - Kind Edward VII of Britain visits Emperor Wilhelm in Germany to discuss the escalating
rivalry between their nations' naval forces
1911 - Procter & Gamble unveils its Crisco shortening
1912 - Yankee Guy Zinn sets record by stealing home twice in a game
1914 - 13th Davis Cup: Australasia beats USA in New York (3-2)
1914 - Dinant Belgium destroyed by German bombs
French President Charles de Gaulle
1914 - German assault at Dinant: Lt Charles de Gaulle (24), injured
1914 - Japan joins side of allies
1914 - Panama Canal opens (under cost)
1914 - A male servant of American architect Frank Lloyd Wright sets fire to the living quarters of the
architect's Wisconsin home, Taliesin, murders seven people and burns the living quarters to the
ground.
1914 - The first large public gathering of Boers in South Africa who do not want to support Britain in
a war against Germany; British authorities will try to repress this movement, but discontent spreads
1914 - US Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan, in a letter to J P Morgan, declares that loans to
any of the belligerents go against US neutrality

5. 1915 - Journalist Albert Siegfried Bettelheim, convicted of murder in Georgia
1918 - 1st full length cartoon (Sinking of Lusitania)
1920 - With the strategic help of the French, Polish troops defeat the Russian/Soviets at the Battle of
Warsaw (Vistula)
Politician William Jennings Bryan
1923 - Eamon de Valera arrested in Irish Free State
1923 - Mexico & US reaches accord over oil concession of 1917
1925 - Norway annexes Spitsbergen
1925 - White Sox Dickie Kerr, 1st appearance since winning 2 world series games in 1919
1931 - Ernest Lassy completes longest canoe journey without port (6,102 mi)
1931 - Roy Wilkins joined NAACP as asst secretary
1931 - Spakenburg soccer team forms
1939 - First night game at baseball's Comiskey Park, Sox beat Browns 5-2
1939 - 13 Stukas dive into the ground during a disastrous air-practice at Neuhammer. No survivors.
1939 - "The Wizard of Oz", premieres at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, Hollywood, starring Judy
Garland (Dorothy), Ray Bolger (Scarecrow), Jack Haley (Tin Man), Bert Lahr (Cowardly Lion), Frank
Morgan (Wizard), Billie Burke (Glinda), and Margaret Hamilton (Wicked Witch)

6. Actress Margaret Hamilton
1940 - 1st edition of Jewish Weekly newspaper in Amsterdam (under Nazis)
1940 - Heavy dogfights above England: 75 German aircraft damaged
1941 - Kovono Lithuanian Jews are herded into Slobodka ghetto
1942 - 5 hostages executed by Nazis in St-Michielsgestel
1943 - Allies land on Kiska Aleutians
1944 - Allied air raid on train in North Netherlands, 32 killed
1944 - German field marshal von Kluge vanishes for one day
1944 - Operation Anvil: Allies land on French Mediterranean sea coast
1944 - Operation Dragoon: Allied troops land in Provence
1944 - US 12 Army corp enters Le Mans through Orleans
1944 - US 7th Armour division reaches Chartres
1945 - A riot ensued in SF while the city was celebrating the end of WW II
1945 - US wartime rationing of gasoline & fuel oil ends
1945 - Chandler sells World Series radio rights for $150,000 to Gillette, Ford had been World Series
sponsor since 1934, pay $100,000 annually
1945 - World War II: Korean Liberation Day.

7. Kissing the
War Goodbye on VJ Day
1945 - Victory over Japan Day, the Japanese surrender and the end of WWII is announced in Japan
(due to time zones 14th Aug in the Americas)
1947 - India gains independence from Great Britain, remains a dominion until 1950
1948 - 3rd US Women's Open Golf Championship won by Babe Didrikson-Zaharias
1948 - Republic of Korea (South Korea) proclaimed (National Day)
1949 - WOTV TV channel 8 in Grand Rapids, MI (NBC) begins broadcasting
1950 - 8.6 earthquake in India kills 20,000 to 30,000

8. Boxer and World Heavyweight Champion Ezzard Charles
1950 - Ezzard Charles TKOs Freddie Beshore in 14 for heavyweight boxing title
Famous Birthdays
Birthdays 1 - 100 of 252
1171 - King Alfonso IX of Leon (d. 1230)
1195 - Anthony of Padua, Portuguese saint (d. 1231)
1432 - Luigi Pulci, Italy, poet (Morgante)
1575 - Bartol Ka?i?, Croatian writer and linguist (d. 1650)
1613 - Gilles Ménage, French scholar (d. 1692)
1619 - Hubertus Quellinus, [Quellien], Flemish cartoonist/copper plate
1688 - Frederick-William I, king of Prussia (1713-1740)
1702 - Francesco Zuccarelli, Italian rococo painter/etcher
1717 - Blind Jack, English roadbuilder (d. 1810)
1725 - Ferdinando Bertoni, composer
1727 - Johann Georg Holzbogen, composer
1736 - Johann Christoph Kellner, composer
1740 - Matthias Claudius, German poet (d. 1815)
1741 - Thomas Norris, composer

9. French Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte (1769)
1769 - Napoleon Bonaparte, Corsica, resident of Elba (emperor of France 1804-13, 1814-15), (d.
1821)
1771 - Walter Scott, Scotland, novelist/poet (Lady of Lake)
1776 - Gottlieb Schick, German painter (Apollo under the Hirten)
1776 - Ignaz Xaver von Seyfried, composer
1782 - Henri MG earl the Merode, Belgian revolutionary (Souvenirs)
1785 - Thomas De Quincey, England, writer (Confessions of English Opium Eater)
1787 - Alexander Aliabiev, composer
1788 - Carel SW van Hogendorp, Dutch colonial director
1794 - Elias M Fries, Swedish botanist (System mycologicum)
1803 - James Douglas, father of British Columbia
1813 - Jules Grévy, 2nd President of the French Third Republic (d. 1891)
1822 - Wilhelm Rust, composer
1823 - Orris Sanford Ferry, Bvt Major General (Union volunteers)
1829 - Eduard de Hartog, composer
1839 - Hugh Archibald Clarke, composer
1845 - Walter Crane, England, painter/illustrator (Beauty & Beast)
1851 - [Georgette A] Helena Amelung, Dutch actress (Scapegoat)
1856 - J Keir Hardie, 1st Labour representative in British Parliament
1857 - Albert Ballin, German shipping tycoon (d. 1918)

10. 1860 - Florence Harding [DeWolfe], US 1st lady (1921-23), born in Marion, Ohio (d. 1924)
1860 - Roosje Vos, Dutch union organizer
1860 - Henrietta Vinton Davis, American elocutionist (d. 1941)
1863 - Alexei Krylov, Russian engineer and mathematician (d. 1945)
1865 - Johan[nes] B Schepers, Frisian writer (Braga)
1865 - Usui Mikao, Japanese founder of Reiki (d. 1926)
1872 - Harold Fraser-Simson, composer
1872 - Rubin Goldmark, composer
1874 - Joseph Klausner, Polish/Israeli new testament expert
1875 - Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, composer (Hiawatha's Wedding Feast), born in London, England
1876 - Aleksandar Belic, Serb linguist
1878 - Pjotr N Wrangel, Russian baron/general (White Armies, WW II)
1879 - Ethel Barrymore, American classic film & stage actress (Constant Wife, Corn is Green), born
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1881 - Alfred Wagenknecht, German-born American activist (d. 1956)
1883 - Ivan Me?trovi?, Croatian sculptor (d. 1962)
1885 - Andrey Filippovich Pashchenko, composer
1885 - Edna Ferber, American author & playwright (American Beauty, Cimarron) (d. 1968)
1885 - Mary Nash, Troy NY, actress (Phila Story, Till the Clouds Roll By)
1886 - Bill Whitty, cricketer (Australian left-arm bowler 1909-12)
1888 - Albert Spalding, composer
1890 - Jacques Ibert, Paris France, composer (Escales)
1890 - Elizabeth Bolden, American Supercentenarian (d. 2006)
1890 - Elvin M. Jellinek, New York City, American Physiologist and pioneer in the study of alcoholism
1892 - Knud Christian Jeppesen, composer
1892 - Louis-Victor prince of Broglie, France, physicist (Nobel 1929)

11. 1893 - Alexander Vasil'yevich Gauk, composer
1893 - Harlow H Curtice, pres of General Motors (1953-8)
1893 - Leslie Comrie, New Zealand astronomer and computing pioneer (d. 1950)
1896 - Catherine Doherty, Russian-born Canadian activist (d. 1985)
1897 - Marion Eugene Bauer, composer
1898 - Lillian Carter, Pres Carter's (1977-1981) mom
1898 - Jan Brzechwa, Polish poet (d. 1966)
1900 - Estelle Brody, actress (Safari, Kitty, Plaything), born in NYC, New York
1901 - Arias Arnulfo, 3 time president of Panama (1940-41, 49-51, 68)
1901 - Byron Arnold, composer
1901 - Hans Lorbeer, writer
1901 - Sulho Ranta, composer
1901 - Pyotr Sergeyevich Novikov, Russian mathematician (d. 1975)
1902 - Jan RT Campert, writer (Song the 18 dead)
1904 - Bill Baird, Grand Is Nebr, puppeteer (Kukla Fran & Ollie, Muppet Show)
1906 - Finn Videro, composer
1907 - Paul Vincze, medallist
1909 - Raymond O'Malley, teacher
1910 - Hugo Winterhalter, composer
1910 - Josef Klaus, Chancellor of Austria (1966-70)
1910 - Signe Hasso, actress (QB VII, Taxi 13, Black Bird, Crisis)
1912 - Julia Child, Pasadena California, chef (French Chef)
1912 - Wendy Hiller, England, actress (Major Barbara, David Copperfield)
1912 - Wijnanda M C "Nan" Aberson, friend of Gerard Reve Sr
1914 - Peter Nicholson Gunn, writer
1915 - Alma Gardeslan, Surinamese/Dutch folklorist

12. 1915 - Kamiel van Baelen, Flemish author/resistance fighter (Mensch op Weg)
1915 - Signe Hasso, Stockholm Sweden, actress (Johnny Angel, Double Life)
1916 - Aleks Çaçi, Albanian writer
1917 - Jack Lynch, Irish politician, fourth Taoiseach (d. 1999)
1917 - Oscar Romero, El Salvador Roman catholic priest (d. 1980)
1918 - Florian Zabach, American musician and TV personality (Hot Canary, Club Embassy), born in
Chicago, Illinois
1918 - Fay Honey Knopp, activist
1918 - Raymond Gallois-Montbrun, composer
1919 - Huntz Hall, actor (Cyclone, Gas Pump Girls, The Rating Game), born in NYC, New York
1919 - Benedict Kiely, Irish author
1922 - Lukas Foss, [Fuchs], composer (Prairie), born in Berlin, Germany
1923 - Rose Marie, actress (Sally Rogers-Dick Van Dyke Show), born in NYC, New York
Eagle Forum President Phyllis Schlafly (1924)
1924 - Phyllis Schlafly, St Louis, right-winger/Eagle Forum president
1924 - Robert Oxton Bolt, playwright (A Man for All Seasons, Doctor Zhivago)
1925 - Billy Pinkney, Sumter NC, rock bassist/vocalist (Drifters)
1925 - Gertrude Shope, South African head (ANC female section)
Famous Weddings
Weddings 1 - 6 of 6

13. Singer-songwriter Buddy Holly (1958)
1958 - Singer Buddy Holly weds receptionist Maria Santiago
1985 - Anti-apartheid lawyer Bulelani Ngcuka marries in South Africa
1992 - Actress Susan Anton marries actor Jeff Lester
2004 - Fashion designer and socialite Nicky Hilton (21) weds businessman Todd Andrew Meister
(33) at The Vegas Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas, Nevada
2009 - Charmed actress Alyssa Milano (39) weds CAA agent David Bugliari in Bernardsville, New
Jersey
2009 - Actor Joseph Fiennes (39) weds model María Dolores Diéguez in Tuscany, Italy
Famous Deaths
Deaths 1 - 100 of 115
69 - Servius Sulpicius Galba, 6th emperor of Rome (68-69), murdered
423 - Flavius Honorius, emperor East Roman Republic (395-423), dies
778 - Roland, Frankish commander
1038 - Stefanus I, [Arpad], 1st king of Hungary, dies
1040 - King Duncan I of Scotland killed in battle at ca. 39 years
1057 - Macbeth, King of Scots, slain by son of King Duncan
1118 - Alexius I Comnenus, Emperor of Byzantium (1081-1118), dies
1196 - Conrad II, Duke of Swabia (b. 1173)

14. King of Scotland Macbeth (1057)
1274 - Robert de Sorbon, French theologian and founder of the Sorbonne (b. 1201)
1369 - Philippa of Hainault, Queen consort of Edward III of England
1464 - Pius II, [Aenea S Piccolomini], Italian Pope (1458-64), dies at 58
1528 - Odet de Foix, Vicomte de Lautrec, French military leader (b. 1485)
1552 - Hermann of Wied, German Catholic archbishop (b. 1477)
1576 - Baliny Valentin Bakfark, composer, dies
1600 - Johann Baptista Serranus, composer, dies at 60
1615 - Cornelis C Vrancx, Flemish poet/writer (Comfort of Soles), dies
1619 - Miriam Bella, head of Jewish community of Kraków, dies
1621 - John Barclay, Scottish writer (b. 1582)
1666 - Johann A Schall von Bell, German missionary/astronomer, dies
1714 - Constantin Brâncoveanu, Prince of Wallachia (b. 1654)
1725 - Gerard Noodt, lawyer, dies at 77
1728 - Marin Marais, composer, dies at 72
1729 - Benjamin Neukirch, German poet (Herrn von Hofmannswaldau), dies at 64
1758 - Pierre Bouguer, French mathematician (fotometrie), dies at 60
1798 - Felice Alessandri, composer, dies at 50
1799 - Giuseppe Parini, Italian poet (b. 1729)
1807 - Johann N Tetens, German/Danish philosopher/mathematician, dies at 70

15. 1848 - Timothy Olmstead, composer, dies at 88
1852 - Johan Gadolin, Finnish chemist (discovered yttrium), dies at 92
1853 - Giovanni Battista Polledro, composer, dies at 72
1864 - Daniel Phineas Woodbury, US engineer/Union general-major, dies
1880 - Adelaide Neilson, English Actress (b. 1848)
1901 - Karl Weinhold, Germany, sociologist, dies at 77
1907 - Joseph Joachim, German violinist/composer, dies at 76
1909 - Euclides da Cunha, Brazilian writer and sociologist (b. 1866)
1914 - Anatol K Liadov, Russian composer (Baba yaga), dies at 59 [NS=Aug 28]
1915 - Albert Siegfried Bettelheim, Jew convicted of murder, lynched
1917 - Thomas J. Higgins, decorated Union Army soldier (b. 1831)
1918 - Peter Gast, composer, dies at 64
1925 - Konrad Mägi, Estonian artist (b. 1878)
1935 - Gerard Brucken Fock, composer, dies at 75
1935 - Wiley Post, aviation pioneer, killed in plane crash in Alaska at 36
Humorist Will Rogers (1935)
1935 - Will Rogers, humorist, killed in plane crash in Alaska at 55
1936 - Grazia Deledda, Sardina/Italian author (Nobel 1926), dies at 64
1936 - Stanislaw Niewiadomski, composer, dies at 76
1945 - Korechika Anami, Japanese War Minister (b. 1887)

16. 1951 - Artur Schnabel, Austria/US pianist (Reflections on Music), dies at 69
1953 - Ludwig Prandtl, German physicist (b. 1875)
1956 - Constantine Freiherr von Neurath, German foreign minister, dies at 83
1958 - William L C "Big Bill" Broonzy, US blues singer/guitarist, dies at 65
1959 - Blind Willie McTell, American ragtime singer and guitarist (b. 1901)
1962 - Lei Feng, Chinese revolutionary (b. 1940)
1963 - John Powell, composer, dies at 80
1966 - Gerhard/Gerhart Pohl, German writer (Battle of Kolbenau), dies at 64
1966 - Jan Kiepura, actor (Give Us this Night), dies of heart attack at 64
1966 - Seena Owen, actress/writer (Queen Kelly), dies at 71
1967 - René Magritte, Belgian surrealist painter, dies at 68
1968 - Edward Kilenyi, composer, dies at 84
1969 - Stijn Streuvels, [F Lateur], Flemish writer (Vlaschard), dies at 97
1970 - Karl August Andersen, composer, dies at 66
1971 - Paul Lukas, actor (Kim, Berlin Express), dies of heart failure at 76
1972 - Alf Thorbald Hurum, composer, dies at 89
1974 - Edmund Cobb, actor (Motorcycle Gang), dies at 82
1974 - Mrs Park Chung Hi, wife of South Korean president, murdered
1975 - Mujibur Rahiman, Pakistani sheik, killed in a military coup at 53
1975 - Clay Shaw, alleged John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracist & businessman (b. 1913)
1976 - Jean P J C Haesaert, Flemish lawyer/sociologist, dies at 84
1978 - Harrison Kerr, composer, dies at 80
1982 - Hugo Theorell, Swedish scientist, Nobel Prize Laureate (b. 1903)
1983 - Anthony Costello, actor (Blue), dies at 42
1983 - Benjamin V Cohen, US author of New Deal-legislation, dies at 88
1985 - Richard Yardumian, US composer (Creator Spirit), dies at 68

17. 1988 - Barry Bingham Sr, US daily newspaper publisher, dies at 82
1988 - Mohammed Zia ul-Haq, President of Pakistan, killed in plane crash
1989 - F de Jong Edz, Dutch historian/director (IISG), dies
1990 - Nina Bara, actress (Missile to the Moon), dies of cancer at 66
1990 - Viktor Tsoi, Russian musician (b. 1962)
1991 - Marietta Tree, ambassador (UN Comm of Human Rights), dies at 74
1992 - Evelyn Wesler Zemel, US author (American Glass Animals), dies
1992 - Giorgio Perlasca, Italian anti-fascist (saved 5,200 Jews), dies
1992 - Marie Paxton, entertainer, dies after brief illness
1992 - Martha Blackburn, Canada newspaper publisher (London Free Press), dies
1992 - Osamu Inaba, Japanese min of justice, dies
1993 - Robert W Kempner, German officer of justice in Prussia, dies at 93
1994 - Shepherd Mead, London England, dies of stroke at 80
1994 - Simon R Naoli, Tanzanian marathoner, dies in an accident at 28
1994 - Wout Wagtmans, cyclist (Rome-Naples-Rome 1957), dies at 64
1995 - Erbie Bowser, pianist, dies at 77
1995 - Humphrey Sims Moore, pacifist/journalist, dies at 86
1995 - Ismay Thomas, teacher, dies at 74
1996 - Agnes Beatrice Read, medical social worker, dies at 86
1996 - Ernest Leslie Bouts, motor-racing driver, dies at 93
1996 - Masao Maruyama, social scientist, dies at 82
1999 - Sir Hugh Casson, British architect and artist (b. 1910)
2001 - Richard Chelimo, Kenyan athlete (b. 1972)
2003 - Gösta Sundqvist, Finnish songwriter and singer (heart attack) (b. 1957)
2004 - Semiha Berksoy, first Turkish opera singer (b. 1910)
2004 - Amarsinh Chaudhary, Indian politician (b. 1941)

18. 2004 - Sune Bergström, Swedish biochemist, Nobel Prize Laureate (b. 1916)
2006 - Te Atairangi Kaahu, M?ori queen (b. 1931)
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