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 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 July 24 - The steamer Eastland 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 )
