Historical Events on April 15
- 1817: The first American school for deaf students – the American School for the Deaf – is established in Hartford, Connecticut by Laurent Clerc and Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet.
- 1861: United States’ President Abraham Lincoln asks for 75,000 volunteers to put down the insurrection that was afflicting the country. That insurrection soon turned into the American Civil War.
- 1865: After being shot the previous day by John Wilkes Booth, President Abraham Lincoln dies. Upon his death, U.S Vice President Andrew Johnson is sworn is as President.
- 1892:E (the General Electric Co.) is formed on this day.
- 1900: Filipino guerrillas start a 4-day siege on Catubig in the Philippines.
- 1912: 2 hours and 40 minutes after hitting an iceberg, the RMS Titanic sinks in the North Atlantic at 2:20 a.m. Out of 2,227 people, 1,517 people will perish and only 710 will survive.
- 1922: A resolution is introduced by U.S Senator John B. Kendrick of Wyoming to investigate a secret land deal. This investigation will lead to the discovery of the Teapot Dome Scandal.
- 1923: Insulin becomes available to diabetics.
- 1924: The first road atlas is published by Rand McNally.
- 1942: King George VI awards the George Cross to the Island fortress of Malta and to the people who defended it.
- 1945: Allied forces liberate the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp.
- 1955: Ray Kroc opens a McDonald’s restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois.
- 1960: The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee is created. It’s one of the principal organization of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement.
Famous Birthdays on April 15
- Italian painter, sculptor and architect, Leonardo da Vinci is born in 1452.
- American painter Charles Willson Peale is born in 1741.
- French-Polish teacher Nicolas Chopin is born in 1771.
- Russian physicist, chemist and Nobel Prize laureate, Nikolay Semyonov is born in 1896.
- English-American actor John Williams is born in 1903.
- Armenian-American painter and illustrator, Arshile Gorky is born in 1904.
- American actress Lita Grey is born in 1908.
- American actress Elizabeth Montgomery is born in 1933.
- American physician, biochemist and Nobel Prize laureate, Robert Lefkowitz is born in 1943.
- American actress Amy Wright is born in 1950.
- English actress Emma Thompson is born in 1959.