Historical Events on February 15

  • 1764: Louis City is founded in what was once a part of Spanish Louisiana – today, that area is the state of Missouri.
  • 1862: General Ulysses S. Grant leads Union forces on an attack upon Fort Donelson in Tennessee.
  • 1870: In New Jersey, the Stevens Institute of Technology is officially founded. This university is the first one in the United States to offer a Bachelor of Engineering degree for Mechanical Engineering.
  • 1879: Signed into law by Rutherford B. Hayes, a new bill allows women to argue cases before the U.S Supreme Court.
  • 1898: The USS Maine sinks in Havana Harbor in Cuba; As a result, over 270 people are killed and the U.S declares war on Spain.
  • 1909: In Acapulco, Mexico a fire breaks out in the Flores Theater. Approximately 250 people are killed.
  • 1933: Giuseppe Zangara tries to assassinate United States President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt in Miami. Instead, he shoots the Mayor of Chicago, Anton J. Cermak. Mayor Cermak will die from these wound on March 6th of that very same year.
  • 1942: Singapore falls during World War II when British General Percival surrenders to Japanese force. Over 80,000 soldiers from India, Australia and the U.K become POWs.
  • 1992: Convicted serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer is given a life sentence.
  • 2001: The initial sequencing of the human genome is published in Nature for the first time.
  • 2003: An estimated 8 to 29 million people in 600 cities worldwide participate in protests against the Iraq war.
  • 2013: A meteor blows up over Russia causing panic, blowing out windows and injuring approximately fifteen hundred people.
  • 2013: Asteroid 2012 DA14 becomes one of the closest passes by an asteroid its size in history.

Famous Birthdays on February 15

  • American businessman and founder of Tiffany & Co., Charles Lewis Tiffany is born in 1812.
  • American activist and suffragist, Susan B. Anthony is born in 1820.
  • American lawyer, politician and Nobel Prize laureate, Elihu Root is born in 1845.
  • British-Irish captain and polar explorer, Ernest Shackleton is born in 1874.
  • American animator and screenwriter, Matt Groening is born in 1954.
  • American model and author, Janice Dickinson is born in 1955.
  • American actor Christopher McDonald is born in 1955.
  • American comedian and actor, Chris Farley is born in 1964.
  • American actress and producer, Renee O’Connor is born in 1971.
  • American singer-songwriter Brandon Boyd is born in 1976.