15 July

Events

Pre-1600

*484 BC – Dedication of the Temple of Castor and Pollux in ancient Rome
* 70 – First Jewish–Roman War: Titus and his armies breach the walls of Jerusalem. ( 17th of Tammuz in the Hebrew calendar).
* 756 – An Lushan Rebellion: Emperor Xuanzong of Tang is ordered by his Imperial Guards to execute chancellor Yang Guozhong by forcing him to commit suicide or face a mutiny. General An Lushan has other members of the emperor's family killed.
*1099 – First Crusade: Christian soldiers take the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem after the final assault of a difficult siege.
* 1149 – The reconstructed Church of the Holy Sepulchre is consecrated in Jerusalem.
*1207 – King John of England expels Canterbury monks for supporting Archbishop Stephen Langton.
*1240 – Swedish–Novgorodian Wars: A Novgorodian army led by Alexander Nevsky defeats the Swedes in the Battle of the Neva.
* 1381 – John Ball, a leader in the Peasants' Revolt, is hanged, drawn and quartered in the presence of King Richard II of England.
*1410 – Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War: Battle of Grunwald: The allied forces of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania defeat the army of the Teutonic Order.
*1482 – Muhammad XII is crowned the twenty-second and last Nasrid king of Granada.

1601–1900

* 1640 – The first university of Finland, the Royal Academy of Turku, is inaugurated in Turku.
*1738 – Baruch Laibov and Alexander Voznitzin are burned alive in St. Petersburg, Russia. Vonitzin had converted to Judaism with Laibov's help, with the consent of Empress Anna Ivanovna.
*1741 – Aleksei Chirikov sights land in Southeast Alaska. He sends men ashore in a longboat, making them the first Europeans to visit Alaska.
*1789 – French Revolution: Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, is named by acclamation Colonel General of the new National Guard of Paris.
*1799 – The Rosetta Stone is found in the Egyptian village of Rosetta by French Captain Pierre-François Bouchard during Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign.
*1806 – Pike Expedition: United States Army Lieutenant Zebulon Pike begins an expedition from Fort Bellefontaine near St. Louis, Missouri, to explore the west.
*1815 – Napoleonic Wars: Napoleon Bonaparte surrenders aboard .
*1823 – A fire destroys the ancient Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls in Rome, Italy.
*1834 – The Spanish Inquisition is officially disbanded after nearly 356 years.
*1838 – Ralph Waldo Emerson delivers the Divinity School Address at Harvard Divinity School, discounting Biblical miracles and declaring Jesus a great man, but not God. The Protestant community reacts with outrage.
*1862 – American Civil War: The CSS ''Arkansas'', the most effective ironclad on the Mississippi River, battles with Union Navy ships commanded by Admiral David Farragut, severely damaging three ships and sustaining heavy damage herself. The encounter changed the complexion of warfare on the Mississippi and helped reverse Rebel's fortunes on the river in the summer of 1862.
*1870 – Reconstruction Era of the United States: Georgia becomes the last of the former Confederate states to be readmitted to the Union.
* 1870 – Canadian Confederation: 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 Northwest Territories are established from these vast territories.
*1888 – The stratovolcano Mount Bandai erupts, killing approximately 500 people in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan.

1901–present

*1910 – In his book ''Clinical Psychiatry'', Emil Kraepelin gives a name to Alzheimer's disease, naming it after his colleague Alois Alzheimer.
*1916 – In Seattle, Washington, William Boeing and George Conrad Westervelt incorporate Pacific Aero Products (later renamed Boeing).
*1918 – World War I: The Second Battle of the Marne begins near the River Marne with a German attack.
*1920 – Aftermath of World War I: The Parliament of Poland establishes Silesian Voivodeship before the Polish-German plebiscite.
*1922 – The Japanese Communist Party is established in Japan.
*1927 – Massacre of July 15, 1927: Eighty-nine protesters are killed by Austrian police in Vienna.
*1941 – The Holocaust: Nazi Germany begins the deportation of 100,000 Jews from the occupied Netherlands to extermination camps.
* 1946 – The State of North Borneo, now Sabah, Malaysia, is annexed by the United Kingdom.
* 1954 – The Boeing 367-80, the prototype for both the Boeing 707 and C-135 series, takes its first flight.
*1955 – Eighteen Nobel laureates sign the Mainau Declaration against nuclear weapons, later co-signed by thirty-four others.
*1959 – The steel strike of 1959 begins, leading to significant importation of foreign steel for the first time in United States history.
*1966 – Vietnam War: The United States and South Vietnam begin Operation Hastings to push the North Vietnamese out of the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone.
*1971 – The United Red Army is founded in Japan.
*1974 – In Nicosia, Cyprus, Greek junta-sponsored nationalists launch a coup d'état, deposing President Makarios and installing Nikos Sampson as Cypriot president.
*1975 – Space Race: Apollo–Soyuz Test Project features the dual launch of an Apollo spacecraft and a Soyuz spacecraft on the first joint Soviet-United States human-crewed flight. It was the last launch of both an Apollo spacecraft, and the Saturn family of rockets.
*1979 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter gives his "malaise speech".
*1983 – An attack at Orly Airport in Paris is launched by Armenian militant organisation ASALA, leaving eight people dead and 55 injured.
*1996 – A Belgian Air Force C-130 Hercules carrying the Royal Netherlands Army marching band crashes on landing at Eindhoven Airport.
*1998 – Sri Lankan Civil War: Sri Lankan Tamil MP S. Shanmuganathan is killed by a claymore mine.
*2002 – "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh pleads guilty to supplying aid to the enemy and possession of explosives during the commission of a felony.
* 2002 – The Anti-Terrorism Court of Pakistan sentences British born Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh to death, and three others suspected of murdering ''The Wall Street Journal'' reporter Daniel Pearl to life.
*2003 – AOL Time Warner disbands Netscape. The Mozilla Foundation is established on the same day.
* 2006 – Twitter, later one of the largest social media platforms in the world, is launched.
*2009 – Caspian Airlines Flight 7908 crashes near Jannatabad, Qazvin, Iran, killing 168.
*2012 – South Korean rapper Psy releases his hit single ''Gangnam Style''.
*2014 – A train derails on the Moscow Metro, killing at least 24 and injuring more than 160 others.
* 2016 – Factions of the Turkish Armed Forces attempt a coup.
*2018 – France win their second World Cup title, defeating Croatia 4-2.
*2021 – Three people are killed by a distracted driver in the 2021 Bowburn crash.

Births

Pre-1600

* 980 – Ichijō, Japanese emperor (d. 1011)
* 1273 – Ewostatewos, Ethiopian monk and saint (d. 1352)
*1353 – Vladimir the Bold, Russian prince (d. 1410)
* 1359 – Antonio Correr, Italian cardinal (d. 1445)
* 1442 – Boček IV of Poděbrady, Bohemian nobleman (d. 1496)
*1455 – Queen Yun, Korean queen (d. 1482)
*1471 – Eskender, Ethiopian emperor (d. 1494)
* 1478 – Barbara Jagiellon, duchess consort of Saxony and Margravine consort of Meissen (d. 1534)
*1573 – Inigo Jones, English architect, designed the Queen's House (d. 1652)
*1600 – Jan Cossiers, Flemish painter (d. 1671)

1601–1900

*1606 – Rembrandt, Dutch painter and etcher (d. 1669)
*1611 – Jai Singh I, maharaja of Jaipur (d. 1667)
*1613 – Gu Yanwu, Chinese philologist and geographer (d. 1682)
*1631 – Jens Juel, Danish politician and diplomat, Governor-general of Norway (d. 1700)
* 1631 – Richard Cumberland, English philosopher (d. 1718)
*1638 – Giovanni Buonaventura Viviani, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1693)
*1704 – August Gottlieb Spangenberg, German bishop and theologian (d. 1792)
*1779 – Clement Clarke Moore, American author, poet, and educator (d. 1863)
*1793 – Almira Hart Lincoln Phelps, American educator, author, editor (d. 1884)
*1796 – Thomas Bulfinch, American mythologist (d. 1867)
*1799 – Reuben Chapman, American lawyer and politician, 13th Governor of Alabama (d. 1882)
*1800 – Sidney Breese, American jurist and politician (d. 1878)
*1808 – Henry Edward Manning, English cardinal (d. 1892)
*1812 – James Hope-Scott, English lawyer and academic (d. 1873)
*1817 – Sir John Fowler, 1st Baronet, English engineer, designed the Forth Bridge (d. 1898)
*1827 – W. W. Thayer American lawyer and politician, 6th Governor of Oregon (d. 1899)
*1848 – Vilfredo Pareto, Italian economist and sociologist (d. 1923)
*1850 – Frances Xavier Cabrini, Italian-American nun and saint (d. 1917)
*1852 – Josef Josephi, Polish-born singer and actor (d. 1920)
*1858 – Emmeline Pankhurst, English political activist and suffragist (d. 1928)
*1864 – Marie Tempest, English actress and singer (d. 1942)
*1865 – Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe, Anglo-Irish businessman and publisher, founded the ''Amalgamated Press'' (d. 1922)
* 1865 – Wilhelm Wirtinger, Austrian-German mathematician and theorist (d. 1945)
* 1867 – Jean-Baptiste Charcot, French physician and explorer (d. 1936)
*1871 – Doppo Kunikida, Japanese journalist, author, and poet (d. 1908)
*1880 – Enrique Mosca, Argentinian lawyer and politician (d. 1950)
*1883 – Denny Barry Irish Hunger Striker (d. 1923)
*1887 – Wharton Esherick, American sculptor (d. 1970)
* 1892 – Walter Benjamin, German philosopher and critic (d. 1940)
*1893 – Enid Bennett, Australian-American actress (d. 1969)
* 1893 – Dick Rauch, American football player and coach (d. 1970)
*1894 – Tadeusz Sendzimir, Polish-American engineer (d. 1989)
*1899 – Seán Lemass, Irish soldier and politician, 4th Taoiseach of Ireland (d. 1971)

1901–present

*1902 – Jean Rey, Belgian lawyer and politician, 2nd President of the European Commission (d. 1983)
*1903 – Walter D. Edmonds, American journalist and author (d. 1998)
* 1903 – K. Kamaraj, Indian journalist and politician (d. 1975)
*1904 – Rudolf Arnheim, German-American psychologist and author (d. 2007)
*1905 – Dorothy Fields, American songwriter (d. 1974)
* 1905 – Anita Farra, Italian actress (d. 2008)
*1906 – R. S. Mugali, Indian poet and academic (d. 1993)
* 1906 – Rudolf Uhlenhaut, English-German engineer (d. 1989)
*1909 – Jean Hamburger, French physician and surgeon (d. 1992)
*1911 – Edward Shackleton, Baron Shackleton, English geographer and politician, Secretary of State for Air (d. 1994)
*1913 – Cowboy Copas, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1963)
* 1913 – Hammond Innes, English journalist and author (d. 1998)
* 1913 – Abraham Sutzkever, Russian poet and author (d. 2010)
*1914 – Birabongse Bhanudej, Thai racing driver and sailor, member of the Thai royal family (d. 1985)
* 1914 – Akhtar Hameed Khan, Pakistani economist, scholar, and activist (d. 1999)
* 1914 – Howard Vernon, Swiss-French actor (d. 1996)
*1915 – Albert Ghiorso, American chemist and academic (d. 2010)
* 1915 – Kashmir Singh Katoch, Indian army officer (d. 2007)
*1916 – Sumner Gerard, American politician and diplomat (d. 2005)
*1917 – Robert Conquest, English-American historian, poet, and academic (d. 2015)
* 1917 – Joan Roberts, American actress and singer (d. 2012)
* 1917 – Nur Muhammad Taraki, Afghan journalist and politician (d. 1979)
*1918 – Bertram Brockhouse, Canadian physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2003)
* 1918 – Brenda Milner, English-Canadian neuropsychologist and academic
*1919 – Fritz Langanke, German lieutenant (d. 2012)
* 1919 – Iris Murdoch, Anglo-Irish British novelist and philosopher (d. 1999)
*1921 – Henri Colpi, Swiss-French director and screenwriter (d. 2006)
* 1921 – Robert Bruce Merrifield, American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2006)
*1922 – Leon M. Lederman, American physicist and mathematician, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2018)
* 1922 – Jean-Pierre Richard, French writer (d. 2019)
*1923 – Francisco de Andrade, Portuguese sailor
*1924 – Jeremiah Denton, American admiral and politician (d. 2014)
* 1924 – Marianne Bernadotte, Swedish actress and philanthropist
*1925 – Philip Carey

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