15 January History
- 1624 - Riots flare in Mexico when it is announced that all churches are to be closed.
- 1811 - In a secret session, Congress plans to annex Spanish East Florida.
- 1865 - Union troops capture Fort Fisher, North Carolina.
- 1913 - The first telephone line between Berlin and New York is inaugurated.
- 1919 - Peasants in Central Russia rise against the Bolsheviks.
- 1920 - The Dry Law goes into effect in the United States. Selling liquor and beer becomes illegal.
- 1920 - The United States approves a $150 million loan to Poland, Austria and Armenia to aid in their war with the Russian communists.
- 1927 - The Dumbarton Bridge opens in San Francisco carrying the first auto traffic across the bay.
- 1929 - The U.S. Senate ratifies the Kellogg-Briand anti-war pact.
- 1930 - Amelia Earhart sets an aviation record for women at 171 mph in a Lockheed Vega.
- 1936 - In London, Japan quits all naval disarmament talks after being denied equality.
- 1944 - The U.S. Fifth Army successfully breaks the German Winter Line in Italy with the capture of Mount Trocchio.
- 1949 - Chinese Communists occupy Tientsin after a 27-hour battle with Nationalist forces.
- 1965 - Sir Winston Churchill suffers a severe stroke.
- 1967 - Some 462 Yale faculty members call for an end to the bombing in North Vietnam.
- 1973 - Four of six remaining Watergate defendants plead guilty.
15 January Birthdays
- 1622 - Moliere [Jean Baptiste Poquelin], French comic dramatist best remembered for his play La Tartuffe.
- 1716 - Philip Livingston, signatory to the Declaration of Independence.
- 1823 - Mathew Brady, Civil War photographer.
- 1906 - Aristotle Onassis, Greek tycoon.
- 1908 - Edward Teller, Hungarian-born U.S. physicist known as the "Father of the H-bomb."
- 1929 - Martin Luther King, Jr., civil rights leader and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.