15 April History
- 1755 - English lexicographer Dr. Samuel Johnson publishes his Dictionary of the English Language.
- 1784 - The first balloon is flown in Ireland.
- 1813 - U.S. troops under James Wilkinson siege the Spanish-held city of Mobile in future state of Alabama.
- 1858 - At the Battle of Azimghur, the Mexicans defeat Spanish loyalists.
- 1871 - 'Wild Bill' Hickok becomes the marshal of Abilene, Kansas.
- 1861 - President Lincoln mobilizes Federal army.
- 1865 - Abraham Lincoln dies from John Wilkes Booth's assassination bullet.
- 1912 - With her band playing on the deck, the ocean liner Titanic sinks at 2:27 a.m. in the North Atlantic.
- 1917 - British forces defeat the Germans at the battle of Arras.
- 1919 - British troops kill 400 Indians at Amritsar, India.
- 1923 - Insulin becomes generally available for people suffering with diabetics.
- 1923 - The first sound films shown to a paying audience are exhibited at the Rialto Theater in New York City.
- 1940 - French and British troops land at Narvik, Norway.
- 1945 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt is buried on the grounds of his Hyde Park home.
- 1948 - Arab forces are defeated in battle with Israeli forces.
- 1952 - President Harry Truman signs the official Japanese peace treaty.
- 1955 - Ray Kroc starts the McDonald's chain of fast food restaurants.
- 1959 - Cuban leader Fidel Castro begins a U.S. goodwill tour.
- 1960 - The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organizes at Shaw University.
- 1971 - North Vietnamese troops ambush a company of Delta Raiders from the 101st Airborne Division near Fire Support Base Bastogne in Vietnam. The American troops were on a rescue mission.
- 1986 - U.S. warplanes attack Libya.
15 April Birthdays
- 1452 - Leonardo da Vinci, Italian painter, sculptor, scientist and visionary
- 1684 - Catherine I, empress of Russia
- 1741 - Charles Wilson Peale, portrait painter and inventor
- 1800 - Sir James Clark Ross, Scottish explorer who located the Magnetic North Pole.
- 1832 - Wilhelm Busch, German painter and poet, created the precursor to the comic strip.
- 1843 - Henry James, writer and critic.
- 1874 - George Harrison Shull, American botanist, developer of hybrid corn.
- 1874 - Johannes Stark, Novel Prize-winning German physicist.
- 1880 - Max Wertheimer, Czech-born psychologist.
- 1889 - Thomas Hart Benton, painter, muralist.
- 1889 - Asa Phillip Randolph, American labor leader and Civil Rights advocate.
- 1898 - Bessie Smith, American blues singer.
- 1904 - Arshile Gorky, abstract painter.
- 1922 - Harold Washington, first black mayor of Chicago
- 1922 - Neville Mariner, conductor.
- 1932 - Eva Figes, British novelist.
- 1940 - Jeffrey Archer, English novelist and politician (Kane and Abel, Honor Among Thieves).