1915 Events January 12 - The Rocky Mountain National Park is established by an act of Congress. January 12 - United States House of Representatives rejects proposal to give women the right to vote. January 13 – An earthquake (6.8 in Richter scale) in Avezzano, Italy - 32.610 dead January 19 - George Claude patents the neon discharge tube for use in advertising. January 19 - German zeppelins bomb the cities of Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn in the United Kingdom for the first time, killing more than 20. January 21 - Kiwanis International is founded in Detroit, Michigan. January 27 - United States Marines occupy Haiti. January 28 - An act of the United States Congress creates the United States Coast Guard. January 31 - World War I: Germany uses poison gas against Russians. February 8 - The controversial film The Birth of a Nation by D.W. Griffith premieres (Los Angeles, California). February 12 - In Washington, DC the first stone of the Lincoln Memorial is put into place. March 3 - NACA, the predecessor of NASA, is founded. March 14 - World War I: Off the coast of Chile, the Royal Navy sinks the German battleship SMS Dresden. March 14 - Britain, France and Russia agree to give Constantinople and the Bosporus to Russia in case of victory (the treaty is later nullified by the Bolshevik revolution) March 18 - World War I: British attack on the Dardanelles fails. March 19 - Pluto is photographed for the first time but was not recognized as a planet. April 22 - World War I: Second Battle of Ypres - German troops introduce poison gas at Ypres, Belgium. April 24 - Turkish troops attack the Armenian region of Van, starting the Armenian Genocide. In Constantinople, Turkish officers round up 300 ethnically Armenian intellectuals and execute them April 25 - The Anzac tradition begins during World War I with a landing at Gallipoli on the Turkish coast. April 30 - Australian submarine AE2 sunk in Sea of Marmora. May 7 - World War I: The RMS Lusitania is sunk by a German U-boat killing 1,198. May 9 - World War I: Second Battle of Artois - German and French forces fight. May 17 - The last purely Liberal government in the United Kingdom ends when Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith forms an all party coalition. May 22 - Quintinshill railway disaster, Scotland, UK. 200 killed. May 23 - World War I: Italy joins the Allies after they declare war on Austria-Hungary. June 9 - U.S. Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan resigns over a disagreement regarding his nation's handling of the RMS Lusitania sinking. June 16 - Foundation of the British Women's Institute June 24 - The steamer Eastland capsizes in Chicago, and over 800 people die. June 29 – Roger Casement is sentenced to be hanged for treason August 5 – 23 - hurricane over Galveston and New Orleans – 275 dead August 6 - World War I: Battle of Sari Bair begins - The Allies mount a diversionary attack timed to coincide with a major Allied landing of reinforcements at Suvla Bay. August 17 - Jewish American Leo Frank is lynched for the alleged murder of a 13-year-old girl in Atlanta, Georgia. September 6 - The first prototype tank is tested for the British Army for the first time. October 12 - World War I: British nurse Edith Cavell is executed by a German firing squad for helping Allied soldiers escape from Belgium. Alfred Wegener proposes the theory of Pangea. Emory College is rechartered as Emory University, and plans to move its main campus from Oxford, Georgia to Atlanta. U.S. recognizes government of President Venustiano Carranza of Mexico. Lord Beaverbrook buys the London Daily Express. Automobile speed record of 102.6 m.p.h. set at Sheepshead Bay, N.Y.. by Gil Anderson driving a Stutz. The first stop sign appears in Detroit, Michigan. Female suffrage in Denmark and Iceland Henri Desiré Landru begins his serial kills Typhoid Mary isolated Ongoing events World War I (1914-1918) Armenian Genocide (1915-1918) Hellenic Holocaust (1914-1922) Births January 5 - Arthur H. Robinson, cartographer (d. 2004) January 14 - Mark Goodson, game show producer and television pioneer (d. 1992) January 20 - Ghulam Ishaq Khan, President of Pakistan January 24 – Robert Motherwell, American abstract expressionist painter (d. 1991) January 31 - Thomas Merton, monk and author (d. 1968) February 1 – Artur London, Czech statesman (d. 1986) February 4 - Sir Norman Wisdom, English comedian, singer and actor March 10 - Harry Bertoia, Italian artist and designer (d. 1978) March 20 - Sviatoslav Richter, Ukrainian pianist (d. 1997) April 4 - Muddy Waters, blues musician (d. 1983) April 7 - Billie Holiday, jazz and blues singer (d. 1959) May 1 - Krystyna Skarbek, heroine of WW II (d. 1952) May 1 - Archie Williams, American athlete May 6 - Orson Welles, American director (Citizen Kane) (d. 1985) May 20 - Moshe Dayan, Israeli military leader, politician (d. 1981) May 29 - Karl Münchinger, German conductor (d. 1990) August 22 - Hugh Paddick, British actor (d. 2000) October 24 - Tito Gobbi, Italian baritone (d. 1984) November 11 - William Proxmire, former U.S. Senator November 25 - Augusto Pinochet, Former Chilean President December 7 - Eli Wallach, actor December 9 - Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, soprano December 12 - Frank Sinatra, American entertainer (d. 1998) December 19 - Edith Piaf, French singer (d. 1963) Deaths January 15 - Mary Slessor, Scottish Christian missionary to West Africa (b. 1848) February 5 - Ross Barnes, baseball player March 31 - Wyndham Halswelle, British runner April 23 - Rupert Brooke, poet July 16 - Ellen G. White, prophetess, co-founder of Seventh-Day Adventism September 9 - Albert Spalding, baseball player and sporting goods manufacturer October 12 - Charles Sorley, poet November 15 - Booker T. Washington, African-American educator ast:1915 FAVORITE ARTICLES: History of the World    History of the United States    History of Europe    Ancient History    History    Military History    World War I    Bombing of Dresden    California    US Constitution    Frank Sinatra    Boston    Marbury v. Madison This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License at http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html You may copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license. You must provide a link to http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html To view or edit this article at Wikipedia go to http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/1915