WORLD HISTORY · 1915 日本語
Events of 1915Taisho 4 (Japan) · Year of the Rabbit
What happened in 1915?
In 1915, Japan issued the Twenty-One Demands to China, and Emperor Taisho's enthronement ceremony was held in Kyoto. Japan's first national secondary-school baseball tournament also opened, and the Gallipoli campaign began during World War I.
- Japan issues Twenty-One Demands to ChinaAsia
- Gallipoli campaign beginsMiddle East
- Hiroshima Prefectural Commercial Exhibition Hall completedAsia
- German forces launch large-scale poison gas attackEurope
- Armenian Genocide beginsEurope
- Lusitania sinking incident occursEurope
- First national secondary-school baseball tournament opensAsia
- Emperor Taisho's enthronement ceremony heldAsia
Tap an event to jump to it in the timeline below.
1915 at a glance
| Japanese era | Taisho 4 |
|---|---|
| Chinese zodiac | Year of the Rabbit |
| Age of people born in 1915 | Turn 111 in 2026 |
| Previous / next year | 1914 (Taisho 3) ／ 1916 (Taisho 5) |
| Events | 74 |
| AP World History | Unit 7 (Global Conflict) |
| AP U.S. History | Period 7 |
Famous people born in 1915
Our birthday pages list 379 people born in 1915. Here are some of them.
- Billie HolidayBorn April 7 · turns 111 this year · American jazz singer nicknamed "Lady Day," famed for emotional recordings like…
- Les PaulBorn June 9 · turns 111 this year · American guitarist and inventor who pioneered the solid-body electric guitar an…
- David RockefellerBorn June 12 · turns 111 this year · American banker and philanthropist who led Chase Manhattan Bank and supported m…
- Ingrid BergmanBorn August 29 · turns 111 this year · Swedish actress and three-time Oscar winner remembered for playing Ilsa opposit…
- Arthur MillerBorn October 17 · turns 111 this year · American playwright who wrote Death of a Salesman and The Crucible, classics of…
- Eli WallachBorn December 7 · turns 111 this year · American stage and screen actor famed for playing Tuco in The Good, the Bad and…
- Frank SinatraBorn December 12 · turns 111 this year · American singer and Oscar-winning actor from Hoboken, New Jersey, one of the de…
- Shoichi YokoiBorn March 31 · turns 111 this year
- Jack LevineBorn January 3 · turns 111 this year
- Arthur H. RobinsonBorn January 5 · turns 111 this year
- Alan WattsBorn January 6 · turns 111 this year
- Don EdwardsBorn January 6 · turns 111 this year
Show 28 more
- John C. LillyBorn January 6 · turns 111 this year
- Walker CooperBorn January 8 · turns 111 this year
- Anita LouiseBorn January 9 · turns 111 this year
- Fernando LamasBorn January 9 · turns 111 this year
- Cynthia FreemanBorn January 10 · turns 111 this year
- Dean DixonBorn January 10 · turns 111 this year
- Luise KrügerBorn January 11 · turns 111 this year
- Paddy MayneBorn January 11 · turns 111 this year
- Joseph-Aurèle PlourdeBorn January 12 · turns 111 this year
- Paul JarricoBorn January 12 · turns 111 this year
- Mark GoodsonBorn January 14 · turns 111 this year
- Leslie H. MartinsonBorn January 16 · turns 111 this year
- Santiago CarrilloBorn January 18 · turns 111 this year
- Syl AppsBorn January 18 · turns 111 this year
- Vassilis TsitsanisBorn January 18 · turns 111 this year
- Ghulam Ishaq KhanBorn January 20 · turns 111 this year
- André LichnerowiczBorn January 21 · turns 111 this year
- Orazio MarianiBorn January 21 · turns 111 this year
- Heinrich AlbertzBorn January 22 · turns 111 this year
- Herma BaumaBorn January 23 · turns 111 this year
- Potter StewartBorn January 23 · turns 111 this year
- W. Arthur LewisBorn January 23 · turns 111 this year
- Robert MotherwellBorn January 24 · turns 111 this year
- Vítězslava KaprálováBorn January 24 · turns 111 this year
- Ewan MacCollBorn January 25 · turns 111 this year
- William HopperBorn January 26 · turns 111 this year
- Jacques HnizdovskyBorn January 27 · turns 111 this year
- Jules ArcherBorn January 27 · turns 111 this year
Events of 1915 (timeline · 74)
Tip: the PC view is best for studying
On a computer, each region has its own vertical line, so you can follow the flow of events and see what was happening in different parts of the world at the same time.
The United States House of Representatives rejects a proposed constitutional amendment to require states to give women the right to vote.
The 6.7 Mw Avezzano earthquake shakes the Province of L'Aquila in Italy with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing between 29,978 and 32,610.
Russia defeats Ottoman Turkey in the Battle of Sarikamish during the Caucasus Campaign of World War I.
Japan issues the "Twenty-One Demands" to the Republic of China in a bid to increase its power in East Asia.
German strategic bombing during World War I: German zeppelins bomb the towns of Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn in the United Kingdom killing at least 20 people, in the first major aerial bombardment of a civilian target.
Over 600 people are killed in Guadalajara, Mexico, when a train plunges off the tracks into a deep canyon.
World War I: British Grand Fleet battle cruisers under Vice-Admiral Sir David Beatty engage Rear-Admiral Franz von Hipper's battle cruisers in the Battle of Dogger Bank.
Alexander Graham Bell inaugurates U.S. transcontinental telephone service, speaking from New York to Thomas Watson in San Francisco.
An act of the U.S. Congress creates the United States Coast Guard as a branch of the United States Armed Forces.
World War I: Germany is the first to make large-scale use of poison gas in warfare in the Battle of Bolimów against Russia.
U-boat Campaign: The Imperial German Navy institutes unrestricted submarine warfare in the waters around Great Britain and Ireland.
World War I: The first naval attack on the Dardanelles begins when a strong Anglo-French task force bombards Ottoman artillery along the coast of Gallipoli.
World War I: During the Battle of Gallipoli, three battleships are sunk during a failed British and French naval attack on the Dardanelles.
The Vancouver Millionaires win the 1915 Stanley Cup Final, the first championship played between the Pacific Coast Hockey Association and the National Hockey Association.
Typhoid Mary, the first healthy carrier of disease ever identified in the United States, is put in quarantine for the second time, where she would remain for the rest of her life.
World War I: French pilot Roland Garros is shot down and glides to a landing on the German side of the lines.
World War I: The use of poison gas in World War I escalates when chlorine gas is released as a chemical weapon in the Second Battle of Ypres.
The arrest of 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Istanbul marks the beginning of the Armenian genocide.
World War I: The Battle of Gallipoli begins: The invasion of the Turkish Gallipoli Peninsula by British, French, Indian, Newfoundland, Australian and New Zealand troops begins with landings at Anzac Cove and Cape Helles.
World War I: Italy secretly signs the Treaty of London pledging to join the Allied Powers.
Babe Ruth, then a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, hits his first major league home run.
Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition: The SY Aurora breaks loose from its anchorage during a gale, beginning a 312-day ordeal.
World War I: German submarine U-20 sinks RMS Lusitania, killing 1,199 people, including 128 Americans. Public reaction to the sinking turns many former pro-Germans in the United States against the German Empire.
The Republic of China accedes to 13 of the 21 Demands, extending the Empire of Japan's control over Manchuria and the Chinese economy.
Lassen Peak erupts with a powerful force, the only volcano besides Mount St. Helens to erupt in the contiguous U.S. during the 20th century.
Three trains collide in the Quintinshill rail disaster near Gretna Green, Scotland, killing 227 people and injuring 246.
World War I: Italy joins the Allies, fulfilling its part of the Treaty of London.
HMS Princess Irene explodes and sinks off Sheerness, Kent, with the loss of 352 lives.
William Jennings Bryan resigns as Woodrow Wilson's Secretary of State over a disagreement regarding the United States' handling of the sinking of the RMS Lusitania.
The U.S. Supreme Court hands down its decision in Guinn v. United States 238 US 347 1915, striking down Oklahoma grandfather clause legislation which had the effect of denying the right to vote to African-Americans.
The North Saskatchewan River flood of 1915 is the worst flood in Edmonton history.
World War I: Leutnant Kurt Wintgens of the then-named German Deutsches Heer's Fliegertruppe army air service achieves the first known aerial victory with a synchronized machine-gun armed fighter plane, the Fokker M.5K/MG Eindecker.
The Liberty Bell leaves Philadelphia by special train on its way to the Panama–Pacific International Exposition. This is the last trip outside Philadelphia that the custodians of the bell intend to permit.
World War I: The First Battle of the Isonzo between Italy and Austria-Hungary comes to an end.
Colombo Town Guard officer Henry Pedris is executed in British Ceylon for allegedly inciting persecution of Muslims.
Beginning of the McMahon–Hussein Correspondence between Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca and the British official Henry McMahon concerning the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire.
Henry James becomes a British citizen to highlight his commitment to Britain during the first World War.
At Treasure Island on the Delaware River in the United States, the First Order of the Arrow ceremony takes place and the Order of the Arrow is founded to honor American Boy Scouts who best exemplify the Scout Oath and Law.
The passenger ship SS Eastland capsizes while tied to a dock in the Chicago River. A total of 844 passengers and crew are killed in the largest loss of life disaster from a single shipwreck on the Great Lakes.
RFC Captain Lanoe Hawker becomes the first British pursuit aviator to earn the Victoria Cross.
The British capture Nasiriyah from the Ottomans during the Mesopotamian campaign.
Patrick Pearse gives his famous speech "Ireland unfree shall never be at peace" at O'Donovan Rossa's funeral in Dublin.
World War I: The German 12th Army occupies Warsaw during the Gorlice–Tarnów Offensive and the Great Retreat of 1915.
World War I: Battle of Sari Bair: The Allies mount a diversionary attack timed to coincide with a major Allied landing of reinforcements at Suvla Bay.
A story in the New York World newspaper reveals that the Imperial German government had purchased excess phenol from Thomas Edison that could be used to make explosives for the war effort and diverted it to Bayer for aspirin production.
Jewish American Leo Frank is lynched in Marietta, Georgia, USA after his death sentence is commuted by Governor John M. Slaton.
A Category 4 hurricane hits Galveston, Texas with winds at 135 miles per hour (217 km/h).
Attempted assassination of Bishop Patrick Heffron, bishop of the Diocese of Winona, by Rev. Louis M. Lesches.
World War I: The first tank prototype, developed by William Foster & Co. for the British army, is completed and given its first test drive.
French soldiers rescue over 4,000 Armenian genocide survivors stranded on Musa Dagh.
New Culture Movement: Chen Duxiu establishes the New Youth magazine in Shanghai.
The Saturday Evening Post publishes the short story "Extricating Young Gussie" by P.G. Wodehouse, featuring the first appearance of Bertie Wooster and his valet Jeeves.
World War I: Radoje Ljutovac becomes the first soldier in history to shoot down an enemy aircraft with ground-to-air fire.
The Metamorphosis written by Franz Kafka is published in the German journal Die Weißen Blätter
World War I: Combined Austro-Hungarian and German Central Powers, reinforced by the recently joined Bulgaria launched a new offensive against Serbia under command of August von Mackensen.
World War I: Entente forces land in Thessaloniki, to open the Macedonian front against the Central Powers.
World War I: British nurse Edith Cavell is executed by a German firing squad for helping Allied soldiers escape from occupied Belgium.
First World War: The Battle of the Hohenzollern Redoubt marks the end of the Battle of Loos.
Albert Einstein presents the field equations of general relativity to the Prussian Academy of Sciences.
Yuan Shikai declares the establishment of the Empire of China and proclaims himself Emperor.
The National Protection War breaks out against the Empire of China, as military leaders Cai E and Tang Jiyao proclaim the independence of Yunnan and begin a campaign to restore the Republic.
Source: Wikipedia date pages ("January 1" … "December 31") / CC BY-SA 4.0. Regions are assigned by the site editors.
FAQ
What year was 1915 in the Japanese calendar?
1915 was Taisho 4 in the Japanese era system.
What Chinese zodiac animal is 1915?
1915 is the Year of the Rabbit.
How old is someone born in 1915?
They turn 111 on their birthday in 2026.
What happened in 1915?
In 1915, Japan issued the Twenty-One Demands to China, and Emperor Taisho's enthronement ceremony was held in Kyoto. Japan's first national secondary-school baseball tournament also opened, and the Gallipoli campaign began during World War I.
Dates and events are based on Wikipedia and other references. Summaries and regions are written by the site editors.