July 15Birthdays & History

On this day: July 15 in history

Oldest first. Tap a year to see it on the World Chronicle timeline.

1. 484 BCDedication of the Temple of Castor and Pollux in ancient Rome.Europe
2. 70First Jewish–Roman War: Titus and his armies breach the walls of Jerusalem. (17th of Tammuz in the Hebrew calendar).EuropeMiddle East
3. 756An 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.Europe
4. 1099First Crusade: Christian soldiers take the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem after the final assault of a difficult siege.Middle East
5. 1149The reconstructed Church of the Holy Sepulchre is consecrated in Jerusalem.Middle East
6. 1207King John of England expels Canterbury monks for supporting Archbishop Stephen Langton.Europe
7. 1240Swedish–Novgorodian Wars: A Novgorodian army led by Alexander Nevsky defeats the Swedes in the Battle of the Neva.Europe
8. 1381John Ball, a leader in the Peasants' Revolt, is hanged, drawn and quartered in the presence of King Richard II of England.Europe
9. 1410Polish–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.Europe
10. 1482Muhammad XI is crowned the twenty-second and last Nasrid king of Granada.North America
11. 1640The first university of Finland, the Royal Academy of Turku, is inaugurated in Turku.Europe
12. 1738Baruch Laibov and Alexander Voznitsyn are burned alive in St. Petersburg, Russia. Vonitzin had converted to Judaism with Laibov's help, with the consent of Empress Anna Ivanovna.Europe
13. 1741Aleksei Chirikov sights land in Southeast Alaska. He sends men ashore in a longboat, making them the first Europeans to visit Alaska.North America
14. 1789French Revolution: Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, is named by acclamation Colonel General of the new National Guard of Paris.Europe
15. 1799The Rosetta Stone is found in the Egyptian village of Rosetta by French Captain Pierre-François Bouchard during Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign.Middle EastEurope
16. 1806Pike Expedition: United States Army Lieutenant Zebulon Pike begins an expedition from Fort Bellefontaine near St. Louis, Missouri, to explore the west.North America
17. 1815Napoleonic Wars: Napoleon Bonaparte surrenders aboard HMS Bellerophon.Europe
18. 1823A fire destroys the ancient Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls in Rome, Italy.Europe
19. 1834The Spanish Inquisition is officially disbanded after nearly 356 years.Europe
20. 1838Ralph 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.Europe
21. 1840The Great Powers of Europe conclude the convention of London in order to stabilise the Near East.Europe
22. 1849The first air raid in history occurs; Austria launches pilotless balloons against the city of Venice.Europe
23. 1862American 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.North America
24. 1870Canadian 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.North America
25. 1870Reconstruction Era of the United States: Georgia becomes the last of the former Confederate states to be readmitted to the Union.North America
26. 1888The stratovolcano Mount Bandai erupts, killing approximately 500 people in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan.Asia
27. 1910In his book Clinical Psychiatry, Emil Kraepelin gives a name to Alzheimer's disease, naming it after his colleague Alois Alzheimer.North America
28. 1916In Seattle, Washington, William Boeing and George Conrad Westervelt incorporate Pacific Aero Products (later renamed Boeing).North America
29. 1918World War I: The Second Battle of the Marne begins near the River Marne with a German attack.Europe
30. 1920Aftermath of World War I: The Parliament of Poland establishes Silesian Voivodeship before the Polish-German plebiscite.Europe
31. 1922The Japanese Communist Party is established in Japan.Asia
32. 1927Massacre of July 15, 1927: Eighty-nine protesters are killed by Austrian police in Vienna.Europe
33. 1942The Holocaust: Nazi Germany begins the deportation of 100,000 Jews from the occupied Netherlands to extermination camps.Europe
34. 1946The State of North Borneo, now Sabah, Malaysia, is annexed by the United Kingdom.AsiaEurope
35. 1954The Boeing 367-80, the prototype for both the Boeing 707 and C-135 series, takes its first flight.Europe
36. 1955Eighteen Nobel laureates sign the Mainau Declaration against nuclear weapons, later co-signed by thirty-four others.North America
37. 1966Vietnam War: The United States and South Vietnam begin Operation Hastings to push the North Vietnamese out of the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone.AsiaNorth America
38. 1971The United Red Army is founded in Japan.Asia
39. 1974In Nicosia, Cyprus, Greek junta-sponsored nationalists launch a coup d'état, deposing Makarios III and installing Nikos Sampson as the president of Cyprus.Middle EastEurope
40. 1975Space Race: Apollo–Soyuz Test Project features the dual launch of an Apollo spacecraft and a Soyuz spacecraft on the first Soviet-United States human-crewed flight. It was the last launch of both an Apollo spacecraft, and the Saturn family of rockets.EuropeNorth America
41. 1979U.S. president Jimmy Carter gives his "malaise speech".North America
42. 1983Nintendo and Sega enter the console market with the respective releases of the Famicom and SG-1000 in Japan.Asia
43. 1983An attack at Orly Airport in Paris is launched by Armenian militant organisation ASALA, leaving eight people dead and 55 injured.Europe
44. 1996A Belgian Air Force C-130 Hercules carrying the Royal Netherlands Army marching band crashes on landing at Eindhoven Airport.Europe
45. 1998Sri Lankan Civil War: Sri Lankan Tamil MP S. Shanmuganathan is killed by a claymore mine.Asia
46. 2002The 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.AsiaEurope
47. 2002"American Taliban" John Walker Lindh pleads guilty to supplying aid to the enemy and possession of explosives during the commission of a felony.North America
48. 2003AOL Time Warner disbands Netscape. The Mozilla Foundation is established on the same day.North America
49. 2006Twitter, later one of the largest social media platforms in the world, is launched.World
50. 2009Space Shuttle program: Endeavour is launched on STS-127 to complete assembly of the International Space Station's Kibō module.Middle East
51. 2009Caspian Airlines Flight 7908 crashes near Jannatabad, Qazvin, Iran, killing 168.Middle East
52. 2012South Korean rapper Psy releases his hit single Gangnam Style.Asia
53. 2014A train derails on the Moscow Metro, killing at least 24 and injuring more than 160 others.Europe
54. 2016Factions of the Turkish Armed Forces attempt a coup.Middle East
55. 2018France win their second World Cup title, defeating Croatia 4–2.Europe

Source: Wikipedia "July 15" / CC BY-SA 4.0