What Happened on April 15th in History
30 historical events on this date
President Abraham Lincoln dies after being shot the previous evening by actor John Wilkes Booth. Three hours later, Vice President Andrew Johnson is sworn in as president.
On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was shot at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., one month into his second term and towards the conclusion of the American...
The General Electric Company is formed.
General Electric Company (GE) was an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the state of New York and headquartered, during its final year of operation, in Boston.
Closing ceremony of the Games of the I Olympiad in Athens, Greece.
The 1896 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the I Olympiad, and commonly known as Athens 1896, were the first international Olympic Games held in modern history. Organised by the...
PhilippineâAmerican War: Filipino guerrillas launch a surprise attack on U.S. infantry and begin a four-day siege of Catubig, Philippines.
The PhilippineâAmerican War, known alternatively as the FilipinoâAmerican War, Philippine Insurrection, or Tagalog Insurgency, emerged in early 1899 following the United States' annexation of the...
The British passenger liner RMSÂ Titanic sinks in the North Atlantic at 2:20Â a.m., two hours and forty minutes after hitting an iceberg. Only 710 of 2,224 passengers and crew on board survive.
RMS Titanic was a British ocean liner that sank in the early hours of 15 April 1912 as a result of striking an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City. Of the 2,208...
Two security guards are murdered during a robbery in South Braintree, Massachusetts. Anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti would be convicted of and executed for the crime, amid much controversy.
Braintree, officially the Town of Braintree, is a city in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. It is officially known as a town, but Braintree is a city with a mayorâcouncil form of...
U.S. Senator John B. Kendrick of Wyoming introduces a resolution calling for an investigation of a secret land deal, which leads to the discovery of the Teapot Dome scandal.
John Benjamin Kendrick was an American politician and cattleman who served as a United States senator from Wyoming and as the ninth governor of Wyoming as a member of the Democratic Party.
Insulin becomes generally available for use by people with diabetes.
Insulin is a peptide hormone produced by beta cells of the pancreatic islets encoded in humans by the insulin (INS) gene. It is the main anabolic hormone of the body. It regulates the metabolism of...
Racially motivated Nihon ShÅgakkÅ fire lit by a serial arsonist kills 10 children in Sacramento, California.
The Nihon ShÅgakkÅ fire, or Japanese mission school fire, was a racially motivated arson that killed ten children in Sacramento, California, on April 15, 1923, at the dormitory of a Buddhist...
First day of the Arab revolt in Mandatory Palestine.
A popular uprising by Palestinian Arabs in Mandatory Palestine against the British administration, known as the Great Revolt, and later the Great Palestinian Revolt or the Palestinian Revolution,...
World War II: In the Belfast Blitz, 200 bombers of the German Luftwaffe attack Belfast, killing some 1,000 people.
World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major...
World War II: The George Cross is awarded "to the island fortress of Malta" by King George VI.
The island of Malta was a British colony from 1813 to 1964 and the George Cross was awarded to the island in April 1942 by King George VI. The cross was awarded in recognition of Maltese resilience...
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp is liberated.
Bergen-Belsen, or Belsen, was a Nazi concentration camp in what is today Lower Saxony in northern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle. Originally established as a prisoner of war...
Jackie Robinson debuts for the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking baseball's color line.
Jack Roosevelt Robinson was an American professional baseball player who was the first African American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era. Robinson broke the color line when...
First flight of the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress.
The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is an American nuclear-capable subsonic jet-powered strategic bomber. The B-52 was designed and built by Boeing, which has continued to provide support and upgrades....
McDonald's restaurant dates its founding to the opening of a franchised restaurant by Ray Kroc, in Des Plaines, Illinois.
McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food restaurant chain. As of 2024, it is the second-largest by number of locations in the world, behind the Chinese chain Mixue Ice Cream &...
At Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina, Ella Baker leads a conference that results in the creation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, one of the principal organizations of the civil rights movement in the 1960s.
Shaw University is a private historically Black university in Raleigh, North Carolina. Founded on December 1, 1865, Shaw University is the oldest HBCU to begin offering courses in the Southern...
The EC-121 shootdown incident: North Korea shoots down a United States Navy aircraft over the Sea of Japan, killing all 31 on board.
On 15 April 1969, a United States Navy Lockheed EC-121M Warning Star of Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron One (VQ-1) on a reconnaissance mission was shot down by a North Korean MiG-21 aircraft over...
During the Cambodian Civil War, massacre of the Vietnamese minority results in 800 bodies flowing down the Mekong river into South Vietnam.
The Cambodian Civil War was a civil war in Cambodia fought between the Khmer Rouge, supported by North Vietnam and China, against the government of the Kingdom of Cambodia and, after October 1970,...
The United States launches Operation El Dorado Canyon, its bombing raids against Libyan targets in response to a discotheque bombing in West Germany that killed two U.S. servicemen.
The United States Air Force (USAF), Navy, and Marine Corps carried out air strikes, code-named Operation El Dorado Canyon, against Libya on 15 April 1986 in retaliation for the West Berlin...
Hillsborough disaster: A human crush occurs at Hillsborough Stadium, home of Sheffield Wednesday, in the FA Cup Semi-final, resulting in the deaths of 97 Liverpool fans.
The Hillsborough disaster was a fatal crowd crush at a football match at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, on 15 April 1989. It occurred during an FA Cup semi-final...
Upon Hu Yaobang's death, the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 begin in China.
Hu Yaobang was a Chinese politician who was a high-ranking official of the People's Republic of China. He held the top office of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1981 to 1987, first as...
Marrakesh Agreement relating to foundation of World Trade Organization is adopted.
The Marrakesh Agreement, manifested by the Marrakesh Declaration, was an agreement signed in Marrakesh, Morocco, by 123 nations on 15 April 1994, marking the culmination of the eight-year-long...
Air China Flight 129 crashes on approach to Gimhae International Airport in Busan, South Korea, killing 129 people.
Air China Flight 129 (CCA129/CA129) was a scheduled international passenger flight, operated by Air China, from Beijing Capital International Airport to Gimhae International Airport in Busan. On 15...
Two bombs explode near the finish line at the Boston Marathon in Boston, Massachusetts, killing three people and injuring over 500 others.
The Boston Marathon bombing, sometimes referred to as simply the Boston bombing, was an Islamist domestic terrorist attack that took place during the 117th annual Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013....
A wave of bombings across Iraq kills at least 75 people.
A wave of bombings and shootings across Iraq killed at least 75 people and injured more than 356 others on 15 April. The attacks came just days before the provincial elections which was held on 20...
In the worst massacre of the South Sudanese Civil War, more than 400 civilians are gunned down after seeking refuge in houses of worship as well as hospitals.
The Bentiu massacre occurred on 15 April 2014 in the town of Bentiu, in the north of South Sudan, during the South Sudanese Civil War. The attack was described by The Economist as the "worst...
The cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris in France is seriously damaged by a large fire.
Notre-Dame de Paris, often referred to simply as Notre-Dame, is a medieval Catholic cathedral on the Ãle de la Cité, in the 4th arrondissement of Paris, France. It is the cathedral church of the...
A mass shooting occurs at a FedEx Ground facility in Indianapolis, Indiana, killing nine and injuring seven.
On April 15, 2021, a mass shooting occurred at a FedEx Ground facility in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. Nineteen-year-old Brandon Scott Hole killed eight people and wounded four before...
Ten people and the perpetrator are killed and twelve others injured in a mass shooting at a school in OnikiÅubat, Turkey.
On 15 April 2026, a school shooting occurred at the Ayser Ãalık Secondary School in the OnikiÅubat district of KahramanmaraÅ Province, Turkey. Ä°sa Aras Mersinli, a 14-year-old student enrolled at...