What Happened This Day In History??? 15th APRIL

April 15

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 lay siege to 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.
1923-     Insulin becomes generally available for people suffering with diabetes.
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.

Born on April 15

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).