1915

Events in 1915 61

• 1837 – 1915 Émile Waldteufel (1837-1915) Died 16 February 1915, aged 77 French composer Émile Waldteufel was one of the most popular waltz composers of the late nineteenth century, celebrated for pieces such as "The Skaters' Waltz." He served as pianist to the imperial court of Napoleon III before building an international reputation as a bandleader.
• 1856 – 1915 Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) Died 14 November 1915, aged 59 Booker T. Washington, founder of the Tuskegee Institute, was the most prominent African American educator and political leader of his generation, advocating vocational education and gradual economic advancement. He died at Tuskegee, Alabama, after years of declining health.
• 1856 – 1915 Charles Frohman (1856-1915) Died 7 May 1915, aged 58 American theatrical producer Charles Frohman dominated Broadway and London theater for two decades, staging works by J. M. Barrie and discovering major stars of the era. He died when the RMS Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk off the Irish coast.
• 1856 – 1915 Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915) Died 7 May 1915, aged 58 American writer and founder of the Roycroft artisan community, Elbert Hubbard was known for the inspirational essay "A Message to Garcia." He and his wife Alice died together when the RMS Lusitania was sunk by a German U-boat.
• 1865 – 1915 Edith Cavell (1865-1915) Died 12 October 1915, aged 49 British nurse Edith Cavell was executed by German firing squad in Brussels for helping Allied soldiers escape occupied Belgium. Her death provoked international outrage and became a powerful piece of Allied wartime propaganda.
• 1872 – 1915 Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915) Died 27 April 1915, aged 43 Russian composer and pianist Alexander Scriabin died in Moscow of blood poisoning from an infected lip sore. His late works, built on the mystical "Prometheus chord," pushed tonal harmony toward atonality and influenced generations of composers.
• 1877 – 1915 Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt (1877-1915) Died 7 May 1915, aged 37 American businessman and heir to the Vanderbilt railroad fortune, Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt drowned when the RMS Lusitania was torpedoed off the Irish coast. He reportedly gave up his life jacket to help other passengers before the ship sank.
• 1887 – 1915 Rupert Brooke (1887-1915) Died 23 April 1915, aged 27 English poet Rupert Brooke died of blood poisoning from an infected mosquito bite while serving with the Royal Naval Division near the Greek island of Skyros. His war sonnets, especially "The Soldier," made him one of the era's most celebrated poets.
• 1905 – 1915 Einstein — special and general relativity E=mc², space-time, and gravity as curved geometry Einstein's special relativity (1905) introduced E=mc² — showing mass and energy are equivalent — and demonstrated that time and length change at high velocities. His general relativity (1915) recast gravity as the curvature of space-time caused by mass. The theories predicted black holes, gravitational waves, the expansion of the universe, and GPS satellite timing corrections. They are the most tested theories in physics.
• 1912 – 1915 Wegener — plate tectonics The continents move — the Earth's surface is alive In 1912, Alfred Wegener proposed that the continents were once joined in a supercontinent (Pangaea) and have since drifted apart — continental drift. Initially dismissed, the theory was vindicated in the 1950s-60s by ocean floor spreading and the full theory of plate tectonics. It explained earthquakes, volcanoes, mountain ranges, and the distribution of fossils and species across continents.
• 1915 – 1923 Armenian Genocide The Armenian Genocide (1915-1923) is the systematic mass murder and deportation of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (Young Turks). Between 600,000 and 1.5 million Armenians are killed in massacres, death marches through the Syrian desert, and starvation. The genocide is ordered by the triumvirate of Enver, Talaat and Cemal Pashas, who use the cover of World War I to eliminate what they see as a disloyal Christian minority. It is widely recognised by historians and many governments as the first genocide of the 20th century. Turkey officially denies it.
• 1915 Assyrian Genocide begins Ottoman and allied forces begin mass killing of Assyrian Christians Beginning in 1915, Ottoman forces and allied Kurdish militias massacred and deported Assyrian Christian communities across the empire's eastern provinces, alongside the concurrent Armenian and Greek genocides. Estimates of Assyrian deaths range from 150,000 to 300,000 people.
• 1915 – 1947 Aung San (1915-1947) Died 19 July 1947, aged 32 Aung San was the leader of the Burmese independence movement and founder of the Burma Independence Army. He negotiated independence with Britain but was assassinated with six cabinet colleagues months before it took effect. He is honoured as the father of modern Myanmar.
• 1915 Contour bottle designed Iconic curved bottle introduced 1915 The distinctive contour bottle — designed by the Root Glass Company of Terre Haute, Indiana — was introduced in 1915 to distinguish Coca-Cola from imitators. Its unique shape could be recognised even in the dark or when broken. It became one of the most recognised objects in history.
• 1915 – 1963 Edith Piaf (1915-1963) Died 11 October 1963, aged 47 Edith Piaf was a French singer known for dramatic torch songs including "La Vie en Rose" and "Non, je ne regrette rien". She rose from a difficult childhood in Paris to become France's most celebrated chanteuse. She died of liver cancer near Paris.
• 1915 – 1944 Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. (1915-1944) Died 12 August 1944, aged 29 US Navy pilot and eldest son of Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., who had been groomed for a political career. He was killed when his explosive-laden drone aircraft blew up over Suffolk during Operation Aphrodite. His death shifted the family's political ambitions onto his brother John.
• 1915 Theory of General Relativity Theory of General Relativity Einstein presented the field equations of general relativity to the Prussian Academy in November 1915, describing gravity as the curvature of spacetime by mass and energy rather than a force. The theory immediately explained a long-standing anomaly in Mercury's orbit. Eddington's 1919 eclipse measurement of starlight bending confirmed it and made Einstein world-famous.
• 1915 Battle of Dogger Bank British and German battlecruiser fleets clash in the North Sea On 24 January 1915 British and German battlecruiser squadrons fought a running battle in the North Sea. The German armoured cruiser Blücher was sunk and Admiral Franz von Hipper's damaged flagship escaped, prompting the Kaiser to restrict further fleet risk-taking.
• 1915 First transcontinental telephone call Alexander Graham Bell speaks from New York to Thomas Watson in San Francisco On 25 January 1915 Alexander Graham Bell inaugurated the first transcontinental telephone line, repeating his original 1876 words to Thomas Watson across a continent. The line linked New York and San Francisco via more than 3,000 miles of copper wire.
• 1915 – 2000 Sir Stanley Matthews (1915-2000) Died 23 February 2000, aged 85 Stanley Matthews was an English winger whose career ran from 1932 to 1965, playing top-flight football until he was fifty. Known as the "Wizard of the Dribble", he was the first European Footballer of the Year and the first footballer knighted while still playing. The 1953 FA Cup final is often called the "Matthews final".
• 1915 – 2002 Abba Eban (1915-2002) Died 17 November 2002, aged 87 Abba Eban was Israel's ambassador to the United Nations and the United States in its early years and later its foreign minister during the wars of 1967 and 1973. Celebrated as an orator in several languages, he presented Israel's case to the world with unusual polish. In his last decades he wrote and presented histories of the Jewish people and of diplomacy.
• 1915 Germany declares unrestricted submarine warfare German U-boats authorized to sink merchant ships without warning around Britain On 4 February 1915 Germany declared the waters around the British Isles a war zone in which Allied merchant ships would be sunk without warning. The policy, which took effect on 18 February, marked an escalation of submarine warfare that would later draw the United States toward war.
• 1915 – 2002 Eddie Bracken (1915-2002) American actor, the everyman hero of Preston Sturges's wartime comedies.
• 1915 The Birth of a Nation released D. W. Griffith's controversial epic premieres in Los Angeles D. W. Griffith's silent film "The Birth of a Nation" premiered on 8 February 1915, pioneering film techniques that shaped narrative cinema while glorifying the Ku Klux Klan and provoking protests over its racist portrayal of Reconstruction. It became the highest-grossing film of the silent era.
• 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition opens World's fair celebrates the opening of the Panama Canal The Panama-Pacific International Exposition opened in San Francisco on 20 February 1915, marking the completion of the Panama Canal and the city's recovery from the 1906 earthquake. It ran through 4 December 1915 and introduced millions of visitors to early aviation displays and electric lighting spectacles.
• 1915 – 1967 Ann Sheridan (1915-1967) American actress, Warner Bros.' Oomph Girl, known for Kings Row and I Was a Male War Bride.
• 1915 – 1977 Zero Mostel (1915-1977) Died 8 September 1977, aged 62 Zero Mostel was an American actor best known for originating the role of Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof on Broadway. He also starred in The Producers and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.
• 1915 Battle of Neuve Chapelle Early British offensive tests industrial-scale artillery bombardment British and Indian troops attacked German lines at Neuve Chapelle in France from 10 to 13 March 1915, opening with a concentrated artillery bombardment that briefly broke through before supply and communication failures stalled the advance. The battle was an early lesson in the challenges of trench warfare offensives.
• 1915 Battle of Celaya Álvaro Obregón defeats Pancho Villa in the Mexican Revolution Between 6 and 15 April 1915, forces under Álvaro Obregón defeated Pancho Villa's Division of the North at Celaya, using barbed wire and machine guns to break Villa's cavalry charges. The defeat crippled Villa's army and shifted momentum in the Mexican Revolution toward the Constitutionalists.
• 1915 – 1959 Billie Holiday Jazz singer Lady Day — the American jazz singer whose phrasing changed popular singing, and whose Strange Fruit became a landmark of protest music.
• 1915 – 2001 Anthony Quinn (1915-2001) Died 3 June 2001, aged 86 Quinn was a Mexican-American actor with a career of more than sixty years, winning two supporting Oscars and best known for the title role in Zorba the Greek. He also appeared in La Strada, Lawrence of Arabia and Lust for Life. He was a sculptor and painter as well.
• 1915 Gas at Second Ypres Ypres, Belgium German troops released 168 tonnes of chlorine from cylinders, opening a four-mile gap in the Allied line. It was the first large-scale use of chemical weapons in war, and within a year both sides were using them.
• 1915 The Armenian Genocide begins Constantinople, Ottoman Empire Hundreds of Armenian intellectuals were arrested in the capital, the start of deportations and massacres that killed an estimated one million people or more.
• 1915 – 1916 The Gallipoli campaign Gallipoli, Ottoman Empire Allied troops landed on the peninsula and never got off the beaches. Eight months and around 250,000 casualties on each side ended in evacuation — the campaign's only well-executed phase.
• 1915 Treaty of London signed Secret pact brings Italy into the war on the Allied side On 26 April 1915 Italy signed a secret treaty with Britain, France, and Russia promising it territorial gains in the Alps and along the Adriatic in exchange for entering the war against Austria-Hungary. The agreement's territorial promises later caused friction at the postwar peace conference when they were not fully honored.
• 1915 – 1998 Alice Faye (1915-1998) American actress and singer, 20th Century Fox's top musical star of the late 1930s.
• 1915 – 1985 Orson Welles (1915-1985) Died 10 October 1985, aged 70 Welles was an American director and actor best known for Citizen Kane, widely regarded as one of the greatest films ever made. He also directed The Magnificent Ambersons and Touch of Evil. He died in Los Angeles on 10 October 1985.
• 1915 The Lusitania is sunk Off Ireland A U-boat torpedoed the liner off the Old Head of Kinsale. She sank in 18 minutes with 1,198 dead, including 128 Americans, and shifted American opinion sharply against Germany.
• 1915 – 2003 Denis Thatcher (1915-2003) Died 26 June 2003, aged 88 Denis Thatcher was a businessman and the husband of the British prime minister Margaret Thatcher. He was a constant presence during her 11 years in office and cultivated a public image of dry loyalty. He was made a baronet in 1991.
• 1915 – 1981 Moshe Dayan (1915-1981) Died 16 October 1981, aged 66 Israeli military leader and statesman Moshe Dayan, who commanded Israeli forces during the Six-Day War and later served as defense and foreign minister, died in Tel Aviv on 16 October 1981. He was a signatory of the 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty as foreign minister. His eyepatch made him one of the most recognizable Israeli figures internationally.
• 1915 Italy enters World War I Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary, joining the Allies Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary on 23 May 1915, abandoning its prior alliance with the Central Powers under the secret Treaty of London. The declaration opened a new front along the Isonzo River that would see repeated costly Italian offensives.
• 1915 – 2019 Herman Wouk (1915-2019) Died 17 May 2019, aged 103 Herman Wouk was an American novelist known for The Caine Mutiny, which won the Pulitzer Prize, and the war epics The Winds of War and War and Remembrance. He continued writing into his final years and published a memoir at age 100. He died at his home in Palm Springs, California, ten days short of his 104th birthday.
• 1915 – 2009 Les Paul (1915-2009) Died 13 August 2009, aged 94 Paul was an American guitarist and inventor whose innovations in solid-body electric guitars and multitrack recording transformed popular music. The Gibson Les Paul guitar, named for him, became one of the most iconic instruments in rock music. He continued performing weekly club shows into his nineties.
• 1915 – 2005 Saul Bellow (1915-2005) Died 5 April 2005, aged 89 Saul Bellow, the Nobel Prize-winning novelist known for works including "Herzog" and "Humboldt's Gift", died on 5 April 2005. He was among the most celebrated American writers of the 20th century, exploring modern intellectual and urban life across a five-decade career. Bellow won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1976.
• 1915 – 2000 John Tukey (1915-2000) Died 26 July 2000, aged 85 The American mathematician John Tukey developed the fast Fourier transform algorithm with James Cooley and pioneered exploratory data analysis, introducing the box plot and the stem-and-leaf display. He coined the word "bit" and is generally credited with coining "software". He advised the United States government on matters from polling to nuclear-test detection.
• 1915 – 2001 Fred Hoyle (1915-2001) Died 20 August 2001, aged 86 Hoyle was an astronomer who explained how stars forge the chemical elements, work for which a Nobel Prize later went to a collaborator. He championed the steady-state theory of the universe and coined the term Big Bang for the rival model he rejected. He also wrote science fiction.
• 1915 – 1982 Ingrid Bergman (1915-1982) Died 29 August 1982, aged 67 Swedish actress and three-time Academy Award winner known for Casablanca and Notorious. She died of breast cancer in London on her 67th birthday.
• 1915 – 2013 Princess Lilian The Secret Love The Welsh commoner who lived in a semi-secret relationship with Prince Bertil for 30 years.
• 1915 – 1985 Edmond O'Brien (1915-1985) American actor of film noir, Oscar winner for The Barefoot Contessa.
• 1915 Battle of Loos Britain's first large-scale use of poison gas on the Western Front The Battle of Loos, fought from 25 September to 8 October 1915, was the largest British offensive of the year and marked the first British use of chlorine gas in the war. Poor conditions and command failures produced heavy casualties for minimal territorial gain, contributing to the removal of commander Sir John French.
• 1915 Central Powers conquer Serbia Austro-German and Bulgarian forces overrun Serbia A combined Austro-Hungarian, German, and Bulgarian offensive beginning 6 October 1915 overran Serbian defenses, forcing the Serbian army and government into a harsh winter retreat through Albania. By early December the country was fully occupied, and survivors were evacuated by Allied ships to Corfu.
• 1915 Bulgaria enters World War I Bulgaria joins the Central Powers and invades Serbia Bulgaria declared war on Serbia on 14 October 1915, joining the Central Powers after negotiating territorial promises in Macedonia. The intervention opened a new front that, combined with the Austro-German offensive, overwhelmed Serbian defenses within weeks.
• 1915 – 2005 Arthur Miller (1915-2005) Died 10 February 2005, aged 89 Arthur Miller, the American playwright behind "Death of a Salesman" and "The Crucible", died on 10 February 2005. His plays examined the pressures of American society and morality, and he remained a prominent public intellectual for decades. Miller was briefly married to Marilyn Monroe in the 1950s.
• 1915 – 2011 Sargent Shriver (1915-2011) Died 18 January 2011, aged 95 The American statesman founded the Peace Corps under President Kennedy and later led the War on Poverty programs of the Johnson administration. He was the Democratic vice-presidential nominee in 1972. He died in Maryland after a long struggle with Alzheimer's disease.
• 1915 – 2006 Augusto Pinochet (1915-2006) Died 10 December 2006, aged 91 Augusto Pinochet, the former Chilean dictator who ruled from 1973 to 1990, died while facing numerous charges for human rights abuses and corruption. His seventeen-year rule was marked by the killing and disappearance of thousands of opponents. He never stood trial for the crimes committed under his regime.
• 1915 – 2001 Chung Ju-yung (1915-2001) Died 21 March 2001, aged 85 Chung founded the Hyundai group, building it from a car-repair shop into one of South Korea's largest conglomerates, spanning construction, shipbuilding and cars. Born to a poor farming family in what is now North Korea, he became a symbol of the country's rapid industrialisation. In 1998 he drove herds of cattle across the border in a gesture of reconciliation.
• 1915 Second Ku Klux Klan founded William J. Simmons revives the Klan atop Stone Mountain, Georgia On 25 November 1915 William J. Simmons founded a new Ku Klux Klan at a cross-burning ceremony on Stone Mountain, Georgia, reviving the name of the Reconstruction-era organization. This second Klan grew into a mass movement with millions of members across the United States during the 1920s.
• 1915 Henry Ford's Peace Ship sails Industrialist funds a private mission to end World War I On 4 December 1915 Henry Ford chartered the ocean liner Oscar II to carry a delegation of pacifists from Hoboken, New Jersey, to Europe in an attempt to mediate an end to the war. The mission, mocked in the press as the "Peace Ship," failed to achieve any diplomatic breakthrough.
• 1915 Siege of Kut begins British-Indian force besieged by Ottoman troops in Mesopotamia On 7 December 1915 an Ottoman army trapped a British-Indian force under General Charles Townshend inside the town of Kut-al-Amara on the Tigris River. The siege continued into 1916 and ended in the largest surrender of British forces to that date.
• 1915 – 1998 Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (12 December 1915 -- 14 May 1998) was an American singer and actor who is widely regarded as one of the greatest entertainers of the 20th century. Born in Hoboken, New Jersey, Sinatra began as a big band vocalist, became the first modern pop idol with his bobby-soxer fans of the early 1940s, suffered a catastrophic career collapse, and staged the most remarkable comeback in entertainment history -- winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1953 and then recording the defining albums of his Capitol Records period (1953-1962). His recordings for Capitol -- 'Songs for Swingin' Lovers,' 'In the Wee Small Hours,' 'Come Fly With Me' -- are the summit of American popular song. He founded Reprise Records, led the Rat Pack, became Las Vegas's defining performer and remained culturally dominant for six decades.
• 1915 – 1978 Dan Dailey (1915-1978) American dancer and actor, Betty Grable's partner in 1940s Fox musicals.