April 1915

[April 1], 1915 (Thursday)

• In a Morane-Saulnier airplane, French fighter pilot Jean Navarre and his observer/gunner Jean Robert attacked a German Aviatik over Merval, France. Robert used a carbine to damage the enemy plane and wound the pilot, forcing him to land behind French lines and surrender. It is Navarre's first victory and would set him on course to becoming a flying ace.
• French fighter pilot Lieutenant Roland Garros scored the first kill achieved by firing a machine gun through a tractor propeller of an enemy observation plane. Garros would score two more victories in this way later in the month.
• Baldwin Locomotive Works delivered the first of 280 Péchot-Bourdon locomotives for the French trench railways on the Western Front.
• The 29th, 30th, 31st, 32nd, 34th, 35th, 37th, and 39th Infantry Divisions of the British Army were established.
• The 123rd Infantry Division of the Imperial German Army was established as part of a new wave of German infantry divisions formed in the spring of 1915.
• The Australian Flying Corps established a squadron to provide aerial support for ground troops in the Mesopotamian campaign.
• The New Zealand Army Ordnance Section of the New Zealand Army was established.
• The Kokura Railway extended the Hitahikosan Line in the Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan, with stations Ishida serving the line. As well, the Tojo Railway extended the Tōbu Tōjō Line in the Saitama Prefecture with stations Kawagoe serving the line.
• The Majestic Theater opened in Detroit. Designed by architect C. Howard Crane, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.
• The Museum of Oltenia was established in Craiova, Romania.
• Born:
• * R. B. Freeman, British biologist and historian, known for compiling complete manuscript records of Charles Darwin and Philip Henry Gosse; as Richard Broke Freeman, in London, England
• * Walter Fricke, German mathematician and astronomer, director of the Astronomical Calculation Institute from 1954 to 1985, recipient of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany; in Leimbach-Mansfeld, German Empire )
• * Arthur C. Lundahl, American intelligence officer, chief organizer of the imagery intelligence that detected missiles being built in Cuba in 1962; in Chicago, United States
• * Jeff Heath, Canadian-born American baseball player, left fielder for the Cleveland Indians, St. Louis Browns and Boston Braves from 1936 to 1949; as John Geoffrey Heath, in Fort William, Ontario, Canada

  [April 2], 1915 (Friday)

• Close to 2,500 Australian and New Zealand soldiers rioted while on leave in Cairo, resulting in property damage and burned businesses costing several hundred thousand pounds.
• The 115th and 117th Infantry Divisions of the Imperial German Army were established.
• A football match between Manchester United and Liverpool at Old Trafford, Manchester was fixed to favor a 2–0 victory for United, with players on both teams involved in rigging the game.
• The French Parliament adopted the bill to create the military decoration Croix de guerre for combatants who displayed exceptional service during World War I.
• Born: Soia Mentschikoff, Russian American lawyer, first woman to teach at Harvard Law School; in Moscow, Russian Empire

  [April 3], 1915 (Saturday)

• French fighter pilot Adolphe Pégoud scored his fifth aerial victory, becoming the first flying ace.
• Ottoman cruiser struck a mine and sank in the Gulf of Odessa. She was later salvaged by the Russians and entered service with the Imperial Russian Navy as Prut.
• The Don Bosco Preparatory High School was established by the Catholic institute Salesians of Don Bosco in Ramsey, New Jersey.
• The first edition of the newspaper Antelope Valley Press was published in Antelope Valley, California as the Palmdale Post.
• Born:
• * Axel Axgil, Danish gay rights activist, co-founder of Forbundet af 1948 , Denmark's first gay rights organization, now the Danish National Association of Gays and Lesbians; as Axel Lundahl-Madsen
• *İhsan Doğramacı, Turkish physician and academic, first chairman and president of the Board of Trustees for the World Health Organization; in Abril, Ottoman Syria
• * Piet de Jong, Dutch politician, 43rd Prime Minister of the Netherlands; as Petrus Jozef Sietse de Jong, in Apeldoorn, Netherlands
• Died:
• * Nadežda Petrović, 41, Serbian painter, noted female painter with the Fauvism movement; died of typhoid fever
• * Mary Garrett, 61, American philanthropist, endowed the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine while ensuring women had equal access to its study programs; died of leukemia

  [April 4], 1915 (Sunday)

• The 7th Army for France was established to defend the southern borders of the country.
• Using the statue of Charles Stewart Parnell on Sackville Street as a symbolic political statement, Irish Member of Parliament John Redmond saluted 25,000 National Volunteers assembled at the Phoenix Park, Dublin.
• The first services were held in St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Birmingham, Alabama. The church would be listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.

  [April 5], 1915 (Monday)

• Boxer Jess Willard, the latest "Great White Hope", defeated Jack Johnson with a 26th-round knockout in sweltering heat at Havana. Willard became very popular among white Americans for "bringing back the championship to the white race".
• The Daily Mail published Teddy Tail, the first daily cartoon strip in a British newspaper.
• Born:
• * John McLendon, American basketball coach, head of various basketball teams starting with the North Carolina Central Eagles men's basketball team in 1941 to the Cleveland State Vikings men's basketball team in 1969, first African American to coach a professional sports team with the Denver Rockets in 1969; in Hiawatha, Kansas, United States
• * Johnny Sylvester, American business executive, best known for being the sick boy baseball star Babe Ruth promised to hit a home run for during the 1926 World Series which resulted in a miraculous recovery; as John Dale Sylvester, in Caldwell, New Jersey, United States

  [April 6], 1915 (Tuesday)

• Battle of Celaya — A Constitutional Army of 15,000 cavalry and infantry under command of Álvaro Obregón repelled Pancho Villa's assault of 22,000 men on the city of Celaya in Guanajuato, Mexico. It was the first of several battles between the two leaders that would eventually lead to Villa losing his position as a national contender in Mexico.
• Battle of Hartmannswillerkopf — The French tried and failed to take German defense positions on the lower slopes of the Hartmannswillerkopf, thus slowing their advance into in the Alsace region between France and Germany.
• British publisher Charles Elkin Mathews released American poet Ezra Pound's poetry collection Cathay.
• The borough Woodbury Heights, New Jersey was incorporated.

  [April 7], 1915 (Wednesday)

• Perry Engineering acquired James Martin & Co and its foundry in Gawler, South Australia, Australia.
• The Burke Hospital opened to accept patients in White Plains, New York.
• Born: Billie Holiday, American jazz singer, creator of many hit songs including "God Bless the Child", author of the autobiography Lady Sings the Blues; as Eleanora Fagan, in Philadelphia, United States

  [April 8], 1915 (Thursday)

• Born: Kirby Higbe, American baseball player for the Brooklyn Dodgers, in Columbia, South Carolina, United States
• Died: Louis Pergaud, 33, French writer, author of War of the Buttons; killed from friendly fire by French artillery barrage

  [April 9], 1915 (Friday)

• Born:
• * Daniel Johnson Sr., Canadian politician, 20th Premier of Quebec; as Francis Daniel Johnson, in Danville, Quebec, Canada
• * Leonard Wibberley, Irish-American author, best known for his "Mouse" series of novels including The Mouse That Roared; in County Dublin, Ireland
• * Bob Quinn, Australian association football player, champion player for the Port Adelaide Football Club from 1933 to 1947; as Robert Quinn, in Birkenhead, South Australia, Australia
• * Bill Clement, Welsh rugby player, played for Llanelli and captained six times for the Wales national rugby union team; as William Clement, in Llanelli, Wales
• Died:
• * Friedrich Loeffler, 62, German microbiologist, discovered the bacteria that causes diphtheria
• * James Moorhouse, 88, Australian clergy, Anglican Bishop of Melbourne and of Manchester, and Chancellor of the University of Melbourne
• * Léopold Louis-Dreyfus, 82, French business leader, founder of the Louis Dreyfus Company

  [April 10], 1915 (Saturday)

• The Knights of Saint Columbanus was established in Belfast to provide charitable service to Irish citizens, expanding to 38 councils throughout Ireland.
• The film magazine Picture Play published its first edition.
• The last edition of the weekly newspaper Boston Courier was published, after being a mainstay in Boston since 1824.
• Born:
• * Muhammad Ibrahim Khan, Pakistani state leader, first President of Azad Jammu and Kashmir; in Poonch district, British India
• * Harry Morgan, American actor, best known for his leading roles as Officer Bill Gannon in the 1967 TV revival of Dragnet and Colonel Sherman T. Potter in M*A*S*H; as Harry Bratsberg, in Detroit, United States

  [April 11], 1915 (Sunday)

• Charlie Chaplin's film The Tramp was released. Although Chaplin had portrayed the character in earlier films, it was the first film that nailed down the character's trademarks, by placing less on slapstick and more on story, such as the Tramp's willingness to be kind and help others. It was also the fifth and final film Chaplin made with Essanay Studios.