February 1915

[February 1], 1915 (Monday)

• Raid on the Suez Canal — An Ottoman force of over 13,000 laid siege to the Suez Canal.
• The Royal Flying Corps established No. 17 Squadron for service in the Middle East.
• The 57th Infantry Regiment for the Ottoman Empire was established, and would be known for making an incredible sacrifice during the Gallipoli campaign four months later.
• William Fox established film studio Fox Film, a precursor to 20th Century Fox, in Fort Lee, New Jersey. The film studio had its own film laboratory named De Luxe, which was sold in the 1930s and developed to become Deluxe Entertainment Services Group.
• The women's private school Auckland Presbyterian College for Ladies was established in Auckland but was renamed soon after by the school's first principal Isobel Macdonald to St Cuthbert's College.
• The Great Western Railway closed rail stations Old Oak Lane, Park Royal, and Perivale in London.
• Irish writer Helen Waddell's first play, The Spoiled Buddha, premiered at the Opera House, Belfast, by the Ulster Literary Society.
• Born:
• * Stanley Matthews, English association football player, forward for England national football team from 1934 to 1957, and Stoke City and Blackpool from 1932 to 1965; in Hanley, Staffordshire, England
• * Alicia Rhett, American actress and painter, best known for her role as India Wilkes in Gone with the Wind; as Mary Alicia Rhett, in Savannah, Georgia, United States

  [February 2], 1915 (Tuesday)

• Raid on the Suez Canal — With an Ottoman assault likely to occur at the central part of the canal at Lake Timsah, a company of New Zealand infantry was sent to reinforce Gurkha troops already stationed at the site.
• Maritz rebellion — The remaining Boer rebels surrendered to the government of the Union of South Africa.
• 1915 Vanceboro international bridge bombing — German saboteur Werner Horn detonated a suitcase filled with dynamite on the Canadian side of the Saint Croix–Vanceboro Railway Bridge that crossed the U.S.-Canada border between New Brunswick and Maine, but only caused minor damage. Because he detonated the bomb in the early morning when temperatures were −30 °F with blowing wind, a hotel proprietor where Horn was staying at connected his frostbite injuries to the reports of the bombing and contacted authorities. Horn was arrested later that day by the sheriff of Vanceboro, Maine and two Canadian officers from McAdam, New Brunswick sent to provide assistance in the bombing investigation.
• Russian seaplane carrier Orlitza was commissioned as the only Imperial Russian Navy seaplane carrier to see service in the Baltic Sea during World War I.
• Born:
• * Khushwant Singh, Indian writer, author of Train to Pakistan, recipient of the Padma Vibhushan; as Khushal Singh, in Hadali, Punjab Province, British India
• * Abba Eban, South African-Israeli politician, cabinet minister for the David Ben-Gurion and Levi Eshkol administrations; as Aubrey Solomon Meir Eban, in Cape Town, South Africa
• Died: Curtis Guild Jr., 55, American politician, 43rd Governor of Massachusetts; died after a brief illness

  [February 3], 1915 (Wednesday)

• German forces attempted their second siege on Osowiec Fortress, a Russian-held stronghold in what is now northeastern Poland.
• Raid on the Suez Canal — Forces with the British Indian Army prevented the Ottoman Expeditionary Force from crossing the canal.
• Three of the conspirators involved in the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand – Veljko Čubrilović, Danilo Ilić and Miško Jovanović – were executed by hanging.
• Fugitive rebel leader John Chilembwe, who a week earlier had led an unsuccessful uprising in British colonial Nyasaland in Africa, was spotted by a police patrol and shot dead near Mulanje. In that time, another 300 rebels were captured and imprisoned, with 40 of them executed. Another 30 successfully escaped into neighboring Portuguese territory.
• The Royal Flying Corps established the No. 14 Squadron at Shoreham Airport, Lancing, West Sussex, England.
• The 4th Cavalry Brigade was established in the British Indian Army to serve domestically in British India while the original 9th Cavalry Brigade was serving on the Western Front.
• The U.S. Steamboat Inspection Service suspended the licences of captains of the river steamer Dora and competing river vessel Charm following a two-day trial involving the collision between both vessels which occurred in January on the Coquille River in Oregon. Competition between river boat company Myrtle Point Transportation Company, which owned Dora, and the Coquille River Company, which owned Charm, had been fierce the months leading up to the river accident. The investigation and trial was prompted after both crews were observed violently arguing and hurling objects at each vessel following the collision. The feud, however, continued into March and resulted in more boat collisions on the river.
• Born: Johannes Kotkas, Estonian wrestler, gold medalist at the 1952 Summer Olympics; in Kodijärve, Governorate of Livonia, Russian Empire

  [February 4], 1915 (Thursday)

• Raid on the Suez Canal — After the invading Ottoman Expeditionary Forces had seemingly disappeared overnight, scouting forces of the British Indian Army ventured east of the canal and captured over 300 Ottoman soldiers while observing many of the enemy columns in retreat.
• Admiral Hugo von Pohl, commander of the High Seas Fleet, published a warning in the Deutscher Reichsanzeiger that the waters around Great Britain and Ireland were now considered a war zone and that neutral vessels run the risk of being attacked by accident along with Allied shipping.
• German colonial troops attempted to capture strategic points on the Orange River in South Africa during the Battle of Kakamas, but were repelled by South African forces.
• Lieutenant W. F. Sharpe, formerly of the Canadian Aviation Corps, became the first Canadian military airman killed when his plane crashed during a training exercise for the Royal Flying Corps.
• The Ichibata Railway extended the Kita-Matsue Line in the Shimane Prefecture, Japan, with stations Nunozaki, Sono, and Ichibataguchi serving the line.
• John G. A. Kitchen patented the reversing rudder, which is now used on most boats and jet aircraft.
• Born: Norman Wisdom, English actor, known for film roles including Trouble in Store; in London, England

  [February 5], 1915 (Friday)

• Raid on the Suez Canal — British aircraft spotted and bombed a large concentration of Ottoman forces east of the Suez.
• The Mikawa Railway extended the Mikawa and Inuyama Lines in the Aichi Prefecture, Japan, with stations Hekinan-chūō and Taisanji serving each rail respectively.
• Montana created two new counties: Phillips County, Montana with its county seat in Malta, and Prairie County, Montana, with its county seat in Terry.
• German classical pianist and composer Max Reger debuted "Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Mozart" at a Berlin concert, with it becoming one of his most popular compositions.
• Born: Robert Hofstadter, American physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics for his research on atoms and the behavior of electrons; in New York City, United States

  [February 6], 1915 (Saturday)

• British destroyer was driven ashore by high winds and wrecked at Rattray Head, Aberdeenshire, Scotland with all her crew surviving.
• Frustrated in delays with securing passage back to Europe, German marine commander Hellmuth von Mücke marched his force from Hodeida to Sanaa on the Arabian Peninsula to secure a ship. The group had been cut off from any help from the Imperial German Navy since their ship SMS Emden was damaged and run aground at the Battle of Cocos in the Indian Ocean, forcing the crew to hitch onto a freighter to reach the Middle East.
• The Welsh Guards was formed as one of the foot guards regiments of the British Army.
• Russian aircraft designer Igor Sikorsky demonstrated his Sikorsky S-16 in Russia, and went into operation for the Imperial Russian Air Service for 1916.
• The name for the Los Angeles-based dance academy Denishawn originated during a promotional contest for a show professional dancers Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn held for a performance in Portland, Oregon. The contest was to provide the name of the dance show with the contest winner receiving eight box seats in the concert hall. The uncontested winner was an amalgamation of the couple's surnames.
• W. B. Yeats wrote "On being asked for a War Poem" in a response to a request by Henry James to contribute a poetic political commentary on World War I. The poem would be first published in Edith Wharton's The Book of the Homeless in 1916 as "A Reason for Keeping Silent".
• Sporting club Príncipe was established, the oldest sports club for the African island nation of São Tomé and Príncipe.
• The Statler Hotel opened in Detroit and operated until 1975. The building was demolished in 2005.

  [February 7], 1915 (Sunday)

• Second Battle of the Masurian Lakes — The German 8th Army launched an attack against Russian forces on the Eastern Front and began capturing the opposing side's poorly defended trenches.
• The Tenri Light Railway Company opened the Tenri Line in the Nara Prefecture, Japan with station Senzai serving the line.
• The association football club Landskrona formed from the merger of two earlier established clubs in Landskrona, Sweden.
• The Canadian Maritimes Eastern Professional Hockey League folded after the league was reduced to two teams. The league originally started as the Interprovincial Professional Hockey League with three teams before it folded and was replaced by the Maritime Professional Hockey League which had seven.
• Born: Teoctist Arăpașu, Romanian clergy, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church from 1986 to 2007; as Toader Arăpașu, in Stăuceni, Botoșani, Kimgdom of Romania