July 15
Events
Pre-1600
- 484 BC - Dedication of the Temple of Castor and Pollux in ancient Rome.
- 70 - First Jewish–Roman War: Titus and his armies breach the walls of Jerusalem..
- 756 - An Lushan Rebellion: Emperor Xuanzong of Tang is ordered by his Imperial Guards to execute chancellor Yang Guozhong by forcing him to commit suicide or face a mutiny. General An Lushan has other members of the emperor's family killed.
- 1099 - First Crusade: Christian soldiers take the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem after the final assault of a difficult siege.
- 1149 - The reconstructed Church of the Holy Sepulchre is consecrated in Jerusalem.
- 1207 - King John of England expels Canterbury monks for supporting Archbishop Stephen Langton.
- 1240 - Swedish–Novgorodian Wars: A Novgorodian army led by Alexander Nevsky defeats the Swedes in the Battle of the Neva.
- 1381 - John Ball, a leader in the Peasants' Revolt, is hanged, drawn and quartered in the presence of King Richard II of England.
- 1410 - Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War: Battle of Grunwald: The allied forces of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania defeat the army of the Teutonic Order.
- 1482 - Muhammad XII is crowned the twenty-second and last Nasrid king of Granada.
1601–1900
- 1640 - The first university of Finland, the Royal Academy of Turku, is inaugurated in Turku.
- 1738 - Baruch Laibov and Alexander Voznitsyn are burned alive in St. Petersburg, Russia. Vonitzin had converted to Judaism with Laibov's help, with the consent of Empress Anna Ivanovna.
- 1741 - Aleksei Chirikov sights land in Southeast Alaska. He sends men ashore in a longboat, making them the first Europeans to visit Alaska.
- 1789 - French Revolution: Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, is named by acclamation Colonel General of the new National Guard of Paris.
- 1799 - The Rosetta Stone is found in the Egyptian village of Rosetta by French Captain Pierre-François Bouchard during Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign.
- 1806 - Pike Expedition: United States Army Lieutenant Zebulon Pike begins an expedition from Fort Bellefontaine near St. Louis, Missouri, to explore the west.
- 1815 - Napoleonic Wars: Napoleon Bonaparte surrenders aboard.
- 1823 - A fire destroys the ancient Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls in Rome, Italy.
- 1834 - The Spanish Inquisition is officially disbanded after nearly 356 years.
- 1838 - Ralph Waldo Emerson delivers the Divinity School Address at Harvard Divinity School, discounting Biblical miracles and declaring Jesus a great man, but not God. The Protestant community reacts with outrage.
- 1849 - The first air raid in history occurs; Austria launches pilotless balloons against the city of Venice
- 1862 - American Civil War: The CSS Arkansas, the most effective ironclad on the Mississippi River, battles with Union Navy ships commanded by Admiral David Farragut, severely damaging three ships and sustaining heavy damage herself.
- 1870 - Reconstruction Era of the United States: Georgia becomes the last of the former Confederate states to be readmitted to the Union.
- 1870 - Canadian Confederation: Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory are transferred to Canada from the Hudson's Bay Company, and the province of Manitoba and the Northwest Territories are established from these vast territories.
- 1888 - The stratovolcano Mount Bandai erupts, killing approximately 500 people in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan.
1901–present
- 1910 - In his book Clinical Psychiatry, Emil Kraepelin gives a name to Alzheimer's disease, naming it after his colleague Alois Alzheimer.
- 1916 - In Seattle, Washington, William Boeing and George Conrad Westervelt incorporate Pacific Aero Products.
- 1918 - World War I: The Second Battle of the Marne begins near the River Marne with a German attack.
- 1920 - Aftermath of World War I: The Parliament of Poland establishes Silesian Voivodeship before the Polish-German plebiscite.
- 1922 - The Japanese Communist Party is established in Japan.
- 1927 - Massacre of July 15, 1927: Eighty-nine protesters are killed by Austrian police in Vienna.
- 1942 - The Holocaust: Nazi Germany begins the deportation of 100,000 Jews from the occupied Netherlands to extermination camps.
- 1946 - The State of North Borneo, now Sabah, Malaysia, is annexed by the United Kingdom.
- 1954 - The Boeing 367-80, the prototype for both the Boeing 707 and C-135 series, takes its first flight.
- 1955 - Eighteen Nobel laureates sign the Mainau Declaration against nuclear weapons, later co-signed by thirty-four others.
- 1966 - Vietnam War: The United States and South Vietnam begin Operation Hastings to push the North Vietnamese out of the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone.
- 1971 - The United Red Army is founded in Japan.
- 1974 - In Nicosia, Cyprus, Greek junta-sponsored nationalists launch a coup d'état, deposing Makarios III and installing Nikos Sampson as the president of Cyprus.
- 1975 - Space Race: Apollo–Soyuz Test Project features the dual launch of an Apollo spacecraft and a Soyuz spacecraft on the first Soviet-United States human-crewed flight. It was the last launch of both an Apollo spacecraft, and the Saturn family of rockets.
- 1975 - Aeroflot Flight E-15 crashes on approach to Batumi International Airport, killing 40.
- 1979 - U.S. president Jimmy Carter gives his "malaise speech".
- 1983 - An attack at Orly Airport in Paris is launched by Armenian militant organisation ASALA, leaving eight people dead and 55 injured.
- 1983 - Nintendo and Sega enter the console market with the respective releases of the Famicom and SG-1000 in Japan.
- 1996 - A Belgian Air Force C-130 Hercules carrying the Royal Netherlands Army marching band crashes on landing at Eindhoven Airport.
- 1998 - Sri Lankan Civil War: Sri Lankan Tamil MP S. Shanmuganathan is killed by a claymore mine.
- 2002 - "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh pleads guilty to supplying aid to the enemy and possession of explosives during the commission of a felony.
- 2002 - The Anti-Terrorism Court of Pakistan sentences British born Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh to death, and three others suspected of murdering The Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl to life.
- 2003 - AOL Time Warner disbands Netscape. The Mozilla Foundation is established on the same day.
- 2006 - Twitter, later one of the largest social media platforms in the world, is launched.
- 2009 - Caspian Airlines Flight 7908 crashes near Jannatabad, Qazvin, Iran, killing 168.
- 2009 - Space Shuttle program: Endeavour is launched on STS-127 to complete assembly of the International Space Station's Kibō module.
- 2012 - South Korean rapper Psy releases his hit single Gangnam Style.
- 2014 - A train derails on the Moscow Metro, killing at least 24 and injuring more than 160 others.
- 2016 - Factions of the Turkish Armed Forces attempt a coup.
- 2018 - France win their second World Cup title, defeating Croatia 4–2.
Births
Pre-1600
- 980 - Ichijō, Japanese emperor
- 1273 - Ewostatewos, Ethiopian monk and saint
- 1353 - Vladimir the Bold, Russian prince
- 1359 - Antonio Correr, Italian cardinal
- 1442 - Boček IV of Poděbrady, Bohemian nobleman
- 1455 - Queen Yun, Korean queen
- 1471 - Eskender, Ethiopian emperor
- 1478 - Barbara Jagiellon, duchess consort of Saxony and Margravine consort of Meissen
- 1573 - Inigo Jones, English architect, designed the Queen's House
- 1600 - Jan Cossiers, Flemish painter
1601–1900
- 1606 - Rembrandt, Dutch painter and etcher
- 1611 - Jai Singh I, maharaja of Jaipur
- 1613 - Gu Yanwu, Chinese philologist and geographer
- 1631 - Jens Juel, Danish politician and diplomat, Governor-general of Norway
- 1631 - Richard Cumberland, English philosopher
- 1638 - Giovanni Buonaventura Viviani, Italian violinist and composer
- 1704 - August Gottlieb Spangenberg, German bishop and theologian
- 1779 - Clement Clarke Moore, American author, poet, and educator
- 1793 - Almira Hart Lincoln Phelps, American educator, author, editor
- 1796 - Thomas Bulfinch, American mythologist
- 1799 - Reuben Chapman, American lawyer and politician, 13th Governor of Alabama
- 1800 - Sidney Breese, American jurist and politician
- 1808 - Henry Edward Manning, English cardinal
- 1812 - James Hope-Scott, English lawyer and academic
- 1817 - Sir John Fowler, 1st Baronet, English engineer, designed the Forth Bridge
- 1827 - W. W. Thayer American lawyer and politician, 6th Governor of Oregon
- 1848 - Vilfredo Pareto, Italian economist and sociologist
- 1850 - Frances Xavier Cabrini, Italian-American nun and saint
- 1852 - Josef Josephi, Polish-born singer and actor
- 1858 - Emmeline Pankhurst, English political activist and suffragist
- 1864 - Marie Tempest, English actress and singer
- 1865 - Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe, Anglo-Irish businessman and publisher, founded the Amalgamated Press
- 1865 - Wilhelm Wirtinger, Austrian-German mathematician and theorist
- 1867 - Jean-Baptiste Charcot, French physician and explorer
- 1871 - Doppo Kunikida, Japanese journalist, author, and poet
- 1880 - Enrique Mosca, Argentinian lawyer and politician
- 1883 - Denny Barry Irish Republican died during the 1923 Irish Hunger Strikes
- 1887 - Wharton Esherick, American sculptor
- 1892 - Walter Benjamin, German philosopher and critic
- 1893 - Enid Bennett, Australian-American actress
- 1893 - Dick Rauch, American football player and coach
- 1894 - Tadeusz Sendzimir, Polish-American engineer
- 1899 - Seán Lemass, Irish soldier and politician, 4th Taoiseach of Ireland