July 1915

[July 1], 1915 (Thursday)

• Forces with the Union of South Africa under command of General Louis Botha defeated German colonial forces at the Battle of Otavi in German South West Africa with assistance from Canada, Great Britain, Portugal and Portuguese Angola. The result would soon put an end to German resistance in southwest Africa and allow South Africa to occupy the region until March 1990.
• Battle of Gully Ravine — Ottoman forces under command of officer Faik Pasa and Albay Refet launched counterattacks to prevent British forces from encircling their right flank on the Gallipoli peninsula. During the intense, bloody fighting, Captain Gerald Robert O'Sullivan and Corporal James Somers of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers were both awarded the Victoria Cross for recapturing a trench taken by the Ottomans during a counterattack.
• German fighter pilot Kurt Wintgens became the first person to shoot down another plane using a machine gun equipped with synchronization gear, which allowed him to shoot through a turning propeller without hitting its blade. His victory started a period referred to as the "Fokker Scourge," as Fokker M.5 airplanes outfitted with machine guns took a heavy toll on Allied aircraft over the Western Front. Wintgens himself would down two more enemy planes in July.
• A Russian naval squadron under command of Rear Admiral Mikhail Bakhirev intercepted a message that a German squadron was laying mines around Åland in the Baltic Sea and moved to engage them.
• A second inquiry into the sinking of the RMS Lusitania was held at the urging of survivor Joseph Marichal who threatened to sue the Cunard ocean line for "poor handling" of the disaster, but was soon discredited when the British government found unfavourable details of his background and leaked them to the press.
• The French Navy seaplane carrier Pas-de-Calais was commissioned, the first paddle steamer to serve as an aviation vessel.
• The United States Department of the Navy established an Office of Naval Aeronautics, the first formal recognition of naval aviation within the United States Navy.
• The Royal Australian Survey Corps of the Australian Army was established.
• The Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design was established in Halle, Germany.
• The United States Forest Service combined the Jemez National Forest and Pecos National Forest in northern New Mexico to establish the Santa Fe National Forest.
• The Moapa National Forest was absorbed into the Toiyabe National Forest in Nevada.
• New York City established in the Child Welfare Board.
• American poet Alfred Kreymborg launched Others: A Magazine of the New Verse with Skipwith Cannell, Wallace Stevens, and William Carlos Williams. The magazine — which featured poetry, other writing and visual art — ran until 1917.
• The association football club Avenir Beggen was formed as "Daring Beggen" before changing to its current name a year later, in Beggen, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg.
• The association football club Japonês was formed in Rio de Janeiro, but renamed a year later as Olaria after the neighbourhood it was established in to attract more supporters.
• Lierne Municipality, Norway was divided into the municipalities of Nordli Municipality and Sørli Municipality. Also, Leirfjord Municipality was created when it was split off from Stamnes Municipality. All three were amalgamated again in 1964.
• The Wharton Reef Lighthouse officially began operating in Princess Charlotte Bay off Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, Australia. It was deactivated in 1990 and donated to the region's museum, making it the only surviving lighthouse during the "Golden Age of Australian Lighthouses" from 1913 to the early 1920s.
• Born:
• * Nguyễn Văn Linh, Vietnamese state leader, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam from 1986 to 1991; as Nguyễn Văn Cúc, in Hưng Yên, Tonkin, French Indochina
• * Rolf Hauge, Norwegian army officer, commander of the No. 10 Commando unit with the Free Norwegian forces during World War II, recipient of the St. Olav's Medal with Oak Branch, Defence Medal, Military Cross and France and Germany Star; in Bergen, Norway
• * Jean Stafford, American writer, recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for the anthology The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford; in Covina, California, United States
• * Willie Dixon, American blues musician, known for his collaborations with Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Chuck Berry and Buddy Guy; as William Dixon, in Vicksburg, Mississippi, United States
• Died: William M. Walton, 83, American politician, major in the Confederate Army, 13th Texas Attorney General

  [July 2], 1915 (Friday)

• The British Parliament passed the Munitions of War Act to address the shortage of artillery shells in Great Britain needed for the war effort. David Lloyd George was appointed Minister of Munitions to oversee the effort.
• The Russian naval squadron of the Baltic Sea attacked a German squadron laying mines in the Baltic Sea at the Battle of Åland Islands. The German cruiser was hit and ran aground, with 27 sailors dead and another 49 wounded. German cruisers and sailed to assist the German squadron, but British submarine torpedoed Prinz Adalbert and forced it to limp to shore.
• Battle of Gully Ravine — The Ottoman 1st Division led by Lieutenant Colonel Cafer Tayyar Eğilmez staged a second counterattack and got within 30 metres of British trenches before losses became unbearable to continue. Ottoman commanding officer Faik Paşa then ordered Ottoman to dig defenses to prevent further losses, violating orders from General Otto Liman von Sanders. As a result, Paşa was replaced with Mehmet Ali Paşa.
• German-American anarchist Eric Muenter planted a timed bomb with three sticks of dynamite in the Senate reception room of the United States Capitol, Washington, D.C., which detonated just before midnight with no casualties. Muenter had tried to plant the bomb in the Senate chamber but found it locked. He sent a letter under an alias to The Washington Star after the bombing, explaining he hoped the explosion would "make enough noise to be heard above the voices that clamor for war. This explosion is an exclamation point in my appeal for peace."
• The 69th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force was established.
• The submarine Guacolda was launched by the Fore River Shipyard at Quincy, Massachusetts. Originally, the submarine was commissioned to the Royal Navy but because of United States neutrality during World War I, it was commissioned instead to the Chilean Navy.
• The Canungra railway line opened between Logan Village and Canungra, Queensland, Australia.
• The symphonic composition Taras Bulba by Czech composer Leoš Janáček was published.
• Born: Hal Wagner, American baseball player, catcher for the Philadelphia Athletics, Boston Red Sox, Detroit Tigers, and Philadelphia Phillies from 1937 to 1949; as Harold Edward Wagner, in East Riverton, New Jersey, United States
• Died: Porfirio Díaz, 84, Mexican state leader, 29th President of Mexico

  [July 3], 1915 (Saturday)

• After setting off a bomb at the United States Capitol, German-American anarchist Eric Muenter fled to New York City where he planted another homemade bomb on munitions ship SS Minnehaha. He then traveled to the home of banker J. P. Morgan Jr. in Glen Cove, New York, with more dynamite and two revolvers. He invaded the house intending to take the family hostage and force the Morgan company to stop financing munitions shipments to Europe for the Allied war effort in exchange for their release. However, Morgan was at home along with his wife as well as their butler and the three were able to subdue Muenter despite the anarchist shooting Morgan twice in the groin and leg. Muenter was arrested by the New York police department immediately afterward.
• The La Jolla Recreational Center opened at a children's playground and recreation center in the La Jolla neighbourhood of San Diego.
• Born: Ted Swales, South African air force officer, member of the No. 582 Squadron during World War II, recipient of the Victoria Cross and Distinguished Flying Cross; as Edwin Essery Swales, in Inanda, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

  [July 4], 1915 (Sunday)

• Ottoman troops and Arab tribesmen attacked the British-held town of Lahij in South Arabia.
• A force of six German Navy airships attempted an attack on a Royal Navy squadron conducting an aerial reconnaissance in the German Bight. Bad weather prevented each side from attacking the other. The heavy seas made it impossible for British seaplanes to launch and pursue the airships, and the airships could not get close enough to fire on the ships.
• German aviator Gunther Plüschow escaped from an officers' prisoner-of-war camp at Donington Hall in England, successfully making his way home to Germany, the only combatant in either World War to do so.
• The first border raid by bandits was made on a ranch in Cameron County, Texas, as part of a campaign to create civil unrest large enough for the U.S. border states to secede to Mexico.
• The recently opened rail station in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania had the honor of hosting the famous Liberty Bell as it was transported across the United States to be displayed at the Panama–Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco.

  [July 5], 1915 (Monday)

• Battle of Gully Ravine — A final attempt to recapture ground from the British ended in failure for Ottoman Empire forces defending the Gallipoli peninsula. Facing losses that were four times more than the British, with estimates ranging between 14,000 and 16,000 casualties, General Otto Liman von Sanders caved to Ottoman officers pleas to stop the assaults and ended the bloodiest part of the Gallipoli campaign.
• British forces gave up Lahij, South Arabia to Ottoman troops and fell back to Al Kawr.
• German-American anarchist Eric Muenter committed suicide while in New York police custody, shortly after he was identified as being behind the bombing three days earlier in Washington, D.C. His estranged wife reported to police that she learned through a letter sent from Muenter before his arrest that he had hid a bomb on the SS Minnehaha and that it was set to explode on July 7.
• The Hotel Macdonald, one of Canada's chateau-styled hotels, opened in Edmonton.
• A rail station was opened in Leeuwarden, Netherlands to serve the Harlingen–Nieuweschans railway. It closed twice, first in 1940 before it was reopened in 1954. It closed again in 2018.
• Born:
• * John Woodruff, American track athlete, gold medalist at the 1936 Summer Olympics; in Connellsville, Pennsylvania, United States
• * Babe Paley, American socialite and magazine editor, wife to CBS president William S. Paley; as Barbara Cushing, in Boston, United States