Events, Births and Deaths Happening on this Date
Wednesday, July 15, 2026
Today is the 196th day of 2026. There are 169 days left in this year.
Notable Events
1381
John Ball, a leader in the Peasants' Revolt, is hanged, drawn and quartered in the presence of King Richard II of England.
1410
Battle of Grunwald: The allied forces of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania defeat the army of the Teutonic Order.
1738
Baruch Laibov and Alexander Voznitzin 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.
1799
The Rosetta Stone is found in the Egyptian village of Rosetta by French Captain Pierre Francois Bouchard during Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign.
1815
Napoleon Bonaparte surrenders aboard HMS Bellerophon.
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.
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
Georgia became the last of the Confederate states to be readmitted to the Union.
1870
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.
1910
In his book Clinical Psychiatry, Emil Kraepelin gives a name to Alzheimer's disease, naming it after his colleague Alois Alzheimer.
1912
Jim Thorpe, considered to be one of the best athletes in American history, won gold medals in decathlon and classic pentathlon at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden.
1916
The Boeing Co., originally known as Pacific Aero Products, was founded in Seattle by William Boeing.
1916
In Seattle, Washington, William Boeing and George Conrad Westervelt incorporate Pacific Aero Products (later renamed Boeing).
1918
World War I: The Second Battle of the Marne begins near the River Marne with a German attack.
1927
Eighty-nine protesters are killed by Austrian police in Vienna.
1941
Nazi Germany begins the deportation of 100,000 Jews from the occupied Netherlands to extermination camps.
1948
President Truman was nominated for another term of office by the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia; his running mate, Sen. Alben W. Barkley of Kentucky, was nominated by acclamation.
1955
Eighteen Nobel laureates sign the Mainau Declaration against nuclear weapons, later co-signed by thirty-four others.
1959
The United Steelworkers of America (USWA) union began a 116-day labor strike. This lead to significant importation of foreign steel for the first time in United States history. It ended when President Eisenhower pressured both sides into an agreement.
1964
Sen. Barry M. Goldwater of Arizona was nominated for president at the Republican National Convention in San Francisco.
1966
The United States and South Vietnam begin Operation Hastings to push the North Vietnamese out of the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone.
1971
President Nixon announced he would visit the People's Republic of China to seek a ''normalization of relations.''
1974
In Nicosia, Cyprus, Greek junta-sponsored nationalists launch a coup, deposing President Makarios and installing Nikos Sampson as Cypriot president.
1975
Apollo-Soyuz Test Project features the dual launch of an Apollo spacecraft and a Soyuz spacecraft on the first joint Soviet-United States human-crewed flight. It was the last launch of both an Apollo spacecraft, and the Saturn family of rockets.
1976
A 36-hour kidnap ordeal began for 26 schoolchildren and their bus driver as they were abducted near Chowchilla, Calif., by three gunmen and imprisoned in an underground cell. The captives escaped unharmed.
1979
President Carter delivered a speech in which he lamented what he called a ''crisis of confidence'' in America. Though he didn't use the word, it became known as the ''malaise'' speech.
1983
An attack at Orly Airport in Paris is launched by Armenian militant organisation ASALA, leaving eight people dead and 55 injured.
1992
Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton claimed the Democratic presidential nomination at the party's convention in New York City.
1997
Fashion designer Gianni Versace was shot to death outside his home in Miami; the man believed to be the gunman, suspected serial killer Andrew Phillip Cunanan, was found dead eight days later.
1999
The government acknowledged for the first time that thousands of workers were made sick while making nuclear weapons and announced a plan to compensate many of them.
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
The social media app Twitter was launched, with 224 tweets being sent out that day. Today, there are over 500 million tweets sent on a daily basis.
2009
Caspian Airlines Flight 7908 crashes near Jannatabad, Qazvin, Iran, killing 168.
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.
2024
Federal judge Judge Aileen M. Cannon dismissed the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump in FL, siding with defense lawyers who said the special counsel who filed the charges was illegally appointed by the Justice Department.
Notable Births
1606
The painter Rembrandt was born in Leiden, Netherlands.
1944
Jan-Michael Vincent, American actor known for portraying helicopter pilot Stringfellow Hawke in the TV series Airwolf (1984-1987).
1946
Linda Maria Ronstadt is an American singer who performed and recorded in diverse genres including rock, country, light opera, the Great American Songbook, and Latin music.
1948
Thomas Delmer "Artimus" Pyle is an American musician who played drums with the southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd from 1974 to 1977 and from 1987 to 1991.
1949
Richard Russo, American novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter.
1950
Arianna Huffington, Greek-American journalist and publisher.
1952
Marky Ramone (Marc Steven Bell) is an American drummer. He replaced drummer Tommy Ramone in the Ramones in 1978, and went by the stage name Marky Ramone from then on.
1953
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haitian priest and politician, 49th President of Haiti.
1956
Joseph Satriani is an American rock guitarist, composer, songwriter, and guitar instructor.
1961
Forest Steven Whitaker is an American actor, producer and director. He is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a British Academy Film Award, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.
1963
Brigitte Nielsen is a Danish actress, model, and singer. She began her career modelling for Greg Gorman and Helmut Newton. Nielsen married Sylvester Stallone.
Notable Deaths
1940
Robert Pershing Wadlow, also known as the Alton Giant and the Giant of Illinois, was an American man who was the tallest person in recorded history for whom there is irrefutable evidence.
1948
John J. Pershing, American general (b. 1860)
1969
Grace Hutchins, American labor reformer and researcher (b. 1885)
1983
Charles Sherwood Stratton, better known by his stage name "General Tom Thumb", was an American with Dwarfism who achieved great fame as a performer under circus pioneer P. T. Barnum. (b. 1838)
1997
Gianni Versace, Italian fashion designer, founded Versace. He was murdered outside his Miami Beach mansion, Casa Casuarina, by spree killer Andrew Cunanan. (b. 1946)
2006
Robert H. Brooks, American businessman, founder of Hooters and Naturally Fresh, Inc. (b. 1937)
2021
Martin James Landau was an American actor, acting coach, producer, and editorial cartoonist.