1915

January 1

• DW Griffith shows "Clansman" at a sneak preview. [1]
• Jews of Laibach Austria expelled. [1]

January 2

• Karl Goldmark Austria-Hungarian composer (Queen of Saba), dies at age 84. [1]

January 3

• James E Flecker British diplomat/novelist (Hassan), dies at age 30. [1]

January 4

• First elected Jewish Governor, Moses Alexander, takes office in Idaho. [1]
• Trans-Caucausus Russian defeat Turkish troops. [1]

January 9

• Exposition (now Civic) Auditorium dedicated, San Francisco. [1]

January 12

• House of Representatives rejects proposal to give women the right to vote. [1]

January 13

• Earthquake in Avezzano Italy kills 30,000. [1]
• W Churchill presents plan for assault on Dardanelles. [1]

January 15

• Guillaume Couture composer, dies at age 63. [1]
• Japan claims economic control of China. [1]
• Sydney, Kern and Smith's musical "Love o' Mike" premieres in New York City, New York. [1]

January 16

• US Congress authorizes $1 and $50 Panamá-Pacific International Expo gold coin. [1]

January 17

• Antoni van Leeuwenhoek's Hospital in Amsterdam opens. [1]
• Russia occupies Bukovina and Western Ukraine. [1]

January 18

• Train crashes at Colima-Guadalajara Mexico, about 600 die. [1]

January 19

• First German Zeppelin L3s make bombing attack over Great Britain, four die in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. [1] [152.34]
• Neon Tube sign patented by George Claude. [1]

January 21

• Kiwanis International founded in Detroit. [1]

January 24

• German-British sea battle at Doggersbank and Helgoland. [1]

January 25

• Giordano, Sardou and Moreau's opera "Madame Sans Gêne" premieres in New York City, New York. [1]
• Transcontinental telephone service inaugurated (New York to San Francisco). [1]

January 26

• Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado established. [1]

January 27

• US Marines occupy Haiti. [1]

January 28

• First US ship lost in WWI, William P Frye (carrying wheat to United Kingdom). [1]
• US Coast Guard created from Life Saving and Revenue Cutter services. [1]
• US President Wilson refuses to prohibit immigration of illiterates. [1]

January 30

• German submarine attack on Le Havre. [1]

January 31

• First (German) poison gas attack, against Russians. [1]

February 3

• Turkish and German army reach Suez Canal. [1]

February 4

• Experiments to find cause of pellagra begin at Mississippi Penitentiary. [1]

February 7

• First wireless message sent from a moving train to a station received. [1]
• Second Battle of Masurian Lakes German armies surrounded a Russian army. [1]
• Wladyslaw Gorski composer, dies at age 68. [1]

February 10

• Albert J-BJ Thijs Belgian Colonial pioneer (Congo), dies at age 65. [1]

February 12

• Charles Emile Waldteufel composer, dies at age 77. [1]

February 16

• Emil Waldteufel [Charles Levy], French composer (Estudiantina), dies. [1]

February 17

• Edward Stone, first US combatant to die in WWI, is mortally wounded. [1]

February 18

• Germany begins a blockade of England. [1]

February 19

• British fleet fire on Dardanellen coast. [1]
• Gopal Krishna Gokhale India's social reformer/politician, dies. [1]

February 20

• (to December 4) The Panama-Pacific International Exposition opens in San Francisco. The event is held to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal, and the 400th anniversary of Vasco Nunez de Balboa's discovery of the Pacific Ocean. [1] [443.17] [455.18]

February 21

• 20th Russian Army corps surrenders. [1]

February 22

• Germany begins "unrestricted" submarine war. [1]

February 23

• Germany sinks US ships Carib and Evelyn and torpedoes Norwegian ship Regin. [1]
• Nevada enforces convenient divorce law. [1]
• Robert Smalls Reconstruction congressman, dies at age 75 in South Carolina. [1]

February 25

• George Mimot physician (Nobel Prize-1934), dies. [1]

February 26

• Malancourt, Argonnen - first (German) flame-thrower. [1]

March 2

• British Vice Admiral Carden begins bombing of Dardanelles forts. [1]
• Vladmir Jabotinsky forms a Jewish military force to fight in Palestine. [1]

March 3

• National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NASA forerunner) created. [1]

March 6

• Greek King Constantine I fires premier Venizelos. [1]

March 8

• First US navy minelayer, Baltimore, commissioned. [1]

March 10

• British expedition Army in Belgium captures Neuve Chapelle. [1]

March 13

• Sergei J Witte Dutch count/premier of Russia, dies at age 65. [1]

March 14

• German cruiser Dresden blows itself up near coast of Chile. [1]

March 15

• Netherlands merchant ship Tubantia torpedoed and sinks in North Sea. [1]

March 16

• British battle cruisers Inflexible and Irresistible hit mines in Dardanelle. [1]
• Federal Trade Commission organizes. [1]

March 17

• Walter Crane English painter/cartoonist/illustrator, dies at age 69. [1]

March 18

• Failed British attack in Dardanelles. [1]
• French battleship Bouvet explodes, 640 killed. [1]
• Turkey's Canakkale (Trojan) Sea Victory against allied powers (USA, Australia, England, Italy) during First World War. [1]

March 19

• Pluto (planet) photographed for first time (although unknown at the time). [1] [5]

March 23

• Zion Mule Corp forms. [1]

March 25

• First submarine disaster; a US F-4 sank off Hawaii, killing 21. [1]
• German U boat torpedoes Netherlands merchant ship Medea. [1]

April 1

• Johann Joseph Abert composer, dies at age 82. [1]

April 5

• French begin Woëvre-offensive. [1]
• First British newspaper comic strip: "Adventures of Teddy Tail - Diary of the Mouse in Your House", by Charles Folkard in Daily Mail. The strip runs for over 40 years. [55.42]

April 14

• Dutch merchant navy ship Katwijk sunk by Germany torpedo. [1]
• James Hutton Brew "Pioneer of West African Journalism", dies. [1]

April 15

• Manuel de Falla's ballet "El Amor Brujo", premieres in Madrid. [1]

April 17

• Johannes P Kelly [Kellij] Dutch actor/operetta writer, dies at age 60. [1]

April 22

• First military use of poison gas (chlorine, by Germany) in WWI. [1]
• Second Battle of Ypres begins. [1]

April 23

• ACA becomes National Advisory Council on Aeronautics (NACA). [1]
• Rupert Chawner Brooke English poet (Lithuania), dies at age 27. [1]

April 24

• German army fires chloroform gas in Ieper. [1]
• Massacre of Armenians by Turks (Armenian Martyrs Day). [1]

April 25

• 78,000 ANZAC troops land at Gallipoli. [1]
• Nicola d' Arienzo composer, dies at age 72. [1]

April 26

• Italy secretly signes Pact of London with Britain, France and Russia. [1]

April 27

• Alexander N Skriabin Russian pianist/composer (Prometheus), dies at age 43. [1]

May 1

• British Lusitania leaves New York, for Liverpool. [1]
• German submarine sinks US ship Gulflight. [1]

May 2

• Old Fordham Road in the Bronx renamed Landing Road. [1]

May 4

• Italy drops Triple Alliance with Austria-Hungaryb and Germany. [1]

May 5

• German U-20 sinks Earl of Lathom. [1]

May 6

• Allies attack Cape Helles, Hellespont. [1]
• German U-20 sinks Centurion SE of Ireland. [1]

May 7

• Cunard Line's RMS Lusitania passenger liner is sunk by German submarine in the Atlantic; 1198 lives lost. One crewmember survives, who also survived the Empress of Ireland and Titanic. [1] [118.9] [260.96]
• Alfred G Vanderbilt US millionaire, dies aboard Lusitania. [1]
• Alfred Scott Witherbee Jr US Lusitania officer, dies. [1]
• Charles Frohman dies aboard Lusitania. [1]

May 8

• Henry McNeal Turner 1 US black army chaplain, dies at age 82. [1]

May 9

• German and French fight the Battle of Artois. [1]

May 10

• Albert Weisgerber German painter/graphic artist, dies in battle. [1]
• Zeppelin drops hundred of bombs on Southend-on-Sea. [1]

May 12

• Croatians plunder Armenia, killing 250. [1]
• Franklin K Mathiews, presents the idea of "Book Week". [1]

May 17

• Last liberal British Government of Asquith falls. [1]
• National Baptist Convention chartered. [1]

May 20

• Bataafsche Petroleum begins oil extraction of Maracaibo. [1]

May 22

• Lassen Peak erupts, the only mountain other than Mount St. Helens to erupt in the continental U.S. during the 20th century. [5]
• Local train collides with troop train killing 226 (Gretna Scotland). [1]

May 23

• Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary and Germany during WWI. [1]

May 24

• Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary. [1]
• Thomas Edison invents telescribe to record telephone conversations. [1]

May 25

• Second Battle of Ypres ends with 105,000 casualties. [1]

May 26

• H H Asquith forms a coalition government in England. [1]

May 28

• John B Gruelle patents Raggedy Ann doll. [1]

May 31

• An LZ-38 Zeppelin makes an air raid on London. [1]

June 1

• First Zeppelin air raid over England. [1]

June 8

• William Jennings Bryan quits as Secretary of State. [1]

June 15

• US government mints first $50 gold pieces, for Panama Pacific Expo. [1]

June 24

• 800 die as excursion steamer Eastland capsizes in Chicago. [1]

June 27

• 100 degrees F (38 degrees C), Fort Yukon, Alaska (state record). [1]

July 1

• Australia begins Commonwealth Lighthouse Service. [1]
• Australian Survey Corps becomes part of the Military Forces. [1]

July 9

• Germany surrenders South West Africa to Union of South Africa. [1]

July 24

• Excursion ship Eastland capsizes in Lake Michigan, 852 die. [1]

July 28

• 10,000 blacks march on 5th Ave (New York City) protesting lynchings. [1]
• US forces invade Haiti, stays until 1924. [1]

July 29

• US marines land in Haiti, stay until 1924. [1]

August 12

• "Of Human Bondage," by William Somerset Maugham, published. [1]

August 17

• Mob lynches Jewish businessman Leo Frank in Cobb County, Georgia after death sentence for murder of 13-year-old girl commuted to life. [1]
• Hurricane kills 275 in Galveston, Texas with $50 million damage. [1] [245.4]

August 20

• Paul Ehrlich scientist, dies in Hamburg at age 61. [1]

September 11

• The Pennsylvania Railroad begins electrified commuter rail service between Paoli and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, using overhead AC trolley wires for power. [5]

September 16

• US takes control of customs and finances of Haiti for ten years. [1]

September 21

• Anthony Comstock anti-vice crusader, dies at age 71 in New York City. [1]
• Stones at Stonehenge, England, sold at auction for £6,600. [1]

September 22

• Southern Methodist University (Dallas Texas) holds its first class. [1]

September 29

• A hurricane claims 275 in the Mississippi Delta. [1]

October 12

• English nurse Edith Cavell executed by Germans in Belgium (WW II). [1]
• Theodore Roosevelt criticizes US citzens with dual nationalities. [1]

October 21

• First transatlantic radiotelephone message, Arlington, Va to Paris. [1]

October 23

• 25,000 women march in New York City, demanding right to vote. [1]

October 25

• Atty James L Curtis named minister of Liberia. [1]

November 2

• First US election by proportional representation, Ashtabula, Ohio. [1]

November 9

• Italian liner Ancona sinks by German torpedoes, killing 272. [1]

November 12

• Britain annexes Gilbert and Ellice Islands. [1]

November 14

• Booker T Washington, educator/organizer, dies at age 59 in Tuskegee, Alabama. [1] [5]

November 19

• Joe Hill Labor leader, executed for murder. [1]

December 2

• Jan Malat composer, dies at age 72. [1]

December 4

• F F Fletcher is first admiral to receive Congressional Medal of Honor. [1]
• Gustav Hollaender composer, dies at age 60. [1]
• Ku Klux Klan receives charter from Fulton County Georgia. [1]
• The Panama-Pacific International Exposition, held in San Francisco, California, closes. 19 million visitors attended the event. [1] [443.17] [455.18]

December 8

• Jean Sibelius' 5th Symphony in E, premieres. [1]

December 10

• 10,000,000th model T Ford assembled. [1]
• President Woodrow Wilson marries Edith Galt. [1]

December 12

• First all-metal aircraft (Junkers J.1) test flown at Dessau Germany. [1]
• Aristide Briand forms French war government. [1]
• Russian troops overrun Hamadan, Persia. [1]

December 16

• Albert Einstein publishes his "General Theory of Relativity". [1]

December 18

• President Wilson, widowed the year before, marries Edith Bolling Galt. [1]
• Èdouard Vaillant French socialist politician/communard, dies at age 75. [1]

December 19

• Alois Alzheimer German neurologist (first described Alzheimer's Disease), dies at age 51. [1]

December 20

• Russian troops overrun Qom, Persia. [1]

December 21

• 25.83 cm (10.17") of rainfall, Glenora Oregon (state record). [1]

December 23

• J Kern/S Greene's musical "Very Good Eddie" premieres in New York City, New York. [1]
• Roland Leighton dies at age 20. [1]

December 28

• Gerrit Jan van Heek Dutch textile manufacturer/politician, dies at age 78. [1]
• San Francisco City Hall dedicated by Mayor James Rolph. [1]

December 29

• Charles Beach Hawley composer, dies at age 57. [1]

December 30

• Cromarty Harbour, Scottish-British cruiser Natal explodes: 405 die. [1]