What Happened This Day In History... April 15

1755		English lexicographer Dr. Samuel Johnson publishes his Dictionary of the English Language.
1784		The first balloon is flown in Ireland.
1813		U.S. troops under James Wilkinson siege the Spanish-held city of Mobile in future state of Alabama.
1858		At the Battle of Azimghur, the Mexicans defeat Spanish loyalists.
1871		'Wild Bill' Hickok becomes the marshal of Abilene, Kansas.
1861		President Lincoln mobilizes Federal army.
1865		Abraham Lincoln dies from John Wilkes Booth's assassination bullet.
1912		With her band playing on the deck, the ocean liner Titanic sinks at 2:27 a.m. in the North Atlantic.
1917		British forces defeat the Germans at the battle of Arras.
1919		British troops kill 400 Indians at Amritsar, India.
1923		Insulin becomes generally available for people suffering with diabetes.
1923		The first sound films shown to a paying audience are exhibited at the Rialto Theater in New York City.
1940		French and British troops land at Narvik, Norway.
1945		President Franklin D. Roosevelt is buried on the grounds of his Hyde Park home.
1948		Arab forces are defeated in battle with Israeli forces.
1952		President Harry Truman signs the official Japanese peace treaty.
1955		Ray Kroc starts the McDonald's chain of fast food restaurants.
1959		Cuban leader Fidel Castro begins a U.S. goodwill tour.
1960		The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organizes at Shaw University.
1971		North Vietnamese troops ambush a company of Delta Raiders from the 101st Airborne Division near Fire Support Base Bastogne in Vietnam. The American troops were on a rescue mission.
1986		U.S. warplanes attack Libya.
Born on April 15
1452		Leonardo da Vinci, Italian painter, sculptor, scientist and visionary
1684		Catherine I, empress of Russia
1741		Charles Wilson Peale, portrait painter and inventor
1800		Sir James Clark Ross, Scottish explorer who located the Magnetic North Pole.
1832		Wilhelm Busch, German painter and poet, created the precursor to the comic strip.
1843		Henry James, writer and critic.
1874		George Harrison Shull, American botanist, developer of hybrid corn.
1874		Johannes Stark, Novel Prize-winning German physicist.
1880		Max Wertheimer, Czech-born psychologist.
1889		Thomas Hart Benton, painter, muralist.
1889		Asa Phillip Randolph, American labor leader and Civil Rights advocate.
1898		Bessie Smith, American blues singer.
1904		Arshile Gorky, abstract painter.
1922		Harold Washington, first black mayor of Chicago
1922		Neville Mariner, conductor.
1932		Eva Figes, British novelist.
1940		Jeffrey Archer, English novelist and politician (Kane and Abel, Honor Among Thieves).