Holidays
Income Tax Day
Or IRS appreciation day.
What Happened On
Patty Hearst (right) robbing bank
Patty Hearst (right) robbing bank
Patty Hearst Bank Robbery
April 15, 1974
Patty Hearst, heiress to the Hearst publishing fortune, participates in a San Francisco bank robbery with the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA). The SLA had kidnapped her two months earlier, demanding the Hearst family deliver $70 worth of food to every needy person in California. The estimated cost of such an operation would have been about $400,000,000. Patty Hearst's father tried to donate $2,000,000 worth of food to the Bay Area, but the distribution turned into chaos and the SLA refused to release Patty. She claimed she was raped and tortured to coerce her into participating in their crimes, claiming she was a victim of Stockholm Syndrome, in which a hostage bonds with their captors. She was sentenced to seven years in prison, but given clemency by U.S. President Jimmy Carter after serving 22 months and President Bill Clinton gave her a full pardon in 2001.
McDonald's
April 15, 1955
Ray Kroc opens his first McDonald's franchise in Des Plaines, Illinois. His first day sales were $366.12. It was the ninth restaurant in the chain started in 1940 by brothers Dick McDonald and Maurice "Mac" McDonald in San Bernardino, California. Kroc had met the McDonald's brothers while trying to sell them Multimixers. After seeing their operation he decided to open one of his own and eventually bought out the brothers and built McDonalds's into the hamburger empire it is now.
The McDonald brothers introduced the "Speedee Service System" in 1948. The original McDonald's mascot was a chef hat on top of a hamburger called "Speedee." Speedee was replaced in 1962 by the Golden Arches. The clown Ronald McDonald was introduced in 1965.
Jackie Robinson Breaks a Color Barrier
April 15, 1947
Jackie Robinson becomes the first African-American to play Major League baseball in the modern era when he plays for the Brooklyn Dodgers. He had played in an exhibition game four days earlier.
Note: The last African-American to play major league baseball before Robinson was Moses Fleetwood Walker, who played for the Toledo Blue Stockings in 1884.
Titanic by Willy Stöwer
Titanic by Willy Stöwer
Sinking of the Titanic
April 15, 1912
At 2:20 a.m. the "unsinkable" RMS Titanic sinks killing 1,517 of the 2,238 people aboard. The Titanic had struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic shortly before midnight while on her maiden voyage from Southampton, UK, to New York City.
Masabumi Hosono, the only Japanese passenger, survived, but was ostracized for the rest of his life in Japan as dishonorable and a coward for not going down with the ship.
Rubber Eraser Discovered
April 15, 1770
English chemist Joseph Priestley referring to rubber describes in a footnote: "I have seen a substance excellently adapted to the purpose of wiping from paper the mark of black-lead-pencil", thus discovering the use of rubber as an eraser.
Prior to the rubber eraser, bread crumbs were generally used as erasers.
Later that year, English engineer Edward Nairne developed the first widely marketed rubber eraser.
At that time, the word rubber was used in general for any object used for rubbing. It became associated with the new material sometime between 1770 and 1778.
Leona Helmsley
April 15, 1992
The "Hotel Queen" starts her four-year prison term for tax evasion.
Rose is a Rose
April 15, 1984
Rose is a Rose comic strip, by Pat Brady, premieres.
Chicago Race Riots
April 15, 1968
Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley instructs the police to shoot to kill arsonists and to maim looters, in response to the race riots.
Mark Trail
April 15, 1946
Mark Trail comic strip premieres.
Birthdays
Elizabeth Montgomery
Born April 15, 1933 d. 1995
American actress. TV: Bewitched (1964-72, Samantha; she also played cousin Serena under the pseudonym Pandora Spocks), The Legend of Lizzie Borden (1975, Lizzie Borden), and The Awakening Land (1978).
Montgomery owned a 794-acre (321 ha) estate in Patterson, New York and after her death it was sold to the State of New York and became Wonder Lake State Park.
Nikita Khrushchev
Born April 15, 1894 d. 1971
Soviet Premier (1958-64). Khrushchev was responsible for the de-Stalinization of the Soviet Union.
Mona Lisa, by Leonardo da Vinci
Mona Lisa, by Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci
Born April 15, 1452 d. 1519
Italian artist. Works: The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa. He is also the discoverer of capillary action (1490) and inventor of roller bearings (1496).
Emma Thompson
Born April 15, 1959
British Oscar-winning actress. Film: Howard's End (1992, Oscar).
Hints from Heloise
Heloise (Ponce Kiah Marchelle Heloise Cruse Evans)
Born April 15, 1951
American newspaper columnist, "Hints from Heloise." She took over the column in 1977 when her mother Heloise Bowles, who started the column, died.
Roy Raymond
Born April 15, 1947 d. 1993
American businessman. He founded the Victoria's Secret lingerie chain (1977). He committed suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge.
Kenneth Lay
Born April 15, 1942 d. 2006
American businessman, founder and chairman of Enron. He was found guilty of 10 counts of fraud and conspiracy related to the collapse of Enron.
Photo Credit: Ronzoni
Photo Credit: Ronzoni
Roy Clark
Born April 15, 1933 d. 2018
American Country Music Hall of Fame singer, musician. TV: Hee Haw (1969-97, host).
Michael Ansara
Born April 15, 1922 d. 2013
American actor. TV: Broken Arrow (1956-58, Cochise), Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979-81, Kane), and as Klingon Commander Kang in three different Star Trek series. He was married to actress Barbara Eden (I Dream of Jeannie) from 1958 till their divorce in 1974.
First Black Mayor of Chicago
Harold Washington
Born April 15, 1922 d. 1987
American politician, first black mayor of Chicago (1983).
Alfred Bloomingdale
Born April 15, 1916 d. 1982
American businessman. He is considered the "father of the credit card." He launched the "Dine and Sign" credit card (1950), which later merged with Diner's Club. He was an heir to the Bloomingdale's department store fortune.
John Williams
Born April 15, 1903 d. 1983
British Tony-winning actor. Film: Dial M For Murder (1954, reprising his Tony-winning role as Chief Inspector Hubbard). TV: Family Affair (1967, Giles French - filling in for the ailing Sebastian Cabot). He also starred in the commercial for 120 Musical Masterpieces which became the longest-running national U.S. commercial (1971-84).
Bessie Smith
Born April 15, 1894 d. 1937
American blues singer, the most successful blues singer of the 1920s and '30s. After her death from a car accident, it was rumored that she died because white hospitals wouldn't admit her. However, later interviews with the ambulance driver and attending physician dispelled these rumors. The rumors were started by a record executive, probably to increase sales of her records. Source biography: Bessie
Founded Sikhism
Guru Nanak
Born April 15, 1469 d. 1539
Hindu religious leader. Founded the Sikhism religion and was the first of the ten Sikh Gurus.
Henry IV
Born April 15, 1367 d. 1413
King of England (1399-1413).
Deaths
Father Damien before going to Hawaii (left) and shortly before his death
Father Damien before going to Hawaii (left) and shortly before his death
Father Damien (Joseph Damien de Veuster)
Died April 15, 1889 b. 1840
Belgian-born Roman Catholic missionary. He dedicated his life to the lepers of Hawaii and eventually contracted the disease himself. He was declared a Saint by the Catholic Church.
Upon his death he said, "It is the will of God, and I thank Him very much for letting me die of the same disease and in the same way as my lepers."
Abraham Lincoln
Died April 15, 1865 b. 1809
American politician. 16th U.S. President (1861-65). He was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, making Vice-President Andrew Johnson President. Lincoln was the first actual person to have their portrait on a U.S. coin (1909 penny) and the only U.S. President to hold a patent.
Lincoln was also the first U.S. President to bring a pet cat into the White House. Secretary of State William H. Seward gave him two kittens, which Lincoln named Tabby and Dixie. Lincoln is said to have remarked, "Dixie is smarter than my whole cabinet, and furthermore she doesn't talk back".
World's Oldest Italian
Emma Morano
Died April 15, 2017 b. 1899
Italian supercentenarian. World's oldest living person at time of her death - 117 years old. She is also the last living person verified to have been born in the 1800s. She was the oldest Italian person ever.
Clifton James
Died April 15, 2017 b. 1920
American actor. Film: Live and Let Die (1973, the bumbling Louisiana sheriff J.W. Pepper) and The Man with the Golden Gun (1974).
Greta Garbo (Greta Gustafsson)
Died April 15, 1990 b. 1905
Swedish-born actress. Film: Anna Karenina (1935) and Camille (1937).
Raymond Bailey
Died April 15, 1980 b. 1904
American actor. TV: The Beverly Hillbillies (1962-71, Milburn Drysdale).
Jean-Paul Sartre
Died April 15, 1980 b. 1905
French philosopher, dramatist. He and his lover Simone de Beauvoir founded "Existentialism."
Aunt Em
Clara Blandick (Clara Blanchard Dickey)
Died April 15, 1962 b. 1876
American actress. Film: The Wizard of Oz (1939, Aunt Em - "Oh, Auntie Em, there's no place like home"), Tom Sawyer (1930, Aunt Polly), and Huckleberry Finn (1931, Aunt Polly).
With her health and eyesight declining and suffering from severe arthritis, she committed suicide by taking an overdose of sleeping pills and tied a plastic bag over her head. Her suicide note read, "I am now about to make the great adventure. I cannot endure this agonizing pain any longer. It is all over my body. Neither can I face the impending blindness. I pray the Lord my soul to take. Amen".