1915

Year 1915 (MCMXV) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Thursday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar.

Events

January 1: HMS Formidable, sunk by a German U-boat.

Below, the events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix.

January

• January 1
  • WWI: The Royal Navy battleship HMS Formidable is sunk off Lyme Regis, Dorset, England, by an Imperial German Navy U-boat with the loss of 547 crew.
  • The Battle of Broken Hill, a train ambush near Broken Hill, New South Wales, in Australia, is carried out by two men (claiming to be in support of the Ottoman Empire) who are killed together with 4 civilians.
  • Harry Houdini performs a straitjacket escape performance.^[1][2]
• January 5 – Joseph E. Carberry sets an altitude record of 11,690 feet (3,560 m), carrying Capt. Benjamin Delahauf Foulois as a passenger in a fixed-wing aircraft.
• January 12 – The United States House of Representatives rejects a proposal to give women the right to vote.
• January 13 – An earthquake in Avezzano, Italy, registering 6.8 on the Richter scale kills more than 29,000.
• January 18 – Twenty-One Demands from Japan to China are made.
• January 19
  • neon discharge tube for use in advertising.
  • WWI: German Zeppelins bomb the coastal towns of Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn in England for the first time, killing more than 20.
• January 21 – Kiwanis is founded in Detroit, as The Supreme Lodge Benevolent Order Brothers.
• January 24 – WW I: Battle of Dogger Bank: British Grand Fleet defeats the German High Seas Fleet, sinking the armoured cruiser SMS Blücher.^[3]
• January 25
  • First United States coast-to-coast long-distance telephone call, facilitated by a newly invented vacuum tube amplifier, ceremonially inaugurated by Alexander Graham Bell in New York City and his former assistant Thomas A. Watson, in San Francisco, California.
  • Emory College is rechartered as Atlanta.
• January 26 – The Rocky Mountain National Park is established by an act of the United States Congress.
• January 26 – WWI: Ottoman Army begins Raid on Suez Canal
• January 27 – WWI: Military casualties begin arriving at the Hôpital Temporaire d'Arc-en-Barrois, established earlier in the month.
• January 28 – An act of the United States Congress designates the United States Coast Guard, begun in 1790, as a military branch.
• January 31 – WWI: Germany's first large-scale use of poison gas as a weapon occurs when 18,000 artillery shells containing liquid xylyl bromide tear gas are fired on the Imperial Russian Army on the Rawka River west of Warsaw during the Battle of Bolimov; however, freezing temperatures prevent it being effective.^[4]

January 28: United States Coast Guard military branch.

February

• February – While working as a cook at New York's Sloane Hospital for Women under an assumed name, "Typhoid Mary" (an asymptomatic carrier of typhoid fever) infects 25 people, and is placed in quarantine for life on March 27.
• February 4 – Maritz Rebellion of disaffected Boers against the government of the Union of South Africa ends with surrender of remaining rebels.
• February 8 – The controversial film, The Birth of a Nation, directed by D. W. Griffith, premieres in Los Angeles, California. It will be the highest-grossing film for around 25 years.
• February 12 – In Washington, D.C., the first stone of the Lincoln Memorial is put into place.
• February 18 – WWI: Germany regards waters around the British Isles to be a war zone from this date, as part of its U-boat campaign.
• February 20 – In San Francisco the Panama-Pacific International Exposition is opened.

March

• March – The 1915 locust plague breaks out in Palestine; it continues until October.
• March 3 – The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, the predecessor of NASA, is founded in the United States.
• March 14 – WWI:
  • Battle of Más a Tierra: Off the coast of Chile, the British Royal Navy forces the Imperial German Navy light cruiser SMS Dresden (last survivor of the German East Asia Squadron) to scuttle.
  • Constantinople Agreement: Britain, France and the Russian Empire agree to give Constantinople and the Bosporus to Russia in case of victory (the treaty is later nullified by the Bolshevik Revolution).
• March 18 – WWI: A British attack on the Dardanelles fails.
• March 19 – Pluto is photographed for the first time but is not classified as a planet.
• March 25 – The U.S. submarine F-4 sinks off Hawaii; 21 are killed.
• March 26 – The Vancouver Millionaires win the Stanley Cup over the Ottawa Senators three games to zero.
• March 28 – The first Roman Catholic Liturgy is celebrated by Archbishop John Ireland at the newly consecrated Cathedral of Saint Paul in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

March 14: WWI: SMS Dresden, forced to scuttle by the Royal Navy.

April

• April 5 – Boxer Jess Willard, the latest "Great White Hope", defeats Jack Johnson with a 26th round knockout in sweltering heat at Havana, Cuba. Willard becomes very popular among white Americans for "bringing back the championship to the white race".
• April 11 – Charlie Chaplin's film The Tramp released.
• April 22 – WWI: Start of Second Battle of Ypres. First large scale use of poison gas on the Western Front by the Germans.
• April 24 – Beginning of the Armenian Genocide with the deportation of Armenian notables from Istanbul.
• April 25 – WWI: Start of the Gallipoli Campaign (lasting until January 1916): Landing at Anzac Cove by Australian and New Zealand Army Corps and landing at Cape Helles by British and French troops to begin the Allied invasion of the Gallipoli peninsula in the Ottoman Empire.

May 7: WWI: RMS Lusitania, sunk by a German U-boat.

• April 26 – Treaty of London: Italy secretly agrees to leave the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary and join with the Triple Entente.

May

• May 3 – Canadian soldier John McCrae writes the poem "In Flanders Fields".
• May 5 – WWI: Forces of the Ottoman Empire begin shelling Anzac Cove from a new position behind their lines.
• May 6 – Baseball player Babe Ruth hits his first career home run (off Jack Warhop), for the Boston Red Sox.
• May 7 – WWI: Sinking of the RMS Lusitania: British ocean liner RMS Lusitania is sunk by Imperial German Navy U-boat U-20 off the south-west coast of Ireland, killing 1,198 civilians en route from New York to Liverpool.
• May 9 – WWI: Second Battle of Artois: German and French forces fight to a standstill.
• May 17 – The last purely Liberal government in the United Kingdom ends when Prime Minister Herbert Asquith forms an all-party coalition government, the Second Asquith ministry, with effect from May 25.
• May 19 – WWI: Third attack on Anzac Cove by Ottoman forces is repelled by the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.
• May 22
  • Quintinshill rail disaster in Scotland: collision and fire kill 226, mostly troops, the largest number of fatalities in a rail accident in the United Kingdom.
  • Lassen Peak, one of the Cascade Volcanoes in California, erupts, sending an ash plume 30,000 feet in the air and devastating the nearby area with pyroclastic flows and lahars. It is the last volcano to erupt in the contiguous United States until the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens.
• May 24 – WWI: Italy joins the Allies after they declare war on Austria-Hungary.
• May 25 – China agrees to the Twenty-One Demands of the Japanese.
• May 29 – Teófilo Braga becomes president of Portugal.

June

• June 3 – Mexican Revolution: Troops of Obregon and Villa clash at León: Obregon loses his right arm in grenade attack but Villa is decisively defeated.
• June 5 – Women's suffrage is introduced in Denmark and Iceland.
• June 9 – U.S. Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan resigns over a disagreement regarding his nation's handling of the RMS Lusitania sinking.
• June 16 – The British Women's Institute is founded.

July

August: Destruction by the 1915 Galveston hurricane.

• July – WWI: The Union of South Africa occupies German South-West Africa with assistance from Canada, the United Kingdom, the Portuguese Republic and Portuguese Angola. South Africa will occupy South-West Africa until March 1990.
• July 7 – An extremely overloaded International Railway (New York – Ontario) trolley with 157 passengers crashes near Queenston, Ontario, resulting in 15 casualties.
• July 22 – "The Great Retreat" is ordered on Eastern front - Russian forces pull back out of Poland (then part of Russia), taking machinery and equipment with them.
• July 24 – The steamer Eastland capsizes in central Chicago, with the loss of 844 lives.
• July 28 – The United States occupation of Haiti (1915-1934) begins.

August

• August 5–August 23 – Hurricane Two of the 1915 Atlantic hurricane season over Galveston and New Orleans leaves 275 dead.
• August 6 – WWI: Battle of Sari Bair: The Allies mount a diversionary attack timed to coincide with a major Allied landing of reinforcements at Suvla Bay.
• August 16 – The Entente promises the Kingdom of Serbia, should victory be achieved over Austro-Hungary and its allied Central Powers, the territories of Baranja, Srem and Slavonia from the Cisleithanian part of the Dual Monarchy; Bosnia and Herzegovina; and eastern Dalmatia (from the river of Krka to Bar).
• Atlanta, Georgia.
• August 31 – Jimmy Lavender of the Chicago Cubs pitches a no hitter against the New York Giants.

September

• September 6 – The prototype military tank is first tested by the British Army.
• September 7 – Former cartoonist John B. Gruelle is given a patent for his Raggedy Ann doll.
• September 8 – WWI: A Zeppelin raid destroys No.61 Farringdon Road, London. It Is rebuilt in 1917 and called The Zeppelin Building.
• September 11 – The Pennsylvania Railroad begins electrified commuter rail service between Paoli and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, using overhead AC trolley wires for power. This type of system is later used in long-distance passenger trains between New York City, Washington, D.C., and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
• September 25–October 14 – WWI: Battle of Loos: British forces take the French town of Loos but with substantial casualties and are unable to press their advantage. This is the first time the British use poison gas in World War I and also their first large-scale use of 'New' or Kitchener's Army units.

October

• October 12 – WWI: British nurse Edith Cavell is executed by a German firing squad for helping Allied soldiers escape from Belgium.
• October 13 – Boston Red Sox beat Philadelphia Phillies, 4 games to 1 in the 12th World Series of North American Major League Baseball.
• October 15 – WWI (Serbian Campaign): Austria-Hungary invades the Kingdom of Serbia. Bulgaria enters the war, also invading Serbia. The Serbian First Army retreats towards Greece.
• October 16 – WWI: France declares war on Bulgaria.
• October 19
  • WWI: Russia and Italy declare war on Bulgaria.
  • Mexican Revolution: The U.S. recognizes the Mexican government of Venustiano Carranza de facto (not de jure until 1917).
• October 23 – WWI: Torpedoing of the armored cruiser SMS Prinz Adalbert (1901) results in only three men being rescued from a crew of 675, the greatest single loss of life for the German Imperial Navy in the Baltic Sea during the War.
• October 25 – Lyda Conley, the first American Indian woman to appear before the Supreme Court of the United States as a lawyer, is admitted to practice there.^[5]
• October 27 – William Morris "Billy" Hughes becomes the 7th Prime Minister of Australia.
• October 28 – St. Johns School fire: Fire at St. John's School in Peabody, Massachusetts, claims the lives of 21 girls between the ages of 7 and 17.
• October – Franz Kafka's novella The Metamorphosis ("Die Verwandlung") is first published in Germany.^[6]

November

• November 18 – Release of the U.S. silent film Inspiration, the first mainstream movie in which a leading actress (Audrey Munson) appears nude.
• November 23 – The Triangle Film Corporation opens its new motion picture theater in Massillon, Ohio.
• Georgia.
• November 25 – Einstein's theory of general relativity is formulated.

December

• December 10 – The 1 millionth Ford car rolls off the assembly line at the River Rouge Plant in Detroit.
• December 12 – President of the Republic of China Yuan Shikai declares himself Emperor.
• December 18 – President of the United States Woodrow Wilson marries Mrs Edith B. Galt in Washington, D.C.
• December 23 – HMHS Britannic, which will be the largest British ship lost in WWI (though with only 30 fatalities), departs Liverpool on her maiden voyage as a hospital ship.
• December 25 – WWI: British and German forces declare an unofficial Christmas truce, get out of the trenches and have a free-for-all kick-around football game in no man's land.
• December 26 – The Irish Republican Brotherhood Military Council decides to stage an Easter Rising in 1916.

Date unknown

• Alfred Wegener publishes his theory of Pangaea.
• The first stop sign appears in Detroit, Michigan.
• Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis is founded.

Births

January–February

• January 2 – John Hope Franklin, American historian (d. 2009)
• January 3
  • Sid Hudson, American baseball player (d. 2008)
  • Mady Rahl, German stage and film actress (d. 2009)
• January 4 – Meg Mundy, English-born American actress
• January 5 – Arthur H. Robinson, American geographer and cartographer (d. 2004)
• January 6 – Don Edwards, American politician
• January 7 – Helen Mussallem, Canadian nursing administrator (d. 2012)
• January 9 – Anita Louise, American actress (d. 1970)
• January 11 – Robert Blair Mayne, British soldier and co-founder of the Special Air Service (d. 1955)
• January 14 – Mark Goodson, American television game show producer (d. 1992)
• January 15 – Leo Mol, Ukrainian Canadian artist and sculptor (d. 2009)
• January 16 – Leslie H. Martinson, American television and film director
• January 18 – Santiago Carrillo, Spanish politician (d. 2012)
• January 20 – Ghulam Ishaq Khan, President of Pakistan (d. 2006)
• January 23 – Arthur Lewis, British economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1991)
• January 24 – Robert Motherwell, American painter (d. 1991)
• January 28 – Nien Cheng, Chinese-born American writer (d. 2009)
• January 29 – John Serry, Sr., American musician, composer, arranger (d. 2003)
• January 30
  • Joachim Peiper, German S.S. officer (d. 1976)
  • Brigadier John Profumo, British cabinet minister (d. 2006)
• January 31
  • Alan Lomax, American folklorist and musicologist (d. 2002)
  • Thomas Merton, American monk and author (d. 1968)
• February 1
  • Artur London, Czech statesman (d. 1986)
  • Sir Stanley Matthews, English footballer (d. 2000)
• February 2 – Khushwant Singh, Indian writer (d. 2014)
• February 4 – Sir Norman Wisdom, English comedian, singer, and actor (d. 2010)
• February 5 – Robert Hofstadter, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1990)
• February 7 – Teoctist Arăpaşu, Ex-Romanian Orthodox Church Patriarch (d. 2007)
• February 10 – Karl Winsch, American professional baseball player and manager (d. 2001)
• February 11 – Patrick Leigh Fermor, British author and soldier (d. 2011)
• February 12 – Richard G. Colbert, American admiral (d. 1973)
• February 14 – Ray Evans, American composer (d. 2007)
• February 16
  • Elisabeth Eybers, South African poet (d. 2007)
  • Jim O'Hora, American college football coach (d. 2005)
• February 19 – John Freeman, British politician
• February 20 – Danuta Szaflarska Polish screen and stage actress
• February 21 – Ann Sheridan American film actress (d. 1967)
• February 23 – Paul Tibbets, American WWII bomber pilot (Enola Gay) (d. 2007)
• February 26 – Preacher Roe, American baseball player (d. 2008)
• February 28
  • Peter Medawar, Brazilian-born scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1987)
  • Zero Mostel, American film and stage actor (d. 1977)

March–April

• March 4
  • László Csizsik-Csatáry, Hungarian Nazi; convicted war criminal (d. 2013)
  • Carlos Surinach, Spanish composer (d. 1997)
• March 6 – Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin, Leader of the Dawoodi Bohra Community (d. 2014)
• March 9 – John Edgar "Johnnie" Johnson, English pilot (d. 2001)
• March 10 – Harry Bertoia, Italian artist and designer (d. 1978)
• March 11 – Vijay Hazare, Indian cricketer (d. 2004)
• March 14 – Alexander Brott, Canadian conductor and composer (d. 2005)
• March 17 – Bill Roycroft, Australian equestrian (d. 2011)
• March 19 – Patricia Morison, American actress
• March 20
  • Rudolf Kirchschlaeger, Austrian politician (d. 2000)
  • Sviatoslav Richter, Ukrainian pianist (d. 1997)
• March 23 – Vasily Zaitsev, Soviet sniper (d. 1991)
• March 27 – Robert Lockwood Jr., American musician (d. 2006)
• March 30
  • Arsenio Erico, Paraguayan footballer (d. 1977)
  • Pietro Ingrao, Italian politician
• March 31 – Albert Hourani, English historian (d. 1993)
• April 3
  • Axel Axgil, Danish LGBT rights activist (d. 2011)
  • İhsan Doğramacı, Turkish physician and academic (d. 2010)
  • Piet de Jong, Dutch politician, Prime Minister of the Netherlands (1967–1971)
• April 4 – Muddy Waters, African-American musician (d. 1983)
• April 7
  • Stanley Adams, American actor (d. 1977)
  • Albert O. Hirschman, German-born economist (d. 2012)
  • Billie Holiday, African-American singer (d. 1959)
• April 8 – Ivan Supek, Croatian physicist, author, and human rights activist (d. 2007)
• April 10
  • Sardar Muhammad Ibrahim Khan, Founder of Azad Kashmir, guerrilla leader who led the Kashmir revolt against Maharaja Hari Singh of Kashmir (d. 2003)
  • 2011)
• April 12 – Július Tomin, Czech writer known for promoting Interlingua (d. 2003)
• April 15 – Elizabeth Catlett, American-born artist (d. 2012)
• April 21 – Anthony Quinn, Mexican actor (d. 2001)
• April 29 – Donald Mills, lead tenor of The Mills Brothers (d. 1999)
• April 30 – Elio Toaff, Italian rabbi

May

• May 1 – Archie Williams, American athlete (d. 1993)
• May 2 – Doris Fisher, American singer and songwriter (d. 2003)
• May 3 – Stu Hart, Canadian wrestling trainer (d. 2003)
• May 5
  • Alice Faye, American entertainer (d. 1998)
  • Ben Wright, English actor (d. 1989)
• May 6 – Orson Welles, American actor and director (d. 1985)
• May 8 – Milton Meltzer, American author (d. 2009)
• May 10 – Sir Denis Thatcher, British businessman, husband of UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (d. 2003)
• May 12 – Frère Roger, Swiss founder of the Taizé Community (d. 2005)
• May 15
  • Hilda Bernstein, English-born author, artist, and activist (d. 2006)
  • Mario Monicelli, Italian film director (d. 2010)
  • Paul Samuelson, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2009)
• May 19 – Renée Asherson, British actress (d. 2014)
• May 20 – Moshe Dayan, Israeli military leader and politician (d. 1981)
• May 26 – Sam Edwards, American actor (d. 2004)
• May 27
  • Esther Soré, Chilean musician (d. 1996)
  • Herman Wouk, American author
• May 29 – Karl Münchinger, German conductor (d. 1990)

June

• June 1 – John Randolph, American actor (d. 2004)
• June 2 – Tapio Wirkkala, Finnish designer (d. 1985)
• June 4 – Modibo Keïta, former President of Mali (d. 1977)
• June 9 – Les Paul, American inventor and musician (d. 2009)
• June 10
  • Saul Bellow, Canadian-born writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2005)
  • Peride Celal, Turkish author (d. 2013)
• June 12 – David Rockefeller, American banker and philanthropist
• June 15
  • Kaiser Matanzima, President of the Transkei bantustan (d. 2003)
  • Thomas Huckle Weller, American virologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2008)
• June 17
  • Mario Echandi Jiménez, President of Costa Rica (d. 2011)
  • Karl Targownik, Hungarian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor (d. 1996)
  • Walter J. Zable, American founder and CEO of Cubic Corporation (d. 2012)
• June 19 – Pat Buttram, American actor (d. 1994)
• June 24 – Fred Hoyle, British astronomer (d. 2001)
• June 26
  • Paul Castellano, American gangster (d. 1985)
  • Charlotte Zolotow, American author (d. 2013)
• June 28 – David Honeyboy Edwards, American musician (d. 2011)

July–August

• July 2 – Arthur Wellesley, 8th Duke of Wellington
• July 5 – John Woodruff, American athlete (d. 2007)
• July 7 – Margaret Walker, American poet (d. 1998)
• July 15 – Albert Ghiorso, American nuclear scientist (d. 2010)
• July 17 – Fred Ball, American movie studio executive, actor, and the brother of comedienne Lucille Ball (d. 2007)
• July 24 – Enrique Fernando, Chief Justice of the Philippine Supreme Court (d. 2004)
• July 26 – Pattabhi Jois, Indian yogi (d. 2009)
• July 28
  • Charles Townes, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
  • Frankie Yankovic, American accordion player (d. 1998)
• July 28 – Dick Sprang,American comic book artist during the golden age of comics and an explorer (d. 2000)
• August 3
  • Frank Arthur Calder, Canadian politician (d. 2006)
  • Pete Newell, Canadian-born basketball coach (d. 2008)
• August 4 – William Keene, American actor (d. 1992)
• August 12 – Michael Kidd, American choreographer (d. 2007)
• August 14 – Irene Hickson, American professional baseball player (d. 1995)
• August 19 – Ring Lardner Jr., American film screenwriter (d. 2000)
• August 21 – Arnold Goodman, Baron Goodman, British lawyer and political adviser (d. 1995)
• August 22 – Hugh Paddick, British actor (d. 2000)
• August 25 – Walter Trampler, American violist (d. 1997)
• August 27 – Norman F. Ramsey, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2011)
• August 28
  • Tol Avery, American actor (d. 1973)
  • Simon Oakland, American actor (d. 1983)
  • Max Robertson, British sports commentator (d. 2009)
  • Tasha Tudor, American illustrator (d. 2008)
• August 29
  • Ingrid Bergman, Swedish actress (d. 1982)
  • Jack Agazarian, English WWII spy (d. 1945)
• August 30
  • Princess Lilian, Duchess of Halland, British-born Swedish princess (d. 2013)
  • Robert Strassburg, American composer (d. 2003)

September–October

• September 2 – Meinhardt Raabe, American actor (d. 2010)
• September 3 – Knut Nystedt, Norwegian composer
• September 8
  • Frank Cady, American actor (d. 2012)
  • Frank Pullen, English business person and racehorse owner (d. 1992)
• September 10 – Viva Leroy Nash, American murderer, oldest death row inmate (d. 2010)
• September 12 – Frank McGee, American television personality (d. 1974)
• September 14
  • John Dobson, American astronomer (d. 2014)
  • Douglas Kennedy, American actor (d. 1973)
• September 15
  • Helmut Schon, German football player and manager (d. 1996)
  • Ismail Yasin, Egyptian comedian and actor (d. 1972)
• September 17
  • M. F. Husain, Indian artist (d. 2011)
  • Adolfo Sánchez Vázquez, Spanish-born philosopher (d. 2011)
• September 23
  • Julius Baker, American flautist (d. 2003)
  • Zdenko Blažeković, Croatian politician (d. 1947)
  • Clifford Shull, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2001)
• September 29 – Vincent DeDomenico, American entrepreneur (d. 2007)
• 2003)
• October 1 – T. Llew Jones, Welsh author and poet (d. 2009)
• October 13 – Terry Frost, English artist (d. 2003)
• October 14 – Loris Francesco Capovilla, Italian Roman Catholic prelate
• October 15
  • Nellie Lutcher, American singer (d. 2007)
  • Yitzhak Shamir, Israeli politician (d. 2012)
• October 17 – Arthur Miller, American playwright (d. 2005)
• October 19 – Farid al-Atrash, Arab composer, singer, and actor (d. 1974)
• October 23 – Shin Hyun-joon, South Korean general (d. 2007)
• October 24
  • Tito Gobbi, Italian operatic baritone (d. 1984)
  • Bob Kane, American comic book artist/writer, creator of Batman (d. 1998)
• October 28 – Dody Goodman, American actress and dancer (d. 2008)
• October 29 – William Berenberg, American physician (d. 2005)
• October 30 – Jane Randolph, American actress (d. 2009)

November–December

• November 1 – Marion Eugene Carl, U.S. Marine Corps World War II fighter ace and test pilot (d. 1998)
• November 4 – Wee Kim Wee, 4th president of Singapore (d. 2005)
• November 9
  • André François, French cartoonist (d. 2005)
  • Sargent Shriver, American politician (d. 2011)
• November 11 – William Proxmire, U.S. Senator (d. 2005)
• November 12 – Roland Barthes, French philosopher and literary critic (d. 1980)
• November 17 – David "Stringbean" Akeman, American country music banjo player (d. 1973)
• November 19 – Earl Wilbur Sutherland Jr., American physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1974)
• November 23 – John Dehner, American actor (d. 1992)
• November 25
  • Augusto Pinochet, President of Chile (d. 2006)
  • Stanley Wilson, American musician (d. 1970)
• November 28 – Evald Okas, Estonian painter (d. 2011)
• November 29 – Eugene Polley, American engineer (d. 2012)
• November 30 – Brownie McGhee, American musician (d. 1996)
• November 30 – Henry Taube, Canadian-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2005)
• December 2 – Marais Viljoen, former President of South Africa (d. 2007)
• December 4 – Virginia deGravelles, Louisiana actress
• December 7 – Eli Wallach, American actor (d. 2014)
• December 8 – Ernest Lehman, American screenwriter (d. 2005)
• December 9 – Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, German-born soprano (d. 2006)
• December 12 – Frank Sinatra, American entertainer (d. 1998)
• December 13 – Ross Macdonald, American-Canadian writer (d. 1983)
• December 17 – Robert A. Dahl, American political scientist (d. 2014)
• December 19 – Édith Piaf, French singer (d. 1963)
• December 21 – Werner von Trapp, member of the Trapp Family Singers (d. 2007)
• December 22 – Barbara Billingsley, American actress (d. 2010)
• December 27 – Gyula Zsengellér, Hungarian footballer (d. 1999)

Deaths

January–June

• January 13 – Mary Slessor, Scottish Christian missionary (b. 1848)
• January 14 – Richard Meux Benson, English founder of an Anglican religious order (b. 1824)
• January 23 – Anne Whitney American sculptor and poet (b. 1821)
• February 3 (executed for their part in the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria):
  • Danilo Ilić (b. 1891)
  • Veljko Čubrilović (b. 1886)
  • Miško Jovanović
• February 5 – Ross Barnes, American baseball player (b. 1850)
• February 18 – Frank James American outlaw (b. 1843)
• March 4 – William Willett, English promoter of daylight saving time (b. 1856)
• March 13 – Sergei Witte, Russian aristocrat and statesman, former Prime Minister (b. 1849)
• Peter Pan (b. 1893) (killed in action)
• March 31 – Wyndham Halswelle, Scottish runner (killed in action) (b. 1882)
• April 16 – Nelson W. Aldrich, U.S. Senator from Rhode Island (b. 1841)
• April 23
  • Rupert Brooke, English poet (sepsis from an infected mosquito bite) (b. 1887)
  • Frederick Fisher, Canadian VC recipient (killed in action) (b. 1894)
• April 27
  • William Barnard Rhodes-Moorhouse, British aviator, first airman to receive the Victoria Cross (b. 1887)
  • Alexander Scriabin, Russian composer (b. 1872)
• May 7
  • Charles Frohman, American theater producer, died on Lusitania (b. 1856)
  • Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt I, American sportsman, died on Lusitania (b. 1877)
• May 9
  • François Faber, Luxembourgian cyclist (b. 1887) (killed in action)
  • Tony Wilding, New Zealand tennis player (killed in action) (b. 1883)
• May 24 – Private John Condon, youngest British soldier to die during the First World War (b. c. 1901)
• May 26 – Julian Grenfell, poet (killed in action) (b. 1888)
• May 31 – Victor Child Villiers, 7th Earl of Jersey, 18th Governor of New South Wales (b. 1845)
• June 7 – Charles Reed Bishop, preeminent businessman and philanthropist in Hawaii (b. 1822)
• June 19 – Benjamin F. Isherwood, American admiral and United States Navy Engineer-in-Chief (b. 1822)
• June 25 – Tok Janggut, Malayan rebel leader (b. 1853) (killed in battle)

July–December

• July 2 – Porfirio Díaz, former President of Mexico (b. 1830)
• July 16 – Ellen G. White, American prophetess, co-founder of Seventh-Day Adventism, most translated American author (b. 1827)
• August 20
  • Carlos Finlay, Cuban pathologist (b. 1833)
  • Paul Ehrlich, German scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1854)
• August 26 – John Bunny American silent film comedian (b. 1863)
• August 31 – Adolphe Pégoud, French acrobatic pilot and World War I fighter ace (b. 1889)
• September 1 – August Stramm, German poet and playwright (killed in battle) (b. 1874)
• September 9 – Albert Spalding, baseball player and sporting goods manufacturer (b. 1850)
• September 11 – William Sprague IV, America politician from Rhode Island (b. 1830)
• September 13 – Andrew L. Harris, American Civil War hero and Governor of Ohio (b. 1835)
• September 26 – Keir Hardie, British labour leader (b. 1856)
• September 27 – Fergus Bowes-Lyon, brother of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother (killed in battle) (b. 1889)
• October 12 – Edith Cavell, nurse and war heroine (shot) (b. 1865)
• October 13 – Charles Sorley, British poet (killed in action) (b. 1895)
• October 23 – W. G. Grace, English cricketer (b. 1848)
• October 26 – August Bungert, German composer and poet (b. 1845)
• October 30 – Charles Tupper, 6th Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1821)
• November 15 – Booker T. Washington, American educator (b. 1856)
• November 21 – Dixie Haygood, American magician (b. 1861)
• November 28 – Mubarak Al-Sabah, Emir of Kuwait (b. 1837)
• December 31 – Tommaso Salvini, Italian actor (b. 1829)

Nobel Prizes

• Chemistry – Richard Willstätter
• Literature – Romain Rolland
• Medicine – not awarded
• Peace – not awarded
• Physics – William Henry Bragg and William Lawrence Bragg

Notes

References

• 1915 Coin Pictures
• Pictures of the 1915 Galveston Hurricane at the University of Houston Digital Library