Anniversaries 15 April

Birth

Leonardo Da Vinci363

Italian Renaissance polymath 1452–1519

Nanak24

Founder of Sikhism 1469–1539

Guru Arjan7

The fifth Guru of Sikhism 1563–1606

Leonhard Euler11

Swiss mathematician 1707–1783

Hermann Grassmann10

German polymath, linguist and mathematician 1809–1877

Théodore Rousseau14

French painter (1812-1867) 1812–1867

John Lothrop Motley3

American historian and diplomat 1814–1877

Benjamin Jowett10

Theologian, classical scholar, and academic administrator 1817–1893

Henry James154

American novelist, short story author, and literary critic 1843–1916

Émile Durkheim43

French sociologist (1858-1917) 1858–1917

Bliss Carman5

author 1861–1929

Harold W. Percival12

Barbadian writer 1868–1953

Robert Walser8

Swiss writer 1878–1956

Max Wertheimer15

Co-founder of Gestalt psychology 1880–1943

A. Philip Randolph1

African-American civil-rights movement leader 1889–1979

Corrie ten Boom61

Dutch resistance hero and writer 1892–1983

Arshile Gorky32

Armenian-American painter 1904–1948

Eden ahbez11

American songwriter and recording artist 1908–1995

Kim Il-sung20

President of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea 1912–1994

Helene Hanff10

Screenwriter, writer 1916–1997

Thomas Szasz70

Hungarian psychiatrist 1920–2012

Tomas Tranströmer6

Swedish poet, psychologist and translator 1931–2015

Jeffrey Archer15

English author and former politician 1940

Hugh Thompson, Jr.11

United States helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War 1943–2006

Michael Neary (bishop)1

Irish bishop 1946

Robert A. Hall14

American politician 1946

Avital Ronell3

American philosopher 1952

Nick Minchin6

Australian politician 1953

Leo Boccardi1

Italian nuncio 1953

Joice Mujuru4

Zimbabwean politician 1955

Anne Michaels15

Poet and novelist 1958

Benjamin Zephaniah9

English poet and author 1958

Thomas F. Wilson2

actor, writer, musician, painter, voice-over artist, stand-… 1959

Emma Thompson13

British actress and writer 1959

Philippe of Belgium3

seventh king of the Belgians 1960

Simon Peter Poh Hoon Seng1

Malaysian prelate 1963

Lee Kernaghan1

Australian country music singer-songwriter 1964

Cressida Cowell20

British writer 1966

Daniel Sokatch2

CEO of the New Israel Fund 1968

Omar Tyree1

American writer 1969

Arturo Gatti2

Italian-Canadian boxer 1972–2009

Jim C. Hines20

American writer 1974

Austin Aries1

professional wrestler 1978

Milton Bradley (baseball)7

Major League Baseball player 1978

Blu6

American rapper and music producer 1983

Emma Watson17

British actress and model 1990

Death

George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore3

English politician and coloniser 1578–1632

Madame de Pompadour2

chief mistress of Louis XV of France 1721–1764

Abraham Lincoln618

16th President of the United States 1809–1865

Matthew Arnold166

English poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector… 1822–1888

Jordan Anderson2

Freed slave 1825–1907

Joseph Dietzgen12

german philosopher 1828–1888

Henry Holiday1

British artist 1839–1927

Jane Ellen Harrison4

British classical scholar, linguist and feminist 1850–1928

John Singer Sargent3

American painter 1856–1925

Gaston Leroux26

French writer 1868–1927

Giovanni Gentile11

Italian neo-Hegelian Idealist philosopher and politician 1875–1944

Robert Musil21

Austrian writer 1880–1942

Frank Knight13

American economist 1885–1972

Henry Beston24

American writer 1888–1968

Corrie ten Boom61

Dutch resistance hero and writer 1892–1983

César Vallejo5

Peruvian writer 1892–1938

Jean Paul Sartre321

French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, sc… 1905–1980

Greta Garbo9

Swedish-American actress 1905–1990

William Empson25

English literary critic and poet 1906–1984

László Tisza1

Hungarian physicist 1907–2009

Jean Genet32

French novelist, playwright, poet and political activist 1910–1986

Hu Yaobang2

former General Secretary of the Communist Party of China 1915–1989

Byron White8

Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, American footb… 1917–2002

Krister Stendahl1

Swedish theologian 1921–2008

Damon Knight9

American science fiction writer, editor and critic 1922–2002

Clement Freud4

English broadcaster, writer, politician and chef 1924–2009

Edward Gorey26

American writer, artist, and illustrator 1925–2000

Alexander Trocchi1

Scottish writer 1925–1984

Pol Pot10

former General Secretary of the Communist Party of Kampuchea 1925–1998

Michael Halliday23

Australian linguist 1925–2018

Kenneth Williams5

English actor and comedian 1926–1988

Rosemary Tonks2

British poet 1928–2014

H. Dieter Zeh2

German physicist 1932–2018

Jack Herer2

American Cannabis/Hemp and freedom activist 1939–2010

Godwin, Earl of Wessex1

Anglo-Saxon nobleman; son of Wulfnoth Cild