On This Day: 15 April

Bari, the last Byazntine possession in southern Italy, is surrendered to the Norman adventurer Robert Guiscard		1071
Battle of Formigny: English forces attacked and almost annihilated by the French, ending English domination of northern France		1450
Battle of Rain: Swedes under Gustavus Adolphus defeat the Holy Roman Empire (Thirty Years' War)		1632
J. S. Bach's St. Matthew Passion first performed		1729
Kingdon of Corsica established		1736
Handel's opera Serse premièred in London		1738
Dr. Johnson's Dictionary first published		1755
Joseph Priestley discovers that India rubber can be used to rub out lead pencil marks		1770
Duchess of Kingston found guilty of bigamy		1776
Preliminary articles of peace to end the American War of Independence are ratified		1783
Bank of England issues the first £5 notes		1793
British sailors mutiny at Spithead over pay and conditions		1797
Dorothy Wordsworth writes in her diary about the beautiful daffodils she saw while out walking with her brother William		1802
Abraham Lincoln dies, the day after being shot by John Wilkes Booth; Andrew Johnson succeeds him as President		1865
General Electric Company formed in Schenectady, New York, by the merger of Edison General Electric Company of Schenectady and Thomson–Houston Electric Company of Lynn, Massachusetts, with the support of Drexel, Morgan & Co		1892
Closing ceremony of the first modern Olympiad, in Athens		1896
Titanic sinks at 02:20, two hours and forty minutes after hitting an iceberg; of 2,227 passengers and crew, only 710 survive		1912
Sir Frederick Banting, with J. R. R. McLeod and Charles H. Best, discovers insulin		1922
Sir James Barrie donates the royalties from Peter Pan to Great Ormond Street Hospital		1925
Governor of Northern Ireland opens the Ulster parliament		1925
The Belfast Blitz: around 1,000 people killed by 200 bombers of the Luftwaffe		1941
Population of Malta awarded the George Cross for gallantry during Axis blockade and air attack		1942
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp liberated		1945
Art treasures looted by the Nazis – including works by Rubens, Goya, Raphael and Leonardo – found in an Austrian mineshaft		1945
Jackie Robinson debuts for the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking baseball's colour line		1947
Ray Kroc opens the ninth McDonald's franchise, in Des Plaines, Illinois – the event to which the company dates its foundation		1955
North Korea shoots down a US Navy aircraft over the Sea of Japan, killing all 31 on board		1955
US–born Joyce McKinney accused in London of kidnapping and sexually abusing a Mormon missionary		1978
US aircraft bomb Libya		1986
95 Liverpool fans die in the overcrowded Leppings Lane terrace, Hillsborough		1989
The Tiananmen Square protest in Beijing begins, as a small–scale demonstration commemorates former Communist Party leader Hu Yaobang, on the day following his death, and demands that the government reassess his legacy		1989
124 nations sign the Marrakesh Agreement, which leads to the foundation of the World Trade Organization on 1 January 1995 – replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which began in 1948		1994
Manchester United drop their grey third away strip after a 3–1 defeat at Southampton		1996
Mariam Hamza, a 4–year–old Iraqi leukaemia victim, lands at Heathrow – brought for treatment at Glasgow's Royal Hospital for Sick Children by Labour MP George Galloway		1998
US astronomers announce that they have discovered three planets orbiting a star in the Andromeda constellation		1999
Hayley Liane Williams, 16, from Pontypool, dies after falling 100 feet from a roller–coaster at Oakwood leisure park, Pembrokeshire		2004
Three people die and 264 are injured as two bombs explode near the finish line at the Boston Marathon		2013
At least 75 people are killed in a wave of bombings across Iraq		2013
At least 200 people are gunned down, after seeking refuge in hospitals and places of worship, in the worst massacre of the South Sudanese civil war		2014
Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris, engulfed in flames		2019

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On This Day: 15 April