July 15
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1835: A war fought over Toledo
The only bloodshed during the Toledo War, fought between Ohio and Michigan over a disputed border, occurred on this day in a Toledo tavern when Ohio partisan Two Stickney stabbed Michigan Sheriff Joseph Wood with a penknife. (Wood survived.) The “war” ended two years later with Toledo awarded to Ohio and the resource-rich Upper Peninsula to Michigan.
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Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center Collection/Boston Public Library; Photo Illustration Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Featured Event
NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems
On this day in 1965 Mariner 4, an uncrewed space probe launched by NASA in 1964, flew by Mars and returned close-up pictures of its surface. The pictures proved that the planet’s so-called canals were illusions. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about Mars.]
Featured Biography
Featured Biography
Courtesy of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, object no. SK-C-216
Born this day in 1606 was Dutch painter and printmaker Rembrandt—one of the greatest storytellers in the history of art, known for his exceptional ability to render people in their various moods and dramatic guises.
Famous Birthdays
More on July 15
Jose Luis Magana—AP/Shutterstock.com
2006
Cofounders Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams, and Biz Stone publicly launched Twitter, and within the following decade the social media platform had more than 300 million users.
© REX/Shutterstock.com
1997
Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace was murdered at his home in Florida by a serial killer. [Read about 7 of history’s most notorious serial killers.]
© Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.
1988
The thriller Die Hard was first released in U.S. theaters, launching a hugely popular series and helping establish Bruce Willis as an action star. [Take our quiz about movies.]
Fermilab National Accelerator Laboratory
1922
Leon Max Lederman, who was a corecipient of the 1988 Nobel Prize for Physics for research on neutrinos, was born in New York City. [Take our quiz about the Nobel Prize.]
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (file no. LC-USZ62-48353)
1883
Circus performer Charles Stratton, known to the world as General Tom Thumb, died at age 45. [Take our quiz about American personalities.]
© THOMAS COEX—AFP/Getty Images
1815
Several weeks after his abdication as emperor, Napoleon boarded the HMS Bellerophon to ask British officials for protection. They decided to send him into exile on the island of Saint Helena. [Watch: How Napoleon Bonaparte became emperor of France.]
The British Library (Public Domain)
1381
John Ball, who advocated for a classless society, was executed for his role in the Peasants’ Revolt, the first significant popular rebellion in English history.