What happened on February 15 ?

380 - Peter II, Patriarch of Alexandria

1145 - Pope Lucius II

1621 - Michael Praetorius, German composer (b. 1571)

1637 - Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1578)

1738 - Matthias Braun, Czech sculptor (b. 1684)

1775 - Peter Dens, Belgian Catholic theologian (b. 1690)

1781 - Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, German author and philosopher (b. 1729)

1818 - Friedrich Ludwig, Fürst zu Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen, Prussian general (b. 1746)

1835 - Henry Hunt, British politician (b. 1773)

1847 - Germinal Pierre Dandelin, Belgian mathematician (b. 1794)

1848 - Hermann von Boyen, Prussian field marshal (b. 1771)

1849 - Pierre François Verhulst, Belgian mathematician (b. 1804)

1857 - Mikhail Glinka, Russian composer (b. 1804)

1911 - Theodor Escherich, German pediatrician (b. 1859)

1932 - Minnie Maddern Fiske, Broadway actress (b. 1865)

1939 - Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, Russian painter (b. 1878)

1959 - Owen Willans Richardson, British physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1879)

1964 - Robert L. Thornton, American businessman, philanthropist, and Mayor of Dallas, Texas (b. 1880)

1965 - Nat King Cole, American singer and musician (b. 1919)

1966 - Gerard Cio?ek, Polish architect and historian of gardens (b. 1909)

1973 - Wally Cox, American actor (b. 1924)

1973 - Tim Holt, American actor (b. 1919)

1974 - Kurt Atterberg, Swedish composer (b. 1887)

1981 - Mike Bloomfield, American musician (b. 1944)

1981 - Karl Richter, German conductor (b. 1926)

1984 - Ethel Merman, American singer and actress (b. 1908)

1988 - Richard Feynman, 10:34 p.m. at UCLA Medical Center, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1918)

1996 - Tommy Rettig, American actor (b. 1941)

1996 - McLean Stevenson, American actor (b. 1929)

1999 - Big L (Lamont Coleman), American rapper (b. 1974)

1999 - Henry Way Kendall, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1926)

2002 - Howard K. Smith, American journalist (b. 1914)

2002 - Kevin Smith, New Zealand actor (b. 1963)

2004 - Jens Evensen, Norwegian minister and International Court of Justice judge (b. 1917)

2004 - Jan Miner, American actress (b. 1917)

2005 - Samuel Francis, American journalist (b. 1947)