What happened on April 15 ?

1053 - Godwin, Earl of Wessex

1220 - Adolf of Altena, Archbishop of Cologne

1415 - Manuel Chrysoloras, Greek humanist

1446 - Filippo Brunelleschi, Italian architect (b. 1377)

1610 - Robert Parsons, English Jesuit priest (b. 1546)

1621 - John Carver, first governor of Plymouth Colony

1641 - Domenico Zampieri, Italian painter (b. 1581)

1659 - Simon Dach, German poet (b. 1605)

1704 - Johann van Waveren Hudde, Dutch mathematician (b. 1628)

1719 - Françoise d'Aubigné, marquise de Maintenon, second wife of Louis XIV of France (b. 1635)

1754 - Jacopo Riccati, Italian mathematician (b. 1676)

1761 - Archibald Campbell, 3rd Duke of Argyll, Scottish politician (b. 1682)

1761 - William Oldys, English antiquarian and bibliographer (b. 1696)

1764 - Madame de Pompadour, mistress of King Louis XIV of France (b. 1721)

1765 - Mikhail Lomonosov, Russian scientist and writer (b. 1711)

1788 - Giuseppe Bonno, Austrian composer (b. 1711)

1793 - Ignacije Szentmartony, Croatian Jesuit missionary and geographer (b. 1718)

1804 - Charles Pichegru, French general (strangled in prison) (b. 1761)

1843 - Noah Webster, American lexicographer (b. 1758)

1854 - Arthur Aikin, English chemist, mineralogist, and scientific writer (b. 1773)

1865 - Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States (b. 1809)

1868 - Gaston Leroux, French writer (d. 1927)

1888 - Matthew Arnold, English poet (b. 1822)

1888 - Father Damien, Belgian missionary (b. 1840)

1898 - Kepa Te Rangihiwinui, Maori military leader

1912 - Victims of the RMS Titanic Edward Smith, Captain of the Titanic (b. 1850)

John Jacob Astor IV, American businessman (b. 1864)

Benjamin Guggenheim, American businessman (b. 1865)

1938 - César Vallejo, Peruvian poet (b. 1892)

1942 - Robert Musil, German novelist (b. 1880)

1943 - Aristarkh Lentulov, Russian artist (d. 1882)

1948 - Radola Gajda, Czech military commander and politician (d. 1892)

1949 - Wallace Beery, American actor (b. 1885)

1962 - Clara Blandick, American actress (b. 1881)

1969 - Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg, Queen of Spain (b. 1887)

1971 - Dan Reeves - Owner of the Cleveland/Los Angeles Rams (b. 1912)

1974 - Giovanni D'Anzi, Italian songwriter (b.1906)

1975 - Richard Conte, American actor (b. 1910)

1980 - Raymond Bailey, American actor (b. 1904)

1980 - Jean-Paul Sartre, French philosopher and writer, Nobel Prize laureate (declined) (b. 1905)

1982 - Arthur Lowe, British actor (b. 1915)

1983 - Corrie ten Boom, Dutch author and Holocaust survivor (b. 1892)

1984 - Tommy Cooper, Welsh comedy magician (b. 1921)

1986 - Jean Genet, French author (b. 1910)

1988 - Kenneth Williams, English actor and comedian (b. 1926)

1989 - Nesuhi Ertegun, Co-founder of Atlantic Records (b. 1917)

1989 - Hu Yaobang, leader of China (b. 1915)

1990 - Greta Garbo, Swedish actress (b. 1905)

1993 - John Tuzo Wilson, Canadian geologist (b. 1908)

1993 - Leslie Charteris, Singapore-born author (b. 1907)

1994 - John Curry, English figure skater (b. 1949)

1998 - Pol Pot, Cambodian dictator (b. 1925)

2000 - Edward Gorey, American illustrator (b. 1925)

2001 - Joey Ramone, American musician and singer (The Ramones) (b. 1951)

2002 - Damon Knight, American author (b. 1922)

2002 - Byron "Whizzer" White, American football player and U.S. Supreme Court Justice (b. 1917)

2003 - Erin Fleming, Canadian actress (b. 1941)

2004 - Ray Condo, Canadian rockabilly musician (b. 1950)