Timeline April 1915

Events in April 1915 11

• 1872 – 1915 Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915) Died 27 April 1915, aged 43 Russian composer and pianist Alexander Scriabin died in Moscow of blood poisoning from an infected lip sore. His late works, built on the mystical "Prometheus chord," pushed tonal harmony toward atonality and influenced generations of composers.
• 1887 – 1915 Rupert Brooke (1887-1915) Died 23 April 1915, aged 27 English poet Rupert Brooke died of blood poisoning from an infected mosquito bite while serving with the Royal Naval Division near the Greek island of Skyros. His war sonnets, especially "The Soldier," made him one of the era's most celebrated poets.
• 1915 – 1923 The Armenian Genocide The Armenian Genocide is the systematic mass murder and deportation of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire by the CUP government. Beginning in April 1915 with the arrest and execution of Armenian community leaders in Istanbul, it proceeds through mass deportations to the Syrian desert, massacres by Special Organisation (Teşkilât-ı Mahsusa) forces and Kurdish irregulars, and deliberate starvation. Between 600,000 and 1.5 million Armenians die. The genocide is facilitated by WWI's cover and the prior removal of Armenian men in labour battalions. The three CUP leaders responsible (Enver, Talaat and Cemal) are assassinated by Armenian avengers in Operation Nemesis (1920-1922). Turkey officially denies the genocide.
• 1915 Battle of Celaya Álvaro Obregón defeats Pancho Villa in the Mexican Revolution Between 6 and 15 April 1915, forces under Álvaro Obregón defeated Pancho Villa's Division of the North at Celaya, using barbed wire and machine guns to break Villa's cavalry charges. The defeat crippled Villa's army and shifted momentum in the Mexican Revolution toward the Constitutionalists.
• 1915 – 1959 Billie Holiday Jazz singer Lady Day — the American jazz singer whose phrasing changed popular singing, and whose Strange Fruit became a landmark of protest music.
• 1915 Billie Holiday born in Philadelphia Eleanora Fagan Grows up in poverty in Baltimore.
• 1915 – 2001 Anthony Quinn (1915-2001) Died 3 June 2001, aged 86 Quinn was a Mexican-American actor with a career of more than sixty years, winning two supporting Oscars and best known for the title role in Zorba the Greek. He also appeared in La Strada, Lawrence of Arabia and Lust for Life. He was a sculptor and painter as well.
• 1915 Gas at Second Ypres Ypres, Belgium German troops released 168 tonnes of chlorine from cylinders, opening a four-mile gap in the Allied line. It was the first large-scale use of chemical weapons in war, and within a year both sides were using them.
• 1915 The Armenian Genocide begins Constantinople, Ottoman Empire Hundreds of Armenian intellectuals were arrested in the capital, the start of deportations and massacres that killed an estimated one million people or more.
• 1915 – 1916 The Gallipoli campaign Gallipoli, Ottoman Empire Allied troops landed on the peninsula and never got off the beaches. Eight months and around 250,000 casualties on each side ended in evacuation — the campaign's only well-executed phase.
• 1915 Treaty of London signed Secret pact brings Italy into the war on the Allied side On 26 April 1915 Italy signed a secret treaty with Britain, France, and Russia promising it territorial gains in the Alps and along the Adriatic in exchange for entering the war against Austria-Hungary. The agreement's territorial promises later caused friction at the postwar peace conference when they were not fully honored.