Famous people born on April 15th
April 15 is a remarkably cross-disciplinary birthday, spanning Renaissance ingenuity, spiritual leadership, modern literature, and contemporary film and pop culture. The date brings together figures who reshaped how people paint and invent, write and think, lead and organize, and perform on stage and screen. From foundational ideas in mathematics and sociology to stories of survival and moral courage, the range is unusually broad for a single day.
Notable highlights
- Leonardo da Vinci (1452) - The quintessential Renaissance polymath, he fused art and engineering through obsessive notebooks of anatomy, flight, and mechanics.
- Guru Nanak (1469) - The founder of Sikhism, he emphasized devotion, honest work, and equality, shaping a lasting religious and social tradition.
- Leonhard Euler (1707) - A towering mathematician who standardized much of modern notation, his work underpins fields from calculus to graph theory.
- Henry James (1843) - A master of psychological realism, he helped define the modern novel through intricate interiority and transatlantic themes.
- Emile Durkheim (1858) - A key founder of sociology, he argued that social facts and institutions shape individual behavior in measurable ways.
- Corrie Ten Boom (1892) - A Dutch rescuer during World War II, her story of hiding Jews and surviving Ravensbruck became an enduring testimony of faith and forgiveness.
- Thomas Szasz (1920) - A provocative critic of psychiatry, he challenged the concept of mental illness as a medical disease and sparked lasting ethical debate.
- Harold Washington (1922) - Chicago's first Black mayor, he built a reform coalition that shifted the city's political landscape in the 1980s.
- Emma Thompson (1959) - An acclaimed actor and screenwriter, she is noted for sharp, human performances and award-winning writing.
- Emma Watson (1990) - Rising to global fame as Hermione Granger, she later became prominent for advocacy work alongside her acting career.
On this day
- 1865 - U.S. President Abraham Lincoln dies after being shot the previous evening, a national tragedy at the close of the American Civil War.
- 1912 - The RMS Titanic sinks in the North Atlantic after striking an iceberg, becoming one of history's most infamous maritime disasters.
- 1947 - Jackie Robinson makes his debut for the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking Major League Baseball's modern color barrier.
- 1989 - The Hillsborough disaster occurs in Sheffield, England, leading to 96 deaths and major reforms in football stadium safety.
- 2013 - Two bombs explode near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring hundreds.