July 15 in history — What Happened Today in History

An attack at Orly Airport in Paris is launched by Armenian militant organisation ASALA, leaving eight people dead and 55 injured.

Nintendo and Sega enter the console market with the respective releases of the Famicom and SG-1000 in Japan.

U.S. president Jimmy Carter gives his "malaise speech".

Space Race: Apollo–Soyuz Test Project features the dual launch of an Apollo spacecraft and a Soyuz spacecraft on the first Soviet-United States human-crewed flight. It was the last launch of both an Apollo spacecraft, and the Saturn family of rockets.

In Nicosia, Cyprus, Greek junta-sponsored nationalists launch a coup d'état, deposing Makarios III and installing Nikos Sampson as the president of Cyprus.

The United Red Army is founded in Japan.

Vietnam War: The United States and South Vietnam begin Operation Hastings to push the North Vietnamese out of the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone.

Eighteen Nobel laureates sign the Mainau Declaration against nuclear weapons, later co-signed by thirty-four others.

The Boeing 367-80, the prototype for both the Boeing 707 and C-135 series, takes its first flight.

The State of North Borneo, now Sabah, Malaysia, is annexed by the United Kingdom.

The Holocaust: Nazi Germany begins the deportation of 100,000 Jews from the occupied Netherlands to extermination camps.

Massacre of July 15, 1927: Eighty-nine protesters are killed by Austrian police in Vienna.

The Japanese Communist Party is established in Japan.

Aftermath of World War I: The Parliament of Poland establishes Silesian Voivodeship before the Polish-German plebiscite.

World War I: The Second Battle of the Marne begins near the River Marne with a German attack.

In Seattle, Washington, William Boeing and George Conrad Westervelt incorporate Pacific Aero Products (later renamed Boeing).

In his book Clinical Psychiatry, Emil Kraepelin gives a name to Alzheimer's disease, naming it after his colleague Alois Alzheimer.

The stratovolcano Mount Bandai erupts, killing approximately 500 people in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan.

Reconstruction Era of the United States: Georgia becomes the last of the former Confederate states to be readmitted to the Union.

Canadian Confederation: Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory are transferred to Canada from the Hudson's Bay Company, and the province of Manitoba and the Northwest Territories are established from these vast territories.

American Civil War: The CSS Arkansas, the most effective ironclad on the Mississippi River, battles with Union Navy ships commanded by Admiral David Farragut, severely damaging three ships and sustaining heavy damage herself.

The first air raid in history occurs; Austria launches pilotless balloons against the city of Venice.

The Great Powers of Europe conclude the convention of London in order to stabilise the Near East.

Ralph Waldo Emerson delivers the Divinity School Address at Harvard Divinity School, discounting Biblical miracles and declaring Jesus a great man, but not God. The Protestant community reacts with outrage.

The Spanish Inquisition is officially disbanded after nearly 356 years.

A fire destroys the ancient Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls in Rome, Italy.

Napoleonic Wars: Napoleon Bonaparte surrenders aboard HMS Bellerophon.

Pike Expedition: United States Army Lieutenant Zebulon Pike begins an expedition from Fort Bellefontaine near St. Louis, Missouri, to explore the west.

Wayde van Niekerk, South African sprinter

Porter Robinson, American DJ and singer-songwriter

Danilo, Brazilian footballer

Derrick Favors, American basketball player

Evgeny Tishchenko, Russian boxer

Nuria Párrizas Díaz, Spanish tennis player

Olly Alexander, English singer and actor

Zach Bogosian, American ice hockey player

Damian Lillard, American basketball player

Tyler Young, American racing driver

Alisa Kleybanova, Russian tennis player

Anthony Randolph, American basketball player

Tristan Wilds, American actor and singer-songwriter

Tom Greenwell, American lawyer and judge (born 1956)

Earl Gros, American football player (born 1940)

Noël Lee, Chinese-American pianist and composer (born 1924)

Meskerem Legesse, Ethiopian runner (born 1986)

John T. Riedl, American computer scientist and academic (born 1962)

Boris Cebotari, Moldovan footballer (born 1975)

Tsilla Chelton, Israeli-French actress (born 1919)

Grant Feasel, American football player (born 1960)

David Fraser, English general (born 1920)

Celeste Holm, American actress and singer (born 1917)

Yoichi Takabayashi, Japanese director and screenwriter (born 1931)

Friedrich Wilhelm Schnitzler, German landowner and politician (born 1928)

Googie Withers, British-Australian actress (born 1917)