Born on April 15 |
1452 | | Leonardo da Vinci, Italian painter, sculptor, scientist and visionary |
1684 | | Catherine I, empress of Russia |
1741 | | Charles Wilson Peale, portrait painter and inventor |
1800 | | Sir James Clark Ross, Scottish explorer who located the Magnetic North Pole. |
1832 | | Wilhelm Busch, German painter and poet, created the precursor to the comic strip. |
1843 | | Henry James, writer and critic. |
1874 | | George Harrison Shull, American botanist, developer of hybrid corn. |
1874 | | Johannes Stark, Novel Prize-winning German physicist. |
1880 | | Max Wertheimer, Czech-born psychologist. |
1889 | | Thomas Hart Benton, painter, muralist. |
1889 | | Asa Phillip Randolph, American labor leader and Civil Rights advocate. |
1898 | | Bessie Smith, American blues singer. |
1904 | | Arshile Gorky, abstract painter. |
1922 | | Harold Washington, first black mayor of Chicago |
1922 | | Neville Mariner, conductor. |
1932 | | Eva Figes, British novelist. |
1940 | | Jeffrey Archer, English novelist and politician (Kane and Abel, Honor Among Thieves). |