Year 1915 Fun Facts, Trivia, and History Events

This quick read presents a collection of fun facts, trivia, and history events from the year 1915. Discover the year’s top news stories, most influential people, historic firsts, entertainment news, and much more.

Take a journey through history in just minutes.

1. In 1915, Woodrow Wilson was the 28th president of the United States, and Thomas R. Marshall was the nation’s 28th vice president.
2. The U.S. unemployment rate was 8.5%, and the nation’s inflation rate was 1.00%.
3. The United States population was 100,546,000, and about 15% was foreign-born. Whites comprised around 88.9% of the population, Blacks made up another 10.7%, and other racial groups (American Indians, Alaska Natives, Asians, and Hispanics) comprised the remaining 0.4%.
4. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average annual income for a man was about $687; for a woman, it was about half that amount.
5. There were an estimated 6.5 million farms in the U.S., up from 1.4 million in 1850.
6. In January, while employed as a cook at New York City’s Sloan Hospital, the infamous “Typhoid Mary” infected 25 people with typhoid fever and was “placed in quarantine for life.”
7. On January 12, the House of Representatives voted against a proposal to give women the right to vote.
8. On January 28, President Wilson signed the Coast Guard Act into law, “making the United States Coast Guard a military branch of the United States armed forces.”
9. On February 8, D. W. Griffith’s controversial film—The Birth of a Nation—opened in Los Angeles and became a box office success among white audiences. However, the film “was also met with protests by African Americans, including by the newly formed NAACP, which attempted to ban the film.”
10. Between February 20 and December 4, the Panama–Pacific International Exposition World’s Fair took place in San Francisco.
11. On March 3, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the precursor of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), was established.
12. On May 7, the German submarine U-20 “torpedoed and sank the Lusitania, a swift-moving British cruise liner traveling from New York to Liverpool, England. Of the 1,959 men, women, and children on board, 1,195 perished, including 123 Americans.”
13. On June 9, U.S. Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan resigned because he did not agree with how President Wilson handled the Lusitania crisis. The sinking of the Lusitania “significantly contributed to growing anti-German sentiment in America, ultimately leading to the United States' entry into World War I in 1917.”
14. On October 13, the Boston Red Sox clinched their 12th World Series by defeating the Philadelphia Phillies, four games to one. (You might want to know that the Phillies would not be in another World Series until 1950.)
15. In 1915, the Ford Motor Company manufactured their one-millionth automobile.
16. The first “stop sign” appeared in Detroit, Michigan, at a dangerous intersection where several auto accidents had occurred in the past. It was “a simple square sign with the word ‘STOP’ painted in white letters on a black background.”
17. Thomas Lyle Williams, an American cosmetician and businessman, created “the first Maybelline mascara using petroleum jelly, coal dust, and ashes of a burnt cork.”
18. Corning scientists William C. Taylor and Eugene Cornelius Sullivan invented Pyrex—a heat- and shock-resistant glass.
19. Kellogg’s launched Bran Flakes, the first breakfast cereal that was high in fiber.
20. Quaker Oats introduced their familiar round package.
21. J. L. Kraft & Bros. introduced “pasteurized processed cheese that didn't require refrigeration. This invention revolutionized the cheese industry and led to the company supplying millions of pounds of cheese to the U.S. Army during World War I.”
22. Fannie Merritt Farmer died. She was an American culinary authority and author of The Boston Cooking School Cook Book, later known as the Fannie Farmer Cook Book.
23. Other famous people who died in 1915 were Alois Alzheimer (doctor), Andrew Freedman (sports executive), Booker T. Washington (teacher), Ellen G. White (religious leader), and Sandford Fleming (entrepreneur).
24. America’s best-loved songs were Hello, Frisco (Olive Kline & Reinald Werrenrath), They Didn’t Believe Me (Harry MacDonough & Olive Kline), and Carry Me Back to Old Virginny (Alma Gluck).
25. Popular movies for the year included Alice in Wonderland, A Night in the Show, A Woman by the Sea, The Bank, The Birth of a Nation, The Champion, The Cheat, and The Tramp.
26. In 1915, the words "around the clock," "Asian American," "bear claw" (pastry), "breakthrough," "club steak," "dysfunctional," "gas mask," "jaywalk," "marketing research," "narcissistic," "pit stop," "pressure cooker," "radio wave," "runaround," "shell shock," "superstore," and "virgin wool" all appeared in print for the first time.

References:

1. https://popculturemadness.com/1915-history-fun-facts-and-trivia/
2. https://www.merriam-webster.com/time-traveler/1915
3. https://www.flickchart.com/charts.aspx?year=1915
4. https://playback.fm/charts/top-100-songs/1915
5. https://www.foodreference.com/html/html/food-timeline-1911.html
6. https://www.mclib.info/Research/Local-History-Genealogy/Historic-Prices/Historic-Prices-1910s/Historic-Prices-1915
7. https://www.infoplease.com/year/1915
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1915_in_the_United_States
9. https://www.onthisday.com/events/date/1915
10. https://www.famousbirthdays.com/year/1915.html

© 2026 Gregory DeVictor