June 15, 1520
The Roman Pope, Leo X, threatens to ex-communicate Martin Luther.
June 15, 1866
Prussia attacks Austria as a result of a dispute over Schleswig-Holstein. Prussia won the war by the 1st of July at the Battle of Königsgrätz.
June 15, 1890
Birth of Georg Wüst (1890-1977) in Posen, Germany (now Poland). Wüst was an oceanographer who developed the first understanding of the physical structure and circulation of the Atlantic Ocean.
June 15, 1905
Death of Carl Wernicke in Thüringer Wald, Germany (now in Poland). Wernicke was the neurologist who discovered that nerve diseases relate to specific areas of the brain. He was a pioneer in the understanding of aphasia (brain problems which inhibit the ability to speak and write), Lehrbuch der Gehirnkrankheiten (1881).
June 15, 1932
The newly appointed German chancellor Franz von Papen lifts a ban against the Nazi SA in an attempt to appease the party.
June 15, 1938
Death of the expressionist painter Ernst Ludwig Kirchner in Davos, Switzerland.
June 15, 1961
Walter Ulbricht announces that there is no intention to build a wall. “Niemand hat die Absicht, eine Mauer zu errichten.” (He starts the construction of the Wall on August 13, 1961 at 2:00 am with the placement of barbed wire at the border.)
June 15, 1988
First launch of the European Space Program of the Ariane rocket.
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