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Today in History, July 15th

On July 15, 1799, French soldiers in Egypt likely found the Rosetta Stone. Plus Mariner 4's first close-up photos of Mars and the launch of Twitter.

By Today in History Updated November 10, 2026 2 min read Sources checked

Published July 15, 2026 · Last updated November 10, 2026

July 15 is best known for 1799, when French soldiers in Egypt likely found the Rosetta Stone, the key that later unlocked Egyptian hieroglyphics. The date also saw Mariner 4 send back the first close-up pictures of Mars in 1965 and Twitter launch in 2006.

The big story: The Rosetta Stone turns up in Egypt (1799)

Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Egypt in 1798. The following summer, a French soldier named Pierre Bouchard came across an odd slab of dark granodiorite near the town of Rosetta, about 35 miles east of Alexandria. Historians still argue over the exact day, but July 15, 1799, is the likeliest. The stone was almost four feet long and carried the same text in three scripts: Greek, Egyptian hieroglyphics and Egyptian demotic. The Greek showed that priests had carved it to honor King Ptolemy V in the second century B.C. Because scholars could read Greek, the stone offered a way into the hieroglyphs. The French did not get to keep their prize. When the British defeated Napoleon’s forces in 1801, they took the stone, and it ended up in the British Museum, where it remains despite repeated calls to return it to Egypt. Thomas Young made early progress on the hieroglyphs, but Jean-François Champollion finally cracked them.

More events on July 15

Year	What happened
1099	Christian knights of the First Crusade captured Jerusalem.
1789	A day after the fall of the Bastille, the Marquis de Lafayette was named colonel-general of the new National Guard of Paris.
1806	Zebulon Pike set out on an expedition to explore the American Southwest.
1903	The newly formed Ford Motor Company took its first order, for a Model A car.
1918	Germany launched its last major offensive of World War I, opening the Second Battle of the Marne.
1964	The Republican Party nominated Senator Barry Goldwater for president.
1965	NASA’s Mariner 4 flew past Mars and sent back the first close-up photos of the planet, which showed its famous “canals” were an illusion.
1971	President Richard Nixon announced he would visit communist China the following year.
1978	The “Longest Walk,” a 2,800-mile march for Native American rights, ended in Washington, D.C.
1979	President Jimmy Carter spoke to the nation about the energy crisis and what he called a “crisis of confidence.”
2006	Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams and Biz Stone publicly launched Twitter.
2012	Psy’s “Gangnam Style” music video debuted on YouTube.

Born on July 15

1606: Rembrandt van Rijn, Dutch Golden Age painter and printmaker, born in Leiden.
1946: Linda Ronstadt, singer who helped establish country rock, born in Tucson, Arizona.
1961: Forest Whitaker, actor and director, born in Longview, Texas.