Today In History
Today is Saturday, April 15, the 105th day of 2017. There are 260 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
› 1947: Jackie Robinson, baseball’s first black major league player, made his official debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers on opening day at Ebbets Field.
ON THIS DATE
› 1817: America’s oldest existing school for the deaf opened in Hartford, Connecticut.
› 1865: President Abraham Lincoln died nine hours after being shot the night before by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theatre in Washington; Andrew Johnson became the nation’s 17th president.
› 1892: General Electric Co., formed by the merger of the Edison Electric Light Co. and other firms, was incorporated in Schenectady, New York.
› 1912: The British luxury liner RMS Titanic foundered in the North Atlantic off Newfoundland more than 2 1/2 hours after hitting an iceberg; 1,514 people died, while less than half as many survived.
› 1945: During World War II, British and Canadian troops liberated the Nazi concentration camp Bergen-Belsen.
› 1989: Students in Beijing launched a series of pro-democracy protests; the demonstrations culminated in a government crackdown at Tiananmen Square.
› 1997: Jackie Robinson’s number 42 was retired 50 years after he became the first black player in major league baseball.
› 2013: Two bombs exploded at the Boston Marathon finish line.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS
Country singer Roy Clark is 84. Actress Claudia Cardinale is 79. Author and politician Jeffrey Archer is 77. Rock singer-guitarist Dave Edmunds is 74. Actress Amy Wright is 67. Columnist Heloise is 66. Actor Sam McMurray is
65. Actress-screenwriter Singer Samantha Fox is
51. Olympic gold, silver and bronze medal swimmer Dara Torres is 50. Actor Douglas Spain is
43. Country singer/songwriter Chris Stapleton is
39. Rock musician Patrick Carney (The Black Keys) is 37. Actor-writer Seth Rogen is 35. Rock musician De’Mar Hamilton (Plain White T’s) is 33. Actress Samira Wiley (TV: “Orange is the New Black”) is 30. Actress Emma Watson is 27. Actress Maisie Williams is 20.