April 14 in History
1434 The foundation stone of the Cathedral of St Peter and St Paul of Nantes, France, is laid. 1849 The kingdom of Hungary declares its independence from the Austrian Empire (Habsburg monarchy). The Austro-Hungarian Empire is formed in 1 867 in the aftermath of the Austro-Prussian War. Hungary terminates this union on October 31 1918. Austria becomes a republic on November 12, Hungary four days later. 1865 10.15pm: John Wilkes Booth, 26, a wellknown actor and Confederate spy, shoots President Abraham Lincoln in the back of the head in his Ford’s Theatre box in Washington, DC, during the play “Our American Cousin”. Lincoln dies at 7.22am on April 15. Booth is shot and killed by police on a farm in Virginia on April 26.
1900 Anglo-Boer War: The first 514 Boer prisoners of war arrive at St Helena on the SS Milwaukee. A total of 5,865 POWs arrive here up to February 1902, housed in camps at Deadwood Plain and Broadbottom.
1904 The Dock Road Power Station, owned by the Cape Town City Council, is officially opened. It is decommissioned on September 5 1961 and demolished during 1962.
1912 11.40pm: RMS Titanic, the largest ocean liner in service at the time, hits an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean, four days into her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City. She sinks at 2.20am on April 15. Of the estimated 2,224 people on board, only 710 survive.
1970 A 5.7 earthquake hits Tulbagh in the Western Cape, the second largest recorded in South Africa to date and the largest in a long series of aftershocks after Tulbagh, Ceres and Wolseley were hit by the most destructive (6.3) earthquake on September 29 1969 in which 12 people were killed.
1985 Hussein Ahmed Salah of Djibouti wins the first World Marathon Cup (2:08:09) in Hiroshima, Japan.
1986 The heaviest hailstones ever recorded
(up to 1kg) fall on the Gopalganj district of Bangladesh, killing 92.
1988 The Soviet Union signs an agreement to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan. The Soviet Army invaded Afghanistan on December 24 1979. It triggered a brutal, nine-year civil war, costing the lives of an estimated 1-million civilians and some 125,000 Afghan, Soviet and other combatants. The withdrawal is completed on February 15 1989.