TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS SATURDAY, APRIL 15, the 105th day of 2017. There are 260 days left in the year. TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1947, Jackie Robinson, baseball’s first black major league player, made his official debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers on opening day at Ebbets Field. The Dodgers defeated the Boston Braves, 5-3.

In 1865, President Abraham Lincoln died nine hours after being shot the night before by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theater in Washington; Andrew Johnson became the nation’s 17th president.

In 1912, the British luxury liner RMS Titanic foundered in the North Atlantic off Newfoundland more than 2½hours after hitting an iceberg; 1,514 people died, while less than half as many survived.

In 1945, during World War II, British and Canadian troops liberated the Nazi concentration camp Bergen-Belsen.

In 1989, students in Beijing launched

a series of pro-democracy protests; the demonstrations culminated in a government crackdown at Tiananmen Square.

In 1997, Jackie Robinson’s number 42 was retired 50 years after he became the first black player in major league baseball.

In 2013, two bombs exploded at the Boston Marathon finish line, killing two women and an 8-year-old boy, and injuring more than 260. Suspected bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev died in a shootout with police; his brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was tried, convicted and sentenced to death.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Country singer Roy Clark is 84. Actress Claudia Cardinale is 79. Columnist Heloise is 66. Actress-screenwriter Emma Thompson is 58. Actor-writer Seth Rogen is 35. Actress Alice Braga is 34. Rock musician De’Mar Hamilton (Plain White T’s) is 33. Actress Emma Watson is 27.