Today In History
Today is Monday, April 15, the 105th day of 2019. There are 260 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
› 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.
ON THIS DATE
› 1452: Artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci was born in or near the Tuscan town of Vinci.
› 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.
› 1943: The Ayn Rand novel “The Fountainhead” was first published by Bobbs-Merrill Co.
› 1945: During World War II, British and Canadian troops liberated the Nazi concentration camp Bergen-Belsen. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who died on April 12, was buried at the Roosevelt family home in Hyde Park, New York.
› 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.)
› 1959: Cuban leader Fidel Castro arrived in Washington to begin a goodwill tour of the United States. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles resigned for health reasons (he was succeeded by Christian A. Herter).
› 1974: Members of the Symbionese Liberation Army held up a branch of the Hibernia Bank in San Francisco; a member of the group was SLA kidnap victim Patricia Hearst, who by this time was going by the name “Tania” (Hearst later said she’d been forced to participate).
› 1985: South Africa said it would repeal laws prohibiting sex and marriage between whites and nonwhites.
› 1986: The United States launched an air raid against Libya in response to the bombing of a discotheque in Berlin on April 5; Libya said 37 people, mostly civilians, were killed.
› 1989: Ninety-six people died in a crush of soccer fans at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, England. Students in Beijing launched a series of pro-democracy protests; the demonstrations culminated in a government crackdown at Tiananmen Square.
› 2013: Two bombs made from pressure cookers exploded at the Boston Marathon finish line, killing two women and an 8-year-old boy and injuring more than 260.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS
Actress Claudia Cardinale is 81. Author and politician Jeffrey Archer is 79. Rock singer-guitarist Dave Edmunds is 76. Actor Michael Tucci is 73. Actress Lois Chiles is 72. Writer-producer Linda Bloodworth-Thomason is 72. Actress Amy Wright is 69. Columnist Heloise is 68. Actor Sam McMurray is 67. Actress-screenwriter Emma Thompson is 60. Bluegrass musician Jeff Parker is 58. Singer Samantha Fox is 53. Olympic gold, silver and bronze medal swimmer Dara Torres is 52. Rock musician Ed O’Brien (Radiohead) is 51. Actor Flex Alexander is 49. Actor Danny Pino is 45. Actor Douglas Spain is 45. Country singer-songwriter Chris Stapleton is 41. Actor Luke Evans is 40. Rock musician Patrick Carney (The Black Keys) is 39. Rock musician Zach Carothers (Portugal. The Man) is 38. Actor-writer Seth Rogen is 37. Rock musician De’Mar Hamilton (Plain White T’s) is 35. Actress Samira Wiley is 32. Actress Leonie Elliott is 31. Actress Emma Watson is 29. Actress Maisie Williams is 22.