On this day, April 15

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.

1907 An ordinance giving the Pittsburgh Subway Co. the right to build a subway to East End was introduced in Councils.

1912 The British luxury liner RMS Titanic foundered in the North Atlantic off Newfoundland more than 2½ hours after hitting an iceberg; 1,514 people died.

1940 Bedford Dwellings, the first large federal public housing development in Pittsburgh, was completed.

1947 Jackie Robinson, baseball’s first Black major league player, made his official debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers on opening day at Ebbets Field.

1998 Martha Rial of the Post-Gazette won a Pulitzer Prize for spot news photography for her photos of Rwandan and Burundian refugees in Tanzania.

2013 Two bombs made from pressure cookers exploded at the Boston Marathon finish line, killing two women and an 8year-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.

2019 Fire swept across the top of the Notre Dame Cathedral as the soaring Paris landmark underwent renovations; the blaze collapsed the cathedral’s spire and spread to one of its landmark rectangular towers, but fire officials said the church’s structure had been saved.

Some items are from Stefan Lorant’s “Pittsburgh: The Story of an American City” (digital.library.pitt.edu/chronology).

— Compiled by Alyssa Brown

Today’s birthdays: Actor Claudia Cardinale, 83. Author and politician Jeffrey Archer, 81. Actor Michael Tucci, 75. Actor Lois Chiles, 74. Writer-producer Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, 74. Actor Amy Wright, 71. Columnist Heloise, 70. Actor Sam McMurray, 69. Actor-screenwriter Emma Thompson, 62. Olympic gold, silver and bronze medal swimmer Dara Torres, 54. Actor Flex Alexander, 51. Actor Danny Pino, 47. Actor Douglas Spain, 47. Actorwriter Seth Rogen, 39. Actor Alice Braga, 38. Actor Samira Wiley, 34. Actor Leonie Elliott, 33. Actor Emma Watson, 31.

Thought for today: “History would be an excellent thing, if only it were true.”

— Leo Tolstoy, Russian author

(1828-1910)