DAY IN HISTORY

Wednesday, April 15, 2020

Today is the 106th day of 2020 and the 28th day of spring.

TODAY’S HISTORY: In 1912, the RMS Titanic sank in the North Atlantic after hitting an iceberg.

In 1923, insulin became available to the general public for the treatment of diabetes.

In 2013, two bombs exploded near the finish line at the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring 264.

In 2014, the Boko Haram terrorist organization kidnapped more

than 200 schoolgirls in Chibok, Nigeria.

In 2019, the cathedral of Notre-dame de Paris in France was damaged by a large fire.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS:

Leonardo da Vinci (14521519), artist/scientist; Henry James (18431916), author; A. Philip Randolph (1889-1979), activist; Bessie Smith (1894-1937), blues singer; Roy Clark (1933-2018), singer/actor; Elizabeth Montgomery (1933-1995), actress; Michael Kamen (1948-2003), composer; Evelyn Ashford (1957- ), runner; Emma Thompson (1959- ), actress; Arturo Gatti (1972-2009), boxer; Chris Stapleton (1978- ), singer-songwriter; Seth Rogen (1982- ), actor; Emma Watson (1990- ), actress; Maisie Williams (1997- ), actress.

TODAY’S FACT: Tokyo Disneyland, the first Disney park to be located outside the United States, opened on this day in 1983.

TODAY’S SPORTS: In 1947, Jackie Robinson took the field with the Brooklyn Dodgers, becoming Major League Baseball’s first African American player.

TODAY’S QUOTE: “It takes a great deal of history to produce a little literature.” -- Henry James, “Hawthorn”

TODAY’S NUMBER:

$10 -- amount offered in 1824 by tailor James Selby to anyone who could return his escaped indentured servant boys, William and Andrew Johnson. The boys were never captured. Andrew went on to have a successful career in politics and was sworn in as the 17th president on this day in 1865, after the death of Abraham Lincoln.

TODAY’S MOON: Between last quarter moon (April 14) and new moon (April 22).