Historical Events
- 1755 Samuel Johnson's "A Dictionary of the English Language" published in London
- 1861 Federal army (75,000 volunteers) mobilized by US President Abraham Lincoln (US Civil War)
- 1874 First 'Impressionist' exhibition opens in Paris, features Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro and Berthe Morisot
- 1877 Boston-Somerville installs the world's 1st telephone in Massachusetts
- 1912 RMS Titanic sinks at 2:27 AM off Newfoundland as the band plays on, with the loss of between 1,490 and 1,635 people
- More Historical Events
Apr 15 in Film & TV
- 1990 "In Living Color" premieres on FOX-TV
Apr 15 in Music
- 1729 Johann Sebastian Bach's "St Matthew Passion" premieres at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, Holy Roman Empire (now Germany)
Apr 15 in Sport
- 1896 1st modern Summer Olympic Games close in Athens, Greece; USA wins gold medal count, 11; Greece wins total medal count, 46; IOC has retroactively assigned gold, silver & bronze medals to 3 best placed athletes in each event
- 1947 Jackie Robinson becomes 1st African-American to play in US major league baseball (Dodgers)
- 1989 96 crushed to death and 766 injured at Hillsborough Football Stadium, Sheffield, England, during FA semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest
Did You Know?
Guy Carawan sings "We Shall Overcome" to a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in Raleigh - popularising the song as a protest anthem
On April 15, 1960
Leonardo da Vinci
Nikita Khrushchev
Lita Grey
Kim Il-sung
Elizabeth Montgomery
Emma WatsonFamous Weddings
- 1595 Willem the Silent's daughter, Countess Elisabeth of Nassau (17) weds Duke Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne of Bouillion (39), becoming Duchess of Bouillon, until his death in 1623
- 1909 Mien Wenneker, Dutch prince Henry's lover, weds Uncle Cornelis Abbo
- 1925 Russian writer ("Lolita") Vladimir Nabokov (26) marries fellow Russian writer Vera Evseevna Slonim (23) in Berlin
Famous Divorces
- 1994 Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (21 days after his divorce) weds Mary Richardson
- 2011 Grammy-winning pop singer Christina Aguilera (29) divorces music executive Jordan Bratman (33) due to irreconcilable differences after 5 years of marriage
More Weddings & Divorces
Abraham Lincoln
Edward Smith
Manuel Roxas
Jean-Paul Sartre
Greta Garbo
Pol PotArticles, Photos and Quiz
Abraham Lincoln's Deathbed
The bed on which Abraham Lincoln died hours after being shot by John Wilkes Booth, taken shortly after Lincoln's body was removed
April 15, 1865
The Titanic Sinks
The wreck of the RMS Titanic at the bottom of the ocean, photographed in 2004
April 15, 1912
Iceberg Sinks 'Unsinkable' Titanic
The Titanic hit an iceberg on her maiden voyage and sank on this day in history. She took with her to the bottom of the sea some of the world’s richest people.
April 15, 1912
Shrek the Sheep
Shrek the sheep, after escaping shearing for 6 years!
April 15, 2004
Notre Dame on Fire
Thirty minutes from collapse, the Notre Dame' towers and belfries were saved
April 15, 2019
Weekly Quiz for April 13 - 19
Who was the first black actor or actress to win an Academy Award? Who shot US President Abraham Lincoln? Is there an effective vaccine for typhoid?
