TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – APRIL 15
1813 U.S. troops under James Wilkinson lay siege to the Spanish-held city of Mobile in future state of Alabama.
1817 Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet opened the first free American school for the deaf in Hartford, Conn.
1861 In response to the attack on Fort Sumter three days earlier, President Abraham Lincoln declared a state of insurrection and called out Union troops.
1871 ‘Wild Bill’ Hickok becomes the marshal of Abilene, Kansas.
1877 1st telephone installed: Boston-Somerville in Massachusetts
1892 The General Electric Company was organized.
1912 With her band playing on the deck, the ocean liner Titanic sinks at 2:27 a.m. in the North Atlantic.
1923 Insulin becomes generally available for people suffering with diabetes.
1937 Countries around the world are seeking to intervene in the Spanish Civil War and to ask all parties to join peace talks.
1945 The German concentration camp Bergen-Belsen is liberated British and Canadian troops found about 53,000 prisoners inside the camp. Tens of thousands died before and after the liberation.
1948 Arab forces are defeated in battle with Israeli forces.
1952 President Harry Truman signs the official Japanese peace treaty.
1953 Charlie Chaplin surrendered his U.S. re-entry permit rather than face proceedings by the U.S. Justice Department. Chaplin was accused of sympathizing with Communist groups.
1955 Ray Kroc starts the McDonald’s chain of fast food restaurants.
1959 Cuban leader Fidel Castro begins a U.S. goodwill tour.
1967 180,000 Protesters were in New York and San Francisco to protest against the Vietnam War with a number of protesters burning draft cards.
1971 North Vietnamese troops ambush a company of Delta Raiders from the 101st Airborne Division near Fire Support Base Bastogne in Vietnam. The American troops are on a rescue mission.
1977 Roman Polanski the director of China Town and Rosemary’s baby pleads innocence to charge of drug rape of 13 yr old girl.
1986 U.S. warplanes attack Libya.
1987 In Northhampton, MA, Amy Carter, Abbie Hoffman and 13 others were acquitted on civil disobedience charges related with a CIA protest.
1989 Students in Beijing launched a series of pro democracy protests upon the death of former Communist Party leader Hu Yaobang. The protests led to the Tienanmen Square massacre.
1994 The World Trade Organization is founded The WTO coordinates and strives to liberalize international trade. It has been criticized for ignoring and escalating the negative social and environmental side-effects of globalization.
2000 600 anti-IMF (International Monetary Fund) protesters were arrested in Washington, DC, for demonstrating without a permit
2013 Boston Marathon bombings: 3 people are killed and 183 injured after two explosions near the finish line
2014 An estimate of over two hundred girls were taken from their school after an attack by the Boko Haram Islamist militant group in Chibok, Nigeria. The girls were thought to be taken to a hard to access remote area of forest in the country or out of the country.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
