TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – APRIL 15
1738 Bottle opener invented
1755 English lexicographer Dr. Samuel Johnson publishes his Dictionary of the English Language.
1776 Duchess of Kingston found guilty of bigamy
1794 “Courrier Francais” became the first French daily newspaper to be published in the U.S.
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.
1858 At the Battle of Azimghur, the Mexicans defeat Spanish loyalists.
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.
1878 Harley Procter introduces Ivory Soap
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.
1945 The German concentration camp Bergen-Belsen is liberated
1948 Arab forces are defeated in battle with Israeli forces.
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.
1962 US national debt above $300,000,000,000
1970 Libyan leader Qadhafi launches “Green Revolution”
1986 U.S. F-111 warplanes attacked Libya in response to the bombing of a discotheque in Berlin on April 5, 1986.
1989 A small group of students initiates pro-democracy protest on Tiananmen Square in Beijing
1990 “In Living Color” premieres on FOX-TV
1992 Billionaire Leona Helmsley is sent to jail for tax evasion
1994 The World Trade Organization is founded
2000 600 anti-IMF (International Monetary Fund) protesters were arrested in Washington, DC, for demonstrating without a permit.
2013 Two bombs exploded at the Boston Marathon in Boston, Massachusetts, killing 3 and injuring at least 170 others.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
