1865 President
Abraham Lincoln succumbed to an assassin’s bullet. Shot while watching “Our American Cousin” at
Ford’s Theater in Washington DC, President Lincoln is widely considered one of
our favorite and best presidents. He
served during one of the most troubling times in American History, the American
Civil War and managed to preserve the Union in the end. His assassin, John Wilkes Booth was a
ferverent supporter of the Confederate Cause and thought that killing Lincoln
would bring victory to the South. He was
later executed in a burning barn, following a massive manhunt.
1912 In the late
hours of April 14, the RMS Titanic struck an iceberg in the North
Atlantic. At the time, the Titanic was
billed as “unsinkable” and was the largest and most luxourious ocean liner
afloat. She sank in the very early
morning of April 15, 1912, taking with her 1,514 passengers and crew, including
the captain, Edward Smith. While there
were many notable figures on board, there were also hundreds of 3rd
class passengers who were seeking a new life in the United States. The Titanic was outfitted with the legal
amount of lifeboats, but not enough for everyone on board, but the crew seemed
to adhere to the “women and children first” rule, for the most part. What I find most astounding was the fact that
one of the survivors was the Managing Director of the White Star Lines, J. Bruce
Ismay. Apparently, he was not one of the
great heroes of the Titanic, ie The Band, The Strausses, JJ Astor, etc.
1927 The Great
Mississippi Flood of 1927 began on April 15, 1927. On this day, over 15 inches of rain fell on
New Orleans in an 18 hour period. This
overwhelmed the levees and much of New Orleans and surrounding parishes were
underwater. This flood spurred flood
control measures.
1955 The IRS moved
Tax Day to April 15 in 1955. It can vary
slightly but the 15th is generally considered to be Tax Day.
Of course, there are a lot of good things that happened on
the 15th as well. The
Bergen-Belsen Concentration camp was liberated in 1945; Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language was
published in 1755. The list goes on and on…
Just thought I’d let you know…
