This Day In History, April 15th.
Five Historical Events That Happened on April 15th.
1865 - At Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, killing him.
On her first voyage, the RMS Titanic struck an iceberg and sunk in the North Atlantic Ocean in 1912. The disaster claimed the lives of almost 1,500 individuals.
1945 saw the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany, where the Nazis had starved, abused, and killed tens of thousands of captives, many of them Jews.
1989 - The Tiananmen Square protests, which were student-led demonstrations for democratic changes, got underway in Beijing, China. Eventually, the Chinese authorities would forcibly put an end to the protests, killing hundreds, if not thousands of people in the process.
2013 - Three people were killed and over 260 others were wounded when two bombs exploded close to the Boston Marathon finish line. Two brothers with Chechen ancestry who committed the crimes were found and either slain or apprehended by law police.
Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, died after being shot the previous evening by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C.
While seeing a performance at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., on the evening of April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln was shot by actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth. The next morning, April 15, 1865, he passed away after being brought to a nearby home. His murder shocked the country and had a significant effect on American history.
1912 - The RMS Titanic sank in the North Atlantic Ocean after hitting an iceberg on its maiden voyage. Over 1,500 people lost their lives in the tragedy.
On her first journey from Southampton, England to New York City, the RMS Titanic struck an iceberg and perished in the North Atlantic Ocean on April 15, 1912. More than 1,500 people perished in the disaster while the ship was carrying more than 2,200 passengers and crew members. One of the most well-known maritime tragedies in history, the sinking of the Titanic has captivated the public's attention for more than a century.
1945 - British and Canadian troops liberated the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany, where tens of thousands of prisoners, many of them Jewish, had been starved, beaten, and murdered by the Nazis.
British and Canadian soldiers freed the Bergen-Belsen detention camp in northern Germany on April 15, 1945. The camp was built by the Nazis as a prisoner of war facility in 1940, but it later evolved into a concentration camp where tens of thousands of inmates—many of them Jews—were housed and subjected to abhorrent circumstances like malnutrition, sickness, and violent guard abuse. Thousands of malnourished and ill captives were waiting for the British and Canadian soldiers when they arrived at the camp, and many of them perished in the weeks that followed their release. In the closing phases of World War II, the liberation of Bergen-Belsen was a key development that contributed to bringing the Holocaust horrors committed by the Nazis to light.
1989 - Students in Beijing, China, began protesting for democratic reforms in what would become known as the Tiananmen Square protests. The protests would eventually be violently suppressed by the Chinese government, resulting in the deaths of hundreds, if not thousands, of people.
Numerous students from Beijing, China, started demonstrating in Tiananmen Square on April 15, 1989, demanding more political freedom and democratic changes. In the weeks that followed, the protests intensified, drawing hundreds of thousands of participants to rallies in Beijing and other Chinese cities. On June 4, 1989, the Chinese government issued a martial law declaration and dispatched the military to evict the demonstrators from Tiananmen Square. The ensuing crackdown was harsh and cruel, leading to the death, injury, or detention of several demonstrators. Though the precise number of victims is still unknown, it is believed that the crackdown claimed the lives of hundreds, if not thousands of individuals. The Tiananmen Square demonstrations continue to be a pivotal moment in Chinese history and to have political repercussions both inside China and outside.
2013 - Two bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring more than 260 others. The perpetrators, two brothers of Chechen descent, were identified and eventually killed or captured by law enforcement.
In Boston, Massachusetts, on April 15, 2013, two bombs detonated close to the Boston Marathon finish line, killing three people and wounding over 260 others. Two brothers of Chechen heritage who had emigrated to the US, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, were responsible for the assault. Tamerlan was murdered in a gunfight with police after a lengthy manhunt, and Dzhokhar was subsequently apprehended and given the death penalty for his part in the attack. The sad and horrific Boston Marathon bombing left a lasting impression on both the city of Boston and the nation.