April 15

What happened that day?

• 2014: In the worst massacre of the South Sudanese Civil War, at least 200 civilians were gunned down after seeking refuge in houses of worship as well as hospitals.
• 2013: Two bombs explode near the finish line at the Boston Marathon in Boston, Massachusetts, killing three people and injuring 264 others.
• 1989: Upon Hu Yaobang's death, the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 begin in China.
• 1989: Hillsborough disaster: A human crush occurs at Hillsborough Stadium, home of Sheffield Wednesday, in the FA Cup Semi-final, resulting in the deaths of 96 Liverpool fans.
• 1986: The United States launches Operation El Dorado Canyon, its bombing raids against Libyan targets in response to a bombing in West Germany that killed two U.S. servicemen.
• 1970: During the Cambodian Civil War, massacres of the Vietnamese minority results in 800 bodies flowing down the Mekong river into South Vietnam.
• 1969: The EC-121 shootdown incident: North Korea shoots down a United States Navy aircraft over the Sea of Japan, killing all 31 on board.
• 1960: At Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina, Ella Baker leads a conference that results in the creation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, one of the principal organizations of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.
• 1955: McDonald's restaurant dates its founding to the opening of a franchised restaurant by Ray Kroc, in Des Plaines, Illinois
• 1947: Jackie Robinson debuts for the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking baseball's color line.
• 1945: Bergen-Belsen concentration camp is liberated.
• 1942: The George Cross is awarded "to the island fortress of Malta: Its people and defenders" by King George VI.
• 1941: In the [Belfast](https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Belfast) Blitz, two-hundred bombers of the German Luftwaffe attack Belfast, killing around one thousand people.
• 1936: First day of the Arab revolt in Mandatory Palestine.
• 1924: Rand McNally publishes its first road atlas.
• 1923: Insulin becomes generally available for use by people with diabetes.
• 1922: U.S. Senator John B. Kendrick of Wyoming introduces a resolution calling for an investigation of a secret land deal, which leads to the discovery of the Teapot Dome scandal.
• 1920: Two security guards are murdered during a robbery in South Braintree, Massachusetts. Anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti would be convicted of and executed for the crime, amid much controversy.
• 1912: The British passenger liner RMS Titanic sinks in the North Atlantic at 2:20 a.m., two hours and forty minutes after hitting an iceberg. Only 710 of 2,227 passengers and crew on board survive.
• 1907: Triangle Fraternity is founded at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• 1900: Philippine-American War: Filipino guerrillas launch a surprise attack on U.S. infantry and begin a four-day siege of Catubig, Philippines.
• 1896: Closing ceremony of the Games of the I Olympiad in Athens, Greece.
• 1892: The General Electric Company is formed.
• 1865: President Abraham Lincoln dies after being shot the previous evening by actor John Wilkes Booth. Vice President Andrew Johnson becomes President upon Lincoln's death.
• 1861: President Abraham Lincoln calls for 75,000 Volunteers to quell the insurrection that soon became the American Civil War.
• 1817: Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc founded the American School for the Deaf, the first American school for deaf students, in Hartford, Connecticut.
• 1783: Preliminary articles of peace ending the American Revolutionary War (or American War of Independence) are ratified.
• 1755: Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language is published in London.
• 1738: Serse, an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel receives its premiere performance in London, England.
• 1736: Foundation of the Kingdom of Corsica
• 1715: The Pocotaligo Massacre triggers the start of the [Yamasee War](https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamasee_War) in colonial South Carolina.
• 1642: Irish Confederate Wars: A Confederate Irish militia is routed in the Battle of Kilrush when it attempts to halt the progress of a Royalist Army.
• 1632: Battle of Rain: Swedes under Gustavus Adolphus defeat the Holy Roman Empire during the Thirty Years' War.
• 1450: Battle of Formigny: Toward the end of the Hundred Years' War, the French attack and nearly annihilate English forces, ending English domination in Northern France.
• 1395: Timur defeats Tokhtamysh of the Golden Horde at the Battle of the Terek River. The Golden Horde capital city, Sarai, is razed to the ground and Timur installs a puppet ruler on the throne.
• 1071: Bari, the last Byzantine possession in southern Italy, is surrendered to Robert Guiscard.
• 769: The Lateran Council condemned the Council of Hieria and anathematized its iconoclastic rulings.