Thursday, April 15th
The 105th day of 2010.
There are 260 days left in the year.
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Today's Highlights in History
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On April 15, 1912, the British luxury liner Titanic sank in the North Atlantic off Newfoundland, less than three hours after striking an iceberg. About 1,500 people died. (Go to article.)
On April 15, 1889, A. Philip Randolph, American civil rights leader and trade unionist, was born. Following his death on May 16, 1979, his obituary appeared in The Times. (Go to obit. | Other Birthdays)
Editorial Cartoon of the Day
On April 15, 1882, Harper's Weekly featured a cartoon about P. T. Barnum and Jumbo the elephant. (See the cartoon and read an explanation.)
On this date in:
1850 The city of San Francisco was incorporated.
1861 President Abraham Lincoln declared a state of insurrection and called out Union troops three days after the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter in South Carolina.
1865 Andrew Johnson became the 17th president of the United States after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
1945 British and Canadian troops liberated the Nazi concentration camp Bergen-Belsen.
1947 Jackie Robinson became baseball's first black major league player when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
1980 Existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre died in Paris at age 74.
1986 The United States launched an air raid against Libya in response to the bombing of a discotheque in Berlin on April 5; Libya said 37 people, mostly civilians, were killed.
1989 Students in Beijing launched pro-democracy protests upon the death of former Communist Party leader Hu Yaobang.
1990 Actress Greta Garbo died at age 84.
1998 Pol Pot, leader of the Camobodia's brutal Khmer Rouge regime, died at age 73.
2000 Cal Ripken Jr. of the Baltimore Orioles became the 24th major league player to reach 3,000 hits.
2002 Retired Supreme Court Justice Byron R. White died at age 84.
Current Birthdays
Roy Clark turns 77 years old today.
AP Photo/Mark Humphrey Country musician Roy Clark turns 77 years old today.
66 Dave Edmunds
Rock musician
63 Linda Bloodworth- Thomason
TV writer, producer ("Designing Women")
59 Heloise
Columnist (Hints from Heloise)
51 Emma Thompson
Actress
44 Samantha Fox
Singer
28 Seth Rogen
Actor, writer ("Knocked Up," "Superbad")
Historic Birthdays
A. Philip Randolph
4/15/1889 - 5/16/1979
American civil rights leader and trade unionist
(Go to obit.)
76 Leonhard Euler
4/15/1707 - 9/18/1783
Swiss mathematician and physicist
86 Charles Willson Peale
4/15/1741 - 2/22/1827
American portrait painter of leading American Revolution figures
90 Walter Channing
4/15/1786 - 7/27/1876
American physician; helped found Boston Lying-In Hospital (1832)
73 Henry James
4/15/1843 - 2/28/1916
American-English novelist
83 Johannes Stark
4/15/1874 - 6/21/1957
German Nobel Prize-winning physicist (1919)
67 Leonardo da Vinci
4/15/1452 - 5/2/1519
Italian artist, architect, scientist, inventor and engineer
63 Max Wertheimer
4/15/1880 - 10/12/1943
Czech-born American psychologist; founder of Gestalt psychology
84 Stanley Bruce
4/15/1883 - 8/25/1967
Australian statesman and diplomat; prime minister (1923-29)
86 Thomas Hart Benton
4/15/1889 - 1/19/1975
American painter associated with the American Regionalists of the 1930's
44 Arshile Gorky
4/15/1904 - 7/21/1948
Turkish-born American postsurrealist abstract painter
81 Nikolaas Tinbergen
4/15/1907 - 12/21/1988
Dutch-born English zoologist and ethologist; won Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (1973)
65 Harold Washington
4/15/1922 - 11/25/1987
American politician; first African-American mayor of Chicago
42 Bessie Smith
4/15/1895 - 9/26/1937
American blues singer
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