Updated April 14, 2012, 2:28 pm
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 obituary » | Other birthdays »
On This Date
By The Associated Press
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 President Abraham Lincoln died nine hours after being shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theater in Washington. Andrew Johnson became the 17th president. 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. 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. 2010 Civil rights leader Benjamin Hooks, one-time executive director of the NAACP, died in Memphis, Tenn. at age 85. Current Birthdays
By The Associated Press
Actor-writer Seth Rogen (“Knocked Up,” “Superbad”) turns 30 years old today.
AP Photo/Matt Sayles
Actress Emma Watson (“Harry Potter” movies) turns 22 years old today.
AP Photo/Jonathan Short
1933 Roy Clark, Country musician, turns 79 1944 Dave Edmunds, Rock musician, turns 68 1947 Linda Bloodworth- Thomason, TV writer, producer (“Designing Women”), turns 65 1951 Heloise, Columnist (Hints from Heloise), turns 61 1959 Emma Thompson, Actress, turns 53 1966 Samantha Fox, Singer, turns 46
Historic Birthdays
A. Philip Randolph 4/15/1889 – 5/16/1979 American civil rights leader and trade unionist.Go to obituary »
76 Leonhard Euler 4/15/1707 – 9/18/1783
Swiss mathematician and physicist86 Charles Willson Peale 4/15/1741 – 2/22/1827
American portrait painter of leading American Revolution figures90 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 novelist83 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 engineer63 Max Wertheimer 4/15/1880 – 10/12/1943
Czech-born American psychologist; founder of Gestalt psychology84 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’s44 Arshile Gorky 4/15/1904 – 7/21/1948
Turkish-born American postsurrealist abstract painter81 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 Chicago42 Bessie Smith 4/15/1895 – 9/26/1937
American blues singer
