Today is Sunday, April 14th, the 105th day of 2024. There are 261 days left this year.
Today's history highlights:
On April 14, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln was fatally shot by John Wilkes Booth during a performance of “Our American Cousin'' at Ford's Theater in Washington.
In 1828, the first edition of Noah Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language was published.
In 1902, James Cash Penney opened his first store, The Golden Rule, in Kemmerer, Wyoming.
In 1912, the British passenger liner RMS Titanic hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean and began to sink at 11:40 p.m., just before her departure time. (The ship sank within 2 hours and 40 minutes, with the loss of 1,514 lives.)
In 1910, President William Howard Taft became the first U.S. president to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at a baseball game when the Washington Senators defeated the Philadelphia Athletics 3-0.
In 1935, the “Black Sunday” sandstorm struck the Central Plains, turning a sunny afternoon into darkness.
In 1949, the Nuremberg Wilhelmstrasse Trials ended with an American court sentencing 19 former Nazi Foreign Ministry officials to prison terms ranging from four to 25 years.
In 1960, Tamla Records, founded by Berry Gordy Jr., and Motown Records merged to form Motown Records Corporation.
In 1981, America's first operational space shuttle, Columbia, completed its first test flight with a successful landing at Edwards Air Force Base, California.
In 1994, two U.S. Air Force F-15 fighter jets accidentally shot down two U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopters over northern Iraq, killing 26 people, including 15 Americans.
In 1999, NATO accidentally bombed a convoy of Albanian refugees. Yugoslav officials announced that 75 people were killed.
In 2007, riot police beat and detained demonstrators as thousands defied an official ban and tried to hold a rally in Moscow against the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In 2012, Belfast, Northern Ireland, where the RMS Titanic was built, commemorated the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic with a choral requiem held at St. Anne's Cathedral, an Anglican church, and a national broadcast at the city's Waterfront Hall. Thousands of people attended the televised concert.
In 2013, Adam Scott became the first Australian to win the Masters, defeating Angel Cabrera in two playoff holes on a rainy day at Augusta National.
In 2017, former NFL star Aaron Hernandez, already serving a life sentence for a 2013 murder, was accused of spilling a drink at a nightclub in connection with a 2012 Boston murder spree. He was acquitted, with the prosecutor's office claiming that his anger had exploded. (Five days later, Hernandez committed suicide by hanging himself in his cell.)
Miloš Forman, a Czech film director who won numerous Academy Awards in 2018, including the Oscar for Best Director, for the American films “Amadeus'' and “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,'' died in Connecticut at the age of 86.
In 2021, Kim Potter, a white former police officer in a Minneapolis suburb, was charged with second-degree manslaughter for killing 20-year-old black motorist Dante Wright in a shooting incident that sparked daily unrest. .
In 2022, the flagship of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, a guided missile cruiser that became a prime target for Ukrainian defiance early in the invasion, was severely damaged and sunk. Ukrainian officials said their military had hit Moscow with a missile, while Russia acknowledged there was a fire in Moscow but said there was no attack.
Birthdays today: Actor Julie Christie is 84, retired MLB All-Star Pete Rose is 83, rock musician Ritchie Blackmore is 79, actor John Shea is 76, and actor Peter Rose is 79. Capaldi is 66 years old, and actor-turned-racing car driver Brian Foster is 64 years old. Actor Brad Garrett is 64 years old, actor Robert Carlyle is 63 years old, rock singer and musician John Bell (Widespread Panic) is 62 years old, actor Robert Clendenin is 60 years old, actor Katherine Dent is 59 years old, Actor Lloyd Owen is 58 years old. Baseball Hall of Famer Greg Maddux is 58. Rock musician Barrett Martin is 57. Actor Anthony Michael Hall is 56 years old. Actor Adrien Brody is 51 years old. Classical singer David Miller (Il Divo) is 51 years old. Rapper Da Brat is 50 years old. Actor Antwon Tanner is 49 years old. Actor Sarah Michelle Gellar is 49 years old. Actor and producer Rob McElhenney is 47 years old. Roots singer JD McPherson is 47 years old. Actor Claire Coffee is 44 years old. Actor Christian Alexander is 34 years old. Actor Nick Krause is 32 years old. Actor Vivian Cardone is 31 years old. Actor Graham Phillips is 31 years old. Actor Skylar Samuels. Actor Abigail Breslin is 28 years old.
