#TodayInHistory – April 15

April 15 – Some important events on this day

1450 👉🏼 French defeat English at Battle of Formigny in 100 Years’ War

1755 👉🏼 Samuel Johnson’s “A Dictionary of the English Language” published in London.
He was one of the most prominent literary figures of the eighteenth century, and his greatest work was his “Dictionary of the English Language”. Commissioned by a group of publishers, the task took Johnson nine years and was eventually published on this day. Although not the first English dictionary it proved to be the most influential, its length was extensive and it included not only definitions but illustrations of usage. When he died in 1784 he was the acknowledged leader of London literary life and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

1870 👉🏼 Last day US silver coins allow to circulate in Canada 🇨🇦
1874 👉🏼 First Impressionist exhibition opens in Paris, features Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro and Berthe Morisot 🎨
1877 👉🏼 1st telephone installed: Boston-Somerville in Massachusetts ☎️

1912 👉🏼 At 2:20 a.m. on April 15, 1912, the British ocean liner Titanic sinks into the North Atlantic Ocean about 400 miles south of Newfoundland, Canada. The massive ship, which carried 2,200 passengers and crew, had struck an iceberg two and half hours before. ✔️READ THE ARTICLE!

1921 👉🏼 Black Friday in Britain: leaders of transport and rail unions announce a decision not to call for strike action in support of the miners. Despite widespread feeling decision a breach of solidarity and a betrayal of the miners.

1947 👉🏼 Jackie Robinson breaks color barrier.
Aged 28, he becomes the first African American player in Major League Baseball when he steps onto Ebbets Field in Brooklyn to compete for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Robinson broke the color barrier in a sport that had been segregated for more than 50 years. Exactly 50 years later, on April 15, 1997, Robinson’s groundbreaking career was honored and his uniform number, 42, was retired from Major League Baseball by Commissioner Bud Selig in a ceremony attended by over 50,000 fans at New York City’s Shea Stadium. Robinson’s was the first-ever number retired by all teams in the league.

1955 👉🏼 Ray Kroc opens first McDonald’s Inc. fast food restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois.
He joined McDonald’s in 1954 and built it into the most successful and profitable fast food operation in the world. He also owned the San Diego Padres baseball team from 1974 until his death in 1984. 🍔

1959 👉🏼 Four months after leading a successful revolution in Cuba, Fidel Castro visits the United States. The visit was marked by tensions between Castro and the American government.
1960 👉🏼 Guy Carawan sings “We Shall Overcome” to a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in Raleigh – popularising the song as a protest anthem.
1997 👉🏼 On the 50 anniversary of his first Major League Baseball game, the league retires Jackie Robinson’s number, 42. ⚾️
2002 👉🏼 An Air China Boeing 767-200, flight CA129 crashes into a hillside during heavy rain and fog near Busan, South Korea, killing 128.

2019 👉🏼 Notre Dame on fire.
An accidental fire consuming Paris’ 850 year-old Notre Dame cathedral, only saved from complete destruction by the efforts of 500 French firefighters. The people of Paris watched with horror as the fire burned for nine hours, the huge inferno clearly visible across the city from its central location on an island in the Seine river.
A human chain of people managed to save such priceless relics as the The Crown of Thorns and the Tunic of St Louis. Crucial to the monument’s survival was the firefights ability to stop the fire spreading to the belfries at the front of the cathedral. However they were too late to save the 13th century wooden roof and the spire of the Gothic cathedral, which collapsed during the fire.