EVENTS
- 1817 – The first American school for the deaf was founded by Thomas H. Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc in Hartford, Connecticut.
- 1912 – In the icy waters off Newfoundland, the luxury liner Titanic with 2,224 persons on board sank at 2:27 a.m. after striking an iceberg just before midnight. Over 1,500 persons drowned while 700 were rescued by the liner Carpathia which arrived about two hours after Titanic went down.
- 1923 – Insulin first became generally available for use by diabetics.
- 1924 – Rand McNally publishes its first road atlas.
- 1935 – The Eastman Kodak Company launches Kodachrome. The photographic film was one of the most popular media used by professional and hobby photographers around the world. The product was discontinued in 2009 because of the advent of digital photography.
- 1945 – The German concentration camp Bergen-Belsen is liberated. British and Canadian troops found about 53,000 prisoners inside the camp. Tens of thousands died before and after the liberation.
- 1955 – McDonalds Corporation was founded.
- 1986 – The United States launches retaliatory air strikes against Libya. Around 40 Libyans died in Operation El Dorado Canyon, including an infant girl. The attack was the United States’ response to the bombing of a Berlin discotheque on April 5, in which 3 people had died.
- 1989 – A small group of students initiates pro-democracy protest on Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The death of reformer Hu Yaobang triggered the demonstrations, which grew in size and were brutally dispersed in the Tiananmen Square Massacre on June 4.
- 1994 – The World Trade Organization is founded. The WTO coordinates and strives to liberalize international trade. It has been criticized for ignoring and escalating the negative social and environmental side-effects of globalization.
BIRTHDAYS
- 1452 – Leonardo da Vinci (Renaissance artist and inventor)
- 1832 – Wilhelm Busch (German poet, painter, illustrator)
- 1843 – Henry James (Author)
- 1858 – Émile Durkheim (French sociologist)
- 1894 – Nikita Khrushchev (Soviet politician, 7th Premier of the Soviet Union)
- 1933 – Roy Clark (Singer)
- 1959 – Emma Thompson (Actress)
- 1982 – Seth Rogen (Actor)
- 1990 – Emma Watson (Actress from Harry Potter)
DEATHS
- 1865 – Abraham Lincoln (American lawyer, politician, 16th President of the United States)
- 1889 – Father Damien (Flemish missionary, priest)
- 1980 – Jean-Paul Sartre (French philosopher, writer)
- 1990 – Greta Garbo (Swedish actress)
- 1998 – Pol Pot (Cambodian politician, 29th Prime Minister of Cambodia)