April 15: Tax Day in the United States; Father Damien Day in Hawaii; Birthday of the Great Leader in North Korea.
- 1738 – Baroque composer George Frideric Handel's Serse, an opera loosely based on Xerxes I of Persia, premiered in London.
- 1755 – A Dictionary of the English Language by Samuel Johnson was first published.
- 1912 – The passenger liner RMS Titanic sank about two hours and forty minutes after colliding with an iceberg (pictured), killing over 1,500 people.
- 1947 – Jackie Robinson, the first African American to break the baseball color line, played his first game in Major League Baseball.
- 1986 – U.S. armed forces launched Operation El Dorado Canyon against Libya.
- 1989 – The death of former Chinese General Secretary Hu Yaobang triggered a series of events that led to the Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing.
April 15: Tax Day in the United States; Father Damien Day in Hawaii; Birthday of the Great Leader in North Korea.
- 1738 – Baroque composer George Frideric Handel's Serse, an opera loosely based on Xerxes I of Persia, premiered in London.
- 1755 – A Dictionary of the English Language by Samuel Johnson was first published.
- 1912 – The passenger liner RMS Titanic sank about two hours and forty minutes after colliding with an iceberg (pictured), killing over 1,500 people.
- 1947 – Jackie Robinson, the first African American to break the baseball color line, played his first game in Major League Baseball.
- 1986 – U.S. armed forces launched Operation El Dorado Canyon against Libya.
- 1989 – The death of former Chinese General Secretary Hu Yaobang triggered a series of events that led to the Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing.