The Notre-Dame Fire Wasn’t The First Major Tragedy to Occur on April 15th
Geez Louise. It looks like April 15th hasn’t been a very kind day in world history. Besides the catastrophic fire at Notre-Dame on Sunday, take a look at some other historically tragic events that have happened on April 15th.
1865 – Abraham Lincoln Dies
Abraham Lincoln dies 9 hours after he is shot attending the play “Our American Cousin” at Ford’s Theatre in Washington.
1912 – The Titanic Sinks
The RMS Titanic sinks at 2:27 AM off Newfoundland as the band plays on, with the loss of between 1,490 and 1,635 people.
1989 – Hillsborough Disaster
96 crushed to death at Hillsborough Football Stadium, Sheffield England. Over 700 more were injured.
2013 – Boston Marathon Bombing
3 people are killed and 183 injured after two explosions near the finish line.
It gets even worse if you zoom out and look at the week surrounding April 15th. Terrible events like The San Francisco Earthquake (1906), The end of the Waco Siege (1993), The Oklahoma City Bombing (1995), Columbine Shooting (1999), Virginia Tech Shooting (2007), The Deepwater Horizon disaster 2010) all happened within 5 days following April 15th.
Not all April 15th events were bad though! For instance, insulin became readily available to the public in 1923, Rand McNally published his first road atlas in 1924, Babe Ruth is his first of 60 home runs in his historic 1927 season, Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier in 1947, Ray Kroc opened the first McDonald’s in Des Plaines in 1955, among others.
Click here for a deep dive into the historical happenings of April 15th.
