Today in History

1755		English lexicographer Dr. Samuel Johnson publishes his Dictionary of the English Language.
1784		The first balloon is flown in Ireland.
1813		U.S. troops under James Wilkinson lay siege to the Spanish-held city of Mobile in future state of Alabama.
1858		At the Battle of Azimghur, the Mexicans defeat Spanish loyalists.
1871		‘Wild Bill’ Hickok becomes the marshal of Abilene, Kansas.
1861		President Lincoln mobilizes Federal army.
1865		Abraham Lincoln dies from John Wilkes Booth‘s assassination bullet.
1912		With her band playing on the deck, the ocean liner Titanic sinks at 2:27 a.m. in the North Atlantic.
1917		British forces defeat the Germans at the Battle of Arras.
1923		Insulin becomes generally available for people suffering with diabetes.
1923		The first sound films shown to a paying audience are exhibited at the Rialto Theater in New York City.
1940		French and British troops land at Narvik, Norway.
1941		Some 200 German bombers pound the city of Belfast in Northern Ireland, in a series of air raids on Easter Tuesday that will become known as the Belfast Blitz. More than 900 civilians are killed and some 1,500 injured, 400 of them seriously.
1945		President Franklin D. Roosevelt is buried on the grounds of his Hyde Park home.
1948		Arab forces are defeated in battle with Israeli forces.
1952		President Harry Truman signs the official Japanese peace treaty.
1955		Ray Kroc starts the McDonald’s chain of fast food restaurants.
1959		Cuban leader Fidel Castro begins a U.S. goodwill tour.
1960		The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organizes at Shaw University.
1971		North Vietnamese troops ambush a company of Delta Raiders from the 101st Airborne Division near Fire Support Base Bastogne in Vietnam. The American troops are on a rescue mission.
1986		U.S. warplanes attack Libya.