1865… Actor John Wilkes Booth, a Southern supporter, shoots US President Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theater in Washington. Lincoln would succumb to his injuries the next morning.

1912… 11:40 pm: The Titanic, the largest and most luxurious cruise ship of its time, hits an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean, only on the fourth day of its maiden voyage. It sinks two hours and forty minutes later at 02:20 AM. on April 15, sweeping to their deaths about 1,500 people with the remaining 700 in lifeboats watching the tragic event.

1924… The Greek Presiding Republic is declared, after the referendum, which abolished the monarchy.

1941…. The Reform Party of the Working People (AKEL) is founded in Nicosia by progressive bourgeois politicians and communists.

1944…. The first Greek Jews arrive from Athens to the hell camp of Auschwitz.

1958… The spaceship “Sputnik 2” burns up in the atmosphere along with its only passenger, the dog Laika.

1962… In France, Georges Pompidou, later President of the Fifth French Republic, assumes the office of Prime Minister.

1981… Director Michalis Kakogiannis has been awarded an honorary doctorate by Columbia University in Chicago.

1995… For the first time, the Israeli authorities stamp a Palestinian passport at Ben Gurion Airport.

Births

On this day in 1939 the music composer Stavros Xarchakos was born and in 1941 the British actress Julie Christie.

Deaths

On the same day in 1759, the German baroque composer Georg Friedrich Handel died and in 1986 the French writer and feminist, Simone de Beauvoir.