April 14 Birthday
On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln and his wife Mary attended a performance of Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre in Washington. At 10:15 PM, John Wilkes Booth, a famous actor and Confederate sympathizer, entered the presidential box and shot Lincoln in the back of the head. Booth leapt from the box, caught his spur on the Treasury flag, and broke his leg. He shouted "Sic semper tyrannis" — "Thus always to tyrants," the Virginia state motto — and escaped. He was killed in a barn twelve days later. Lincoln died the next morning at 7:22 AM, across the street at the Petersen House. He was the first American president to be assassinated. The first to die in office was William Henry Harrison, of pneumonia. The first to be shot was Andrew Jackson, whose assassin's pistols misfired. Jackson beat him with his cane. The Titanic struck an iceberg at 11:40 PM on April 14, 1912, 400 miles south of Newfoundland. The lookout, Frederick Fleet, saw the iceberg and rang the bell three times. First Officer William Murdoch ordered the ship to turn and the engines reversed. The ship grazed the iceberg along its starboard side, opening five compartments. The ship was designed to float with four compartments flooded. The crew had been warned about ice by radio but had not slowed down. The lifeboats were launched under-filled — the first boat left with twelve people in seats for forty. Women and children were loaded first, but in the confusion, some boats left nearly empty. The ship sank at 2:20 AM on April 15. 1,517 died. In 1986, the United States launched air strikes against Libya in retaliation for the bombing of a Berlin discotheque that killed two American soldiers. Operation El Dorado Canyon involved eighteen F-111 bombers flying from England. Because France and Spain refused overflight permission, the planes had to fly 2,800 miles around the Iberian Peninsula, requiring mid-air refueling. The raids targeted military installations in Tripoli and Benghazi. One bomb hit the Libyan embassy in Tripoli, killing Gaddafi's adopted daughter. The raid was condemned by the UN General Assembly. Gaddafi survived and remained in power for twenty-five more years. Pete Rose, born this day in 1941, holds the all-time hits record — 4,256 — and is banned from baseball for life for betting on games while managing the Cincinnati Reds. He bet on his own team to win, which he argued was not a crime, but the evidence was overwhelming. Julie Christie, born the previous year, starred in Doctor Zhivago (1965) and Darling (1965), the latter of which won her an Oscar. People born on April 14 fall under the zodiac sign of Aries. The birthstone is Diamond and the birth flower is Daisy. Historical events on April 14 include 1865: President Lincoln shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theatre, 1912: RMS Titanic strikes iceberg at 11:40 PM (sinks April 15), 1986: US bombs Libya in retaliation for Berlin disco bombing. Famous people born on April 14 include Julie Christie (1940), Pete Rose (1941), Sarah Michelle Gellar (1977).