1828 — Noah Webster publishes An American Dictionary of the English Language. American Noah Webster publishes An American Dictionary of the English Language. It took twenty-seven years to complete and was the first dictionary of the American English language. To evaluate the etymology of words, Webster learned twenty-six languages, including Old English (Anglo-Saxon), German, Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, French, Hebrew, Arabic, and Sanskrit.
1865 — U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is shot at Ford’s Theatre by John Wilkes Booth. Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was shot at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., one month into his second term and towards the conclusion of the American Civil War. Lincoln was watching the play Our American Cousin with his wife Mary Todd, Major Henry Rathbone, and Rathbone’s fiancé Clara Harris when John Wilkes Booth, an actor and Confederate sympathizer, shot him in the head. Lincoln was taken to the Petersen House across the street, where he died the following morning.
1912 — RMS Titanic hits an iceberg in the North Atlantic and begins to sink. The British ocean liner sank in the early hours of 15 April 1912 as a result of striking an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United States. Of the 2,208 passengers and crew aboard, approximately 1,500 died (estimates vary), making the incident one of the deadliest peacetime sinking of a single ship. Titanic, operated by White Star Line, carried some of the wealthiest people in the world, as well as hundreds of emigrants from the British Isles, Scandinavia, and elsewhere in Europe who were seeking a new life in the United States and Canada. The disaster drew public attention, spurred major changes in maritime safety regulations, and inspired a lasting legacy in popular culture. It was the second time White Star Line had lost a ship on her maiden voyage, the first being RMS Tayleur in 1854.
1935 — “Black Sunday” dust storm sweeps across the U.S. Great Plains during the Dust Bowl. Black Sunday was a particularly severe dust storm that occurred on April 14, 1935, as part of the Dust Bowl in the United States. It was one of the worst dust storms in American history and caused immense economic and agricultural damage. It is estimated that 300,000 tons of topsoil were displaced from the prairie area. On that afternoon, residents of several plains states were forced to take cover as a dust storm or “black blizzard” blew through the region. The storm first hit the Oklahoma panhandle and northwestern Oklahoma before moving south for the day. It hit Beaver, Oklahoma, around 4 p.m.; Boise City around 5:15; and Amarillo, Texas, at 7:20. The conditions were the most severe in the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles, but the storm’s effects were also felt in surrounding areas. Drought, erosion, bare soil, and winds caused the dust to fly freely and at high speeds.
2010 — Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupts, sending ash plumes that disrupt European air travel for days. After weeks of small earthquakes and lava flows that signaled an eruption was imminent, Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland began sending a plume of ash into the skies on this day in 2010. The plume stretched upward almost 7 miles (11 km) and then drifted across northern Europe, causing the largest interruption in commercial airline service since World War II.
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