This date in history

[Jimbuna]

1828 British 18-gun sloop HMS Acorn sinks off Halifax with 115 men aboard.

1865 US President Abraham Lincoln is shot in the head by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theater in Washington; he dies a day later.

1912 RMS Titanic, the world's largest ocean liner, hits an iceberg at 11.40pm off Newfoundland, sinks in the early hours of April 15

1942 Destroyer Roper sinks German U-85 of US east coast.

1943 A JN-25 decrypt by American intelligence detailing a forthcoming visit by Marshal Admiral Yamamoto to Balalae Island results in his plane shot down 4 days later.

1944 General Eisenhower becomes the Supreme Allied Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force.

1945 American planes bomb Tokyo & damage the Imperial Palace.

1958 Soviet spacecraft Sputnik 2 with space dog Laika aboard burns up during reentry into Earth's atmosphere.

1960 1st underwater launching of Polaris missile.

[Jimbuna]

1865 Abraham Lincoln dies nine hours after he is shot by John Wilkes Booth while attending the play "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theatre in Washington.

1912 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.

1942 George VI awards George Cross to people of Malta.

1945 34th US President FDR buried in grounds of his Hyde Park home, New York state.

1945 British Army liberates Nazi concentration camp Bergen-Belsen.

1972 A member of the British Army is shot dead by the Official IRA in the Divis area of Belfast.

1972 A member of the Official Irish Republican Army is shot dead by British soldiers at Joy Street in the Markets area of Belfast close to his home.

[Jimbuna]

1918 The British House of Commons passes a new Military Service Bill, taking men up to 55 years old and extending to Ireland.

1939 The Soviet Union proposes an alliance with Britain and France to counter Nazi Germany; the Soviets would later sign a secret agreement with the Nazis.

1944 Nazis led by Klaus Barbie raid Izieu Jewish children's home, near Lyon, taking 44 children and seven adults to exterminations camps.

1945 American troops liberate Colditz Castle, the high-security prisoner of war camp in Saxony, Germany.

1946 Dutch Special Court of Justice sentences Frederik Müller, Socialist mayor of Rotterdam, to 10 years in jail for his wartime support of Germany.

1948 Organization for European Economic Cooperation (EEC) forms in Paris.

1951 British submarine Affray sank in English Channel, killing 75

1953 British royal yacht Britannia launched by Queen Elizabeth II

1972 Two British soldiers are shot dead by the Official Irish Republican Army (OIRA) in separate incidents in Derry.

2003 Treaty of Accession is signed in Athens, admitting 10 new member states to the European Union.