TODAY IN HISTORY - APRIL 14TH

1775 – The first abolition society in North America is established. The Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage is organized in Philadelphia by Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush.

1828 – Noah Webster copyrights the first edition of his dictionary.

1846 – The Donner Party of pioneers departs Springfield, Illinois, for California, on what will become a year-long journey of hardship, cannibalism, and survival.

1860 – The first Pony Express rider reaches San Francisco.

1865 – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is shot in Ford's Theatre by John Wilkes Booth (died April 15th).

1881 – The Four Dead in Five Seconds Gunfight is fought in El Paso, Texas.

1890 – The Pan-American Union is founded by the First International Conference of American States in Washington, D.C.

1894 – The first ever commercial motion picture house opened in New York City using ten Kinetoscopes, a device for peep-show viewing of films.

1912 – The British passenger liner RMS Titanic hits an iceberg in the North Atlantic at 23:40 (sinks morning of April 15th).

1927 – The first Volvo car premieres in Gothenburg, Sweden.

1935 – "Black Sunday Storm", the worst dust storm of the U.S. Dust Bowl.

1939 – The Grapes of Wrath, by American author John Steinbeck is first published by the Viking Press.

1941 – Pete Rose, American baseball player and manager is born.

1956 – In Chicago, videotape is first demonstrated.

1968 – At the U.S. Academy Awards there is a tie for the Academy Award for Best Actress between Katharine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand.

1981 – STS-1: The first operational Space Shuttle, Columbia completes its first test flight.

1986 – In retaliation for the April 5 bombing in West Berlin that killed two U.S. servicemen, U.S. president Ronald Reagan orders major bombing raids against Libya, killing 60 people.

1994 – In a U.S. friendly fire incident during Operation Provide Comfort in northern Iraq, two United States Air Force aircraft mistakenly shoot-down two United States Army helicopters, killing 26 people.

1995 – Burl Ives, American actor, writer and folksinger (b. 1909) dies.

2007 – Don Ho, American singer and ukulele player (b. 1930) dies.