14 April 2025 (MIA)

1816 – Bussa, a slave in British-ruled Barbados, leads a slave rebellion and is killed. For this, he is remembered as the first national hero of Barbados.

1849 – Hungary declares itself independent of Austria with Lajos Kossuth as its leader.

1865 – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is shot in Ford’s Theatre by John Wilkes Booth; Lincoln died the next day.

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

1909 – A massacre is organized by the Ottoman Empire against the Armenian population of Cilicia.

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

1931 – The Spanish Cortes deposes King Alfonso XIII and proclaims the Second Spanish Republic.

1942 – Malta receives the George Cross for its gallantry. The George Cross was given by King George VI himself and is now an emblem on the Maltese national flag.

1958 – The Soviet satellite Sputnik 2 falls from orbit after a mission duration of 162 days. This was the first spacecraft to carry a living animal, a female dog named Laika, who likely lived only a few hours.

1978 – Tbilisi Demonstrations: Thousands of Georgians demonstrate against Soviet attempts to change the constitutional status of the Georgian language.

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

1988 – In a United Nations ceremony in Geneva, Switzerland, the Soviet Union signs an agreement pledging to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan.

1991 – The Republic of Georgia introduces the post of President after its declaration of independence from the Soviet Union.

1994 – Customs Administration Day is established in the country.

1995 – The Republic of Macedonia and the Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya establish diplomatic relations.

1997 – Macedonian writer Vidoe Podgorec dies in Skopje. He was a prolific writer of children’s books.

1999 – NATO mistakenly bombs a convoy of ethnic Albanian refugees. Yugoslav officials say 75 people were killed.

2002 – Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez returns to office two days after being ousted and arrested by the country’s military.

2003 – The Human Genome Project is completed with 99% of the human genome sequenced to an accuracy of 99.99%.

2003 – U.S. troops in Baghdad capture Abu Abbas, leader of the Palestinian group that killed an American on the hijacked cruise liner the MS Achille Lauro in 1985.

2006 – Twin blasts triggered by crude bombs during Asr prayer in Jama Masjid, Delhi injure 13 people.

2012 – United Nations Security Council Resolution 2042 relating to Syrian uprising is adopted.

2014 – Twin bomb blasts in Abuja, Nigeria, kill at least 75 people and injures 141 others.

2014 – Two hundred seventy-six schoolgirls are abducted by Boko Haram in Chibok, Nigeria.

2016 – In Japan, the foreshock of Kumamoto earthquakes occurs.

2020 – Former President Barack Obama endorses his former Vice President Joe Biden for president.

2021 – US President Biden says “It’s time to end America’s longest war” confirming his decision to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11.