15 April 2025 (MIA)

– World Consumer Rights Day

1850 – The city of San Francisco is incorporated.

1861 – Three days after the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, President Lincoln declares a state of insurrection and called out Union troops.

1865 – President Lincoln dies, several hours after he was shot at Ford’s Theater in Washington by John Wilkes Booth. Andrew Johnson becomes the nation’s 17th president.

1892 – General Electric Co., formed by the merger of the Edison Electric Light Co. and other firms, is incorporated in New York State.

1912 – The British luxury liner Titanic sinks in the North Atlantic off Newfoundland, less than three hours after striking an iceberg. About 1,500 people died.

1945 – During World War II, British and Canadian troops liberate the Nazi concentration camp Bergen-Belsen.

1945 – President Roosevelt, who died April 12, is buried at the Roosevelt family home in Hyde Park, N.Y.

1947 – Jackie Robinson, baseball’s first black major league player, makes his official debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers on opening day. (The Dodgers defeated the Boston Braves, 5-3.)

1959 – Cuban leader Fidel Castro arrives in Washington to begin a goodwill tour of the United States.

1980 – Macedonian writer Vancho Nikoleski dies in Ohrid. He was a member the Macedonian Writers Association since 1950. He wrote the 1946 poetry collection “Makedonche,” setting the foundations of contemporary Macedonian children’s literature. Some of his most famous works are: “The School Bell”, “By the Fireplace”, “First Joy”, “The Miracle Flute” and others. He was born on June 10, 1912 in the village of Crvena Voda, Ohrid region.

1989 – 95 people die in a crush of soccer fans at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, England.

1990 – Actress Greta Garbo dies in New York at age 84.

1992 – Russia’s deeply divided Congress of People’s Deputies formally endorses President Boris Yeltsin’s economic reforms.

1992 – Aleksandar Matovski, holder of the first doctorate in historical science in Macedonia and the first expert of the Orient history, dies in Skopje. He was born on May 30, 1922 in Krusevo.

1992 – The first recruits of the Macedonian Army arrive in the barracks in Skopje, Bitola, Shtip and Ohrid.

1997 – The Justice Department inspector general reports that FBI crime lab agents produced flawed scientific work or inaccurate testimony in major cases such as the Oklahoma City bombing.

1997 – One of the founders of the Faculty of law in Skopje, Ivan Puhan Sc.D., dies in Skopje. He was born in 1916.

1999 – In Rawalpindi, Pakistan, a panel of two Lahore High Court judges convicts former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, of corruption.

2000 – 600 anti-IMF (International Monetary Fund) protesters are arrested in Washington, DC, for demonstrating without a permit.

2010 – In Prospect Harbor, ME, the Stinson Seafood plant stops sardine processing after 135 years in operation.

2013 – Nicolás Maduro is narrowly elected President of Venezuela.

2019 – Paris cathedral Notre Dame catches fire, toppling its spire and destroying its roof.

2020 – US’s deadliest day during COVID-19 pandemic with 2,752 deaths reported.

2021 – India records over 200,000 (200,739) daily new cases of COVID-19 for the first time with 1,038 deaths amid massive second wave.