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History today

Compiled By Ruby Taylor-Newton
Sunday, April 15, 2012

"Unsinkable" Titanic sinks

The RMS Titanic, billed as unsinkable, sinks into the icy waters of the North Atlantic after hitting an iceberg on its maiden voyage, killing 1,517 people

Automotive

Race car driver goes down with the Titanic, 1912

On this day in 1912, Washington Augustus Roebling II, a 31-year-old race car engineer and driver, dies in the sinking of the RMS Titanic in the icy waters of the North Atlantic. Roebling was named for his uncle, a civil engineer who helped build the Brooklyn Bridge.

history.com

President Lincoln dies, 1865

At 7:22 am, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, dies from a bullet wound inflicted the night before by John Wilkes Booth, an actor and Confederate sympathiser. The president's death came only six days after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his massive army at Appomattox, effectively ending the American Civil War. history.com

History this week

April 21, 1930: Prisoners left to burn in Ohio fire

A fire at an Ohio prison kills 320 inmates, some of whom burnt to death when they were not unlocked from their cells. It is one of the worst prison disasters in American history.

history.com