Today in History

Today is Thursday, April 14, the 104th day of 2022. There are 261 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On April 14, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln was shot and mortally wounded by John Wilkes Booth during a performance of "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theater in Washington.

On this date:

In 1828, the first edition of Noah Webster's "American Dictionary of the English Language" was published.

In 1902, James Cash Penney opened his first store, The Golden Rule, in Kemmerer, Wyoming.

In 1910, President William Howard Taft became the first U.S. chief executive to throw the ceremonial first pitch at a baseball game as the Washington Senators beat the Philadelphia Athletics 3-0.

In 1912, the British liner RMS Titanic collided with an iceberg in the North Atlantic at 11:40 p.m. ship's time and began sinking. (The ship went under two hours and 40 minutes later with the loss of 1,514 lives.)

In 1935, the "Black Sunday" dust storm descended upon the central Plains, turning a sunny afternoon into total darkness.

In 1949, the "Wilhelmstrasse Trial" in Nuremberg ended with 19 former Nazi Foreign Office officials sentenced by an American tribunal to prison terms ranging from four to 25 years.

In 1960, Tamla Records and Motown Records, founded by Berry Gordy Jr., were incorporated as Motown Record Corp.

In 1981, the first test flight of America's first operational space shuttle, the Columbia, ended successfully with a landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

In 1994, two U.S. Air Force F-15 warplanes mistakenly shot down two U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopters over northern Iraq, killing 26 people, including 15 Americans.

In 1999, NATO mistakenly bombed a convoy of ethnic Albanian refugees; Yugoslav officials said 75 people were killed.

In 2007, riot police beat and detained protesters as thousands defied an official ban and attempted to stage a rally in Moscow against Russian President Vladimir Putin's government.

In 2020, President Donald Trump announced that he was cutting off U.S. payments to the U.N. health agency, the World Health Organization; Trump said it had not done enough to stop the coronavirus from spreading.

Ten years ago: In Belfast, Northern Ireland, where the RMS Titanic was built, thousands attended a choral requiem at the Anglican St. Anne's Cathedral or a nationally televised concert at the city's Waterfront Hall to mark the 100th anniversary of the ship's sinking. Eleven Secret Service agents were placed on administrative leave as a deepening scandal involving prostitutes overshadowed President Barack Obama's diplomatic mission to Latin America.

Five years ago: Former NFL star Aaron Hernandez, already serving a life sentence for a 2013 murder, was acquitted in Boston in a 2012 double slaying prosecutors said was fueled by his anger over a drink spilled at a nightclub. (Five days later, Hernandez hanged himself in his prison cell.)

One year ago: A white former suburban Minneapolis police officer, Kim Potter, was charged with second-degree manslaughter for killing 20-year-old Black motorist Daunte Wright in a shooting that ignited days of unrest. (Potter, who said she confused her handgun for her Taser, was convicted of first- and second-degree manslaughter and sentenced to two years in prison.) President Joe Biden said he would withdraw the 2,500 remaining U.S. troops from Afghanistan, with the drawdown to begin by May 1; that date had been the deadline for full withdrawal under a peace agreement that the Trump administration reached with the Taliban in 2020. Bernard Madoff, the infamous architect of an epic securities swindle, died at a federal prison in North Carolina; he was 82. Carlos Rodon threw the second no-hitter of the young baseball season, losing his bid for a perfect game on a hit batter with one out in the ninth inning, and the Chicago White Sox cruised to an 8-0 victory over the Cleveland Indians.

Today's Birthdays: Country singer Loretta Lynn is 90. Actor Julie Christie is 82. Retired MLB All-Star Pete Rose is 81. Rock musician Ritchie Blackmore is 77. Actor John Shea is 74. Actor Peter Capaldi is 64. Actor-turned-race car driver Brian Forster is 62. Actor Brad Garrett is 62. Actor Robert Carlyle is 61. Rock singer-musician John Bell (Widespread Panic) is 60. Actor Robert Clendenin is 58. Actor Catherine Dent is 57. Actor Lloyd Owen is 56. Baseball Hall of Famer Greg Maddux is 56. Rock musician Barrett Martin is 55. Actor Anthony Michael Hall is 54. Actor Adrien Brody is 49. Classical singer David Miller (Il Divo) is 49. Rapper Da Brat is 48. Actor Antwon Tanner is 47. Actor Sarah Michelle Gellar is 45. Actor-producer Rob McElhenney is 45. Roots singer JD McPherson is 45. Rock singer Win Butler (Arcade Fire) is 42. Actor Claire Coffee is 42. Actor Christian Alexander is 32. Actor Nick Krause is 30. Actor Vivien Cardone is 29. Actor Graham Phillips is 29. Actor Skyler Samuels is 28. Actor Abigail Breslin is 26.