Today’s highlight

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 Theatre in Washington.

On this date

1828: The first edition of Noah Webster’s “American Dictionary of the English Language” was published.

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

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.

1910: President William Howard Taft became the first U.S. chief executive to throw the ceremonial first pitch at a baseball game

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.

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

1981: The first test flight of America’s first operational space shuttle, the Columbia, ended successfully.

2021: 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.

Today’s birthdays

Actor Julie Christie is 84. Retired MLB All-Star Pete Rose is 83. Rock musician Ritchie Blackmore is 79. Actor John Shea is 76.