From a quick survey of the internet, it seems that the 15th April was a date when an afwul lot of things happened. There are a surprising number of notable events, births and deaths so I'll just offer a selection:
1755: Samuel Johnson's Dictionary is published. While far fromthe first dictionary ofEnglish, it is seen as being the first to offer a comprehensive view of English as it was used. It took nine years to complete, and Johnson was paid 1,500 guineas - roughly equivalent to £230,000 today.
1912: at 2:20am the Titanic finally sank after hitting an iceberg nearly three hours before. 1,517 people died.
1923: insulin becomes widely available for the treatment of diabetes
1945: Liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. 50-60,000 prisoners were found and liberated. They had been living with some 13,000 unburied bodies. Liberators described the day as the most horrifying of their lives. Many of the prisoners were dying - starving and sick, the Allied troops were hindered intheir efforts to help them by the SS officers who sabotaged water tanks before they left. Nearly 14,000 prisoners died after liberation - having been too far gone to save.
1989: The Hillsborough Disaster. 96 Liverpool fans were crushed to death when a stand at Sheffield Wednesday's Hillsborough stadium collapsed.
Obviously, it has not been a good day. Actually today of course, the grounding of all flights in the country because of a volcanic eruption putting tonnes of ash into the atmosphere.
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