On April 14, 1775, the first American society for the abolition of slavery was formed in Philadelphia.

In 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.

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

In 1939, the John Steinbeck novel “The Grapes of Wrath” was first published by Viking Press.

In 1956, Ampex Corp. demonstrated the first practical videotape recorder at the National Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters Convention in Chicago.

In 1960, the musical “Bye Bye Birdie” opened on Broadway.