Important Events From This day in History – 15 April

Today in History

• 1994 The World Trade Organization is founded

  The World Trade Organisation (WTO) coordinates and strives to liberalize international trade. It has been chastised for ignoring and exacerbating globalization’s negative social and environmental consequences.

• 1989 A small group of students initiates pro-democracy protest on Tiananmen Square in Beijing

  The death of reformer Hu Yaobang sparked the protests, which grew in size before being brutally dispersed in the Tiananmen Square Massacre on June 4, 1989.

• 1986 The United States launches retaliatory air strikes against Libya

  Approximately 40 Libyans were killed during Operation El Dorado Canyon, including an infant girl. The attack was the US response to the April 5 bombing of a Berlin discotheque, which killed three people.

• 1945 The German concentration camp Bergen-Belsen is liberated

  British and Canadian troops found about 53,000 prisoners inside the camp. Tens of thousands died before and after the liberation.

• 1935 The Eastman Kodak Company launches Kodachrome

  Photographic film was a popular medium among professional and amateur photographers all over the world. Because of the advent of digital photography, the product was discontinued in 2009.