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.
Births On This Day, April 15
1894 Nikita Khrushchev
Soviet politician, 7th Premier of the Soviet Union
1858 Émile Durkheim
French sociologist
1843 Henry James
American/English author
1832 Wilhelm Busch
German poet, painter, illustrator
1452 Leonardo da Vinci
Italian painter, sculptor, architect
Deaths On This Day, April 15
1998 Pol Pot
Cambodian politician, 29th Prime Minister of Cambodia
1990 Greta Garbo
Swedish actress
1980 Jean-Paul Sartre
French philosopher, writer
1889 Father Damien
Flemish missionary, priest
1865 Abraham Lincoln
American lawyer, politician, 16th President of the United States
