This Day in History – April 15, 2011

1493 Columbus meets with King Ferdinand & Queen Isabella 1738 Bottle opener invented 1817 1st American school for the deaf opens (Hartford CT) 1850 City of San Francisco incorporated 1861 Federal army (75,000 volunteers) mobilized by President Abraham Lincoln 1878 Harley Procter introduces Ivory Soap 1892 General Electric Company forms & is incorporated in New York 1896 1st Olympic games close at Athens, Greece 1900 An early 50 mile race is won by an electric car in over 2 hours 1910 William Howard Taft is 1st US President to throw out a 1st ball at a baseball game 1912 Titanic sinks at 2:27 AM in North Atlantic as the band plays on 1921 Black Friday-Labour Party strike of mine workers fails 1922 Frederick Banting, John MacLeod & Charles Best discover insulin 1923 1st sound on film public performance shown at Rialto Theater (NYC) 1931 The 1st walk across America backwards began 1945 FDR buried on grounds of Hyde Park home 1952 1st B-52 prototype test flight 1952 Franklin National Bank issues 1st bank credit card 1955 Ray Kroc starts the McDonald’s chain of fast food restaurants (Illinois) 1957 Saturday mail delivery restored after Congress gives Post Office $41 million 1959 Fidel Castro begins US goodwill tour 1962 US national debt above $300,000,000,000 1965 NFL changes penalty flag from white to bright gold 1973 Walt Disney Store opens 1975 1st appearance of the San Diego Chicken 1981 Janet Cooke says her Pulitzer award 8-year-old heroin addict story is a lie, Washington Post relinquishes Pulitzer Prize on fabricated story 1983 Tokyo Disneyland opens 1988 Meteorite explodes above Indonesia 1991 Magic Johnson sets NBA record for career assists with 9,898 1992 William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy & DeForest Kelley inducted into National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame 1997 Baseball honors Jackie Robinson by retiring #42 for all teams]]]]> ]]>