the-french-artist/wikipedia_20220301.simple_sentence_split huggingface dataset:
On the evening of April 14, Lincoln went to attend a play with his wife, Mary Todd at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C.. He had invited Ulysses S. Grant to attend the play with him and his wife Mary Todd, and Grant planned to attend.
As a general, Grant would have brought his own extra military security force, but he did not attend the play because his wife Julia and Mary Todd did not get along well.
During the third act of the play, John Wilkes Booth, a well-known actor and a Confederate spy from Maryland, entered the presidential box and shot Lincoln at point-blank range, mortally wounding him and shouted "Sic semper tyrannis" ("Thus always to tyrants").
An unconscious Lincoln was carried across the street to Petersen House.
He was placed diagonally on the bed because his tall frame would not fit normally on the smaller bed.
He remained in a coma for nine hours before dying the next morning.
According to some accounts, at his last drawn breath, on the morning after the assassination, he smiled broadly and then expired.
Lincoln was the first American president to be assassinated.
Booth escaped but died from shots fired during his capture on April 26.
Lincoln has been consistently ranked both by scholars and the public as one of the greatest U.S. presidents.
He is often considered the greatest president for his leadership during the American Civil War and his eloquence in speeches such as the Gettysburg Address.
The Lincoln Institute
Abraham Lincoln Research Site
A One Page Summary of Abraham Lincoln's Life
Abraham Lincoln at Find a Grave
Lincoln's White House biography
Abraham Lincoln -Citizendium
Abe Lincoln History Site
American abolitionists
Lawyers from Illinois
American murder victims
Assassinated presidents of the United States
Deaths by firearm
Politicians from Springfield, Illinois
Politicians from Kentucky
United States representatives from Illinois
19th-century American politicians
Lawyers from Kentucky
881 - Pope John VIII crowns Charles the Fat as Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
1354 – Treaty of Stralsund settles border disputes between the duchies of Mecklenburg and Pomerania.
1502  - Vasco da Gama sets sail from Lisbon on his second voyage to India.
1541 – Santiago, Chile is founded by Pedro de Valdivia.
1554 – A year after claiming the throne of England for nine days, Lady Jane Grey is beheaded for treason.
1593 - Japanese invasion of Korea: Approximately 3,000 Joseon defenders led by General Kwok Yul, successfully repel over 30,000 Japanese in the Siege of Haengju.
1619 - The Diego Ramirez Islands to the southwest of Cape Horn and near Antarctica are discovered.
1689 – The Convention Parliament convenes and declares that the flight to France in 1688 by James II, the last Catholic British monarch, constitutes an abdication.
1719 – The Onderlinge van 1719 u.a.,
the oldest existing life insurance company in the Netherlands is founded.
1733 – Englishman James Oglethorpe founds the 13th and final American colony of Georgia, and its first city at Savannah.
1737 – The Teatro di San Carlo, the oldest working opera house in Europe, is inaugurated.
1771 – Gustav III becomes the King of Sweden when his father Adolf Frederick "[eats] himself to death".
1772 - Yves Joseph de Kerguelen de Tremarec's expedition discovers the Kerguelen Islands in the Southern Indian Ocean near Antarctica.
1817 – The Chilean patriotic army, after crossing the Andes, defeats Spanish troops at the Battle of Chacabuco.
1818 – Bernardo O'Higgins signs the Independence of Chile near Concepción.
1825 – The Creek cede the last of their lands in Georgia to the United States government, and migrate west.
1832 – Ecuador annexes the Galápagos Islands.
1851 - The Australian gold rushes start, as Edward Hargreaves announces finding gold in Bathurst, New South Wales.
1855 - Michigan State University is founded.
1870 – Women gain the right to vote in Utah Territory.
1879 – At New York City's Madison Square Garden the first artificial ice rink in North America opens.
1892 – Former President Abraham Lincoln's birthday is declared a national holiday in the United States.
1894 – Anarchist Emile Henry hurls a bomb into Paris's Cafe Terminus, killing one and wounding 20.
1909 - Inter-island ferry SS Penguin sinks and explodes in Wellington Harbour, New Zealand.
1909 – The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is founded.
1912 – Xuantong Emperor of the Manchu Qing dynasty, the last Emperor of China, abdicates.
1912 – China adopts the Gregorian calendar.
1914 – In Washington, DC, the first stone of the Lincoln Memorial is put into place.
1924 – Premiere of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue with Paul Whiteman's Palais Royal Orchestra in Aeolian Hall in New York City.
1924 – Calvin Coolidge becomes the first President of the United States to deliver a political speech on radio.
1934 – The Austrian Civil War begins.
1934 – The Export-Import Bank of the United States is incorporated.
1934 – In Spain the national council of Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindicalista is inaugurated.
The council decides to merge the movement with the Falange Española.
1935 - The helium-filled airship SS Macon crashes into the Pacific Ocean off California.
1938 – Anschluss: German troops enter Austria.
1941 - A police officer in London becomes the first person treated by penicillin.
1944 - Japanese U-boat I-27 sinks British troop transporter Khedive Ismail in the Indian Ocean, killing 1,297 out of the 1,511 people on board.
The Japanese U-boat itself is sunk later that day, killing all but one of the naval personnel on board.
1946 – Operation Deadlight ends after scuttling 121 of 154 captured U-boats.
1947 - A meteor creates an impact crater in Sikhote-Alin, Soviet Union.
1947 - Christian Dior unveils a "New Look", helping Paris regain its place as capital of the fashion world.
1951 – Soraya Esfandiary Bakhtiari marries the Shah of Iran Reza Pahlavi at Golestan Palace in Teheran at age of 17.
1961 - The Soviet Venera 1 space probe is sent to Venus.
1963 - Building work on the Gateway Arch, Saint Louis, Missouri, begins.
1971 - Bhutan's full sovereignty from India is gained.
1973 – Ohio becomes the first U.S. state to post distance in SI units on signs.
1973 – Vietnam War: The first American prisoners of war are released by the NLF.
1974 - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is exiled from the Soviet Union.
1990 - In Western Australia, Carmen Lawrence becomes the first female Premier of an Australian state.
1994 – 1994 Winter Olympics open in Lillehammer, Norway.
1998 – The presidential line-item veto is declared unconstitutional by a United States federal judge.
1999 – President Bill Clinton is acquitted by the United States Senate in his impeachment trial.
2001 – NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft touchdown in the "saddle" region of 433 Eros, becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid.
2001 – Google obtains Usenet, creating Google Groups. (
press release)
2002 – The trial of former President of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milošević begins at the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
2002 – Nuclear waste: US Secretary of Energy makes the decision that Yucca Mountain is suitable to be the United States' nuclear repository.
2002 – An Iran Air Tupolev Tu-154 crashes prior to landing in Khorramabad, Iran, killing 119.
2004 – Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco, California, on National Freedom to Marry Day, orders his county clerk to revise marriage licenses to allow gay and lesbian couples to legally wed.
2004 – Mattel Inc. announces the split of Barbara Millicent Roberts and Ken Carson (aka Barbie and Ken) after 43 years of dating.
2005 – Former Vermont governor and presidential candidate Howard Dean becomes chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
2009 – A plane crash, of Colgan Air Flight 3407, in Clarence Center, Buffalo, New York, kills all of the people on board and one on the ground.
2010 – Georgian luge competitor Nodar Kumaritashvili dies after an accident that occurred while he was training for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, which open on the same day.
2012 - The Zambia national football team wins the Africa Cup of Nations, defeating the Ivory Coast national football team in a penalty shoot-out.
2013 - North Korea announces that it has carried out an underground nuclear test, at around a kilometer's depth, despite criticism from around the world.
2017 - North Korea announces that it has launched a rocket, leading to condemnation from the United States, Japan and South Korea.
2017 - Frank-Walter Steinmeier is chosen to succeed Joachim Gauck as President of Germany on March 19.
2017 - People living near the Oroville Dam in California are told to evacuate over flooding fears.
41 – Britannicus, Roman heir to the throne (d. 55)
712 – Du Fu, Chinese poet (d. 770)
1074 - Conrad II of Italy (d. 1101)
1218 - Kujo Yoritsune, Japanese shogun (d. 1256)
1322 - John Henry, Margrave of Moravia (d. 1375)
1567 – Thomas Campion, English composer and poet (d. 1620)
1584 - Caspar Berlaeus, Dutch theologian, poet and historian (d. 1648)
1606 - John Winthrop the Younger, Governor of Connecticut (d. 1676)
1637 - Jan Swammerdam, Dutch biologist (d. 1680)
1665 - Rudolf Jakob Camerarius, German botanist and physician (d. 1721)
1752 - Josef Reicha, Czech cellist, composer and conductor (d. 1795)
1761 - Jan Ladislav Dussek, Czech composer and conductor (d. 1812)
1768 – Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1835)
1773 - Jacques Dupré, American politician, Governor of Louisiana (d. 1846)
1775 – Louisa Adams, First Lady of the United States (d. 1852)
1777 – Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué, German poet (d. 1843)
1788 – Carl Reichenbach, German chemist and philosopher (d. 1869)
1791 - Peter Cooper, American industrialist, inventor and philanthropist (d. 1883)
1794 - Alexander Petrov, Russian chess player (d. 1867)
1800 - John Edward Gray, English zoologist (d. 1875)
1804 - Heinrich Lenz, German physicist (d. 1865)
1809 – Charles Darwin, English naturalist (d. 1882)
1809 – Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States (d. 1865)
1813 - James Dwight Dana, American geologist, mineralogist and zoologist (d. 1895)
1813 - Otto Ludwig, German writer (d. 1865)
1814 - Jenny von Westphalen, German socialist and wife of Karl Marx (d. 1881)
1815 - Edward Forbes, British naturalist (d. 1854)
1817 - Conrad Baker, 15th Governor of Indiana (d. 1885)
1828 - George Meredith, English writer (d. 1909)
1837 - Thomas Moran, American painter (d. 1926)
1843 - John Graham Chambers, English race walker (d. 1883)
1865 - Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer, Polish poet and writer (d. 1940)
1869 – Kien Phuc, Emperor of Vietnam (d. 1884)
1870 - Marie Lloyd, English music-hall performer (d. 1922)
1876 – Thubten Gyatso, 13th Dalai Lama, Tibetan spiritual leader (d. 1933)
1877 – Louis Renault, French industrialist and automobile pioneer (d. 1944)
1881 – Anna Pavlova, Russian ballerina (d. 1931)
1882 - Walter Nash, 27th Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1968)
1884 – Max Beckmann, German artist (d. 1950)
1884 - Marie Vassilieff, Russian artist (d. 1957)
1884 - Alice Roosevelt Longworth, daughter of Theodore Roosevelt (d. 1980)
1885 – Julius Streicher, Nazi publisher (d. 1946)
1887 - Edelmiro Julian Farrell, President of Argentina (d. 1980)
1893 – Omar Bradley, American general (d. 1981)
1895 - Kristian Djurhuus, 2nd Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands (d. 1984)
1900 – Vasily Chuikov, Soviet marshal and politician (d. 1982)
1905 - Federica Montseny, Spanish anarchist, intellectual and politician (d. 1994)
1908 - Jacques Herbrand, French mathematician (d. 1931)
1909 - Sigmund Rascher, German Nazi physician (d. 1945)
1910 - Lee Byung-chull, Korean businessman (d. 1987)
1911 - Cearbhall O Dalaigh, President of Ireland (d. 1978)
1911 – Charles Mathiesen, Norwegian speed skater (d. 1994)
1914 - Tex Beneke, American singer, saxophonist and bandleader (d. 2000)
1914 - Arvid Pardo, Italian-Maltese diplomat (d. 1999)
1915 - Lorne Greene, Canadian actor (d. 1987)
1915 - Olivia Hooker, African-American sailor
1916 – Joseph Alioto, Mayor of San Francisco (d. 1998)
1917 - Al Cervi, American basketball player (d. 2009)
1917 – Dom DiMaggio, American baseball player (d. 2009)
1918 – Julian Schwinger, American physicist (d. 1994)
1918 - Norman Farberow, American psychologist (d. 2015)
1919 – Ferruccio Valcareggi, Italian footballer (d. 2005)
1920 - Pran, Indian actor (d. 2013)
1920 - Yoshiko Otaka, Japanese actress, singer and politician (d. 2014)
1922 – Hussein Onn, Prime Minister of Malaysia (d. 1990)
1923 – Franco Zeffirelli, Italian movie, opera director and designer (d. 2019)
1924 - Louis Zorich, American actor (d. 2018)
1925 - Joan Finney, Governor of Kansas (d. 2001)
1926 - Rolf Brem, Swiss sculptor, illustrator and graphic artist (d. 2014)
1926 - Joe Garagiola, Sr.,
American baseball player (d. 2016)
1926 - Buddy Childers, American jazz trumpeter (d. 2007)
1926 - Charles Van Doren, American quiz show contestant
1930 - Arlen Specter, United States Senator for Pennsylvania (d. 2012)
1932 - Maurice Filion, Canadian ice hockey coach
1932 - Julian Simon, American economist (d. 1998)
1933 - Costa-Gravas, Greek-French movie director and producer
1934 – Annette Crosbie, Scottish actress
1934 – Bill Russell, American basketball player
1934 - Anne Osborn Krueger, American professor and former Deputy Director of the International Monetary Fund
1936 - Fang Lizhi, Chinese activist (d. 2012)
1936 - Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, Iraqi-Israeli politician (d. 2016)
1936 - Joe Don Baker, American actor
1939 – Ray Manzarek, American musician (The Doors) (d. 2013)
1941 – Naomi Uemura, Japanese adventurer (d. 1984)
1941 - Dominguinhos, Brazilian singer-songwriter and accordion player (d. 2013)
1942 - Lionel Grigson, English pianist, composer and educator (d. 1994)
1942 - Norma Major, English author and charity worker, wife of John Major
1942 – Ehud Barak, former Prime Minister of Israel
1945 – Thilo Sarrazin, German politician
1945 - David D. Friedman, American economist
1946 – Ajda Pekkan, Turkish singer
1946 – Jean Eyeghé Ndong, Prime Minister of Gabon
1948 – Bernd Franke, German footballer
1948 – Raymond Kurzweil, American inventor and writer
1948 - Mike Robitaille, Canadian ice hockey player
1949 - Fergus Slattery, Irish rugby player
1950 - Angelo Branduardi, Italian singer-songwriter and guitarist
1950 - Michael Ironside, Canadian actor, screenwriter and director
1950 – Steve Hackett, English guitarist
1951 – Steven Parent, American murder victim (d. 1969)
1952 – Simon MacCorkindale, British actor (d. 2010)
1952 – Michael McDonald, American singer and musician
1956 – Arsenio Hall, American television host
1956 - Ad Melkert, Dutch politician
1956 - Brian Robertson, Scottish guitarist and songwriter
1961 – Michel Martelly, Haitian musician, businessman, politician and President of Haiti
1964 - Michel Petit, Canadian ice hockey player
1965 - John Michael Higgins, American actor
1968 – Josh Brolin, American actor
1968 – Christopher McCandless, American nomad (d. 1992)
1968 - Gregory Charles, Canadian singer, dancer, pianist and actor
1969 – Meja, Swedish singer-songwriter
1969 - Steve Backley, British javelin thrower
1969 - Alemayehu Atomsa, Ethiopian politician (d. 2014)
1971 - Scott Menville, American actor, voice actor and musician
1973 – Tara Strong, Canadian-American actress
1973 - Gianni Romme, Dutch speed skater
1975 - Scott Pollard, American basketball player
1976 – Christian Cullen, New Zealand rugby player
1977 – Jimmy Conrad, American soccer player
1978 – Gethin Jones, Welsh television presenter
1980 – Juan Carlos Ferrero, Spanish tennis player
1980 – Christina Ricci, American actress
1980 - Sarah Lancaster, American actress
1981 - Lisa Hannigan, Irish singer
1982 – Anthony Tuitavake, New Zealand rugby player
1984 – Brad Keselowski, American racing driver
1984 – Peter Utaka, Nigerian footballer
1984 - Andrei Sidorenkov, Estonian footballer
1985 – Saskia Burmeister, Australian swimmer
1987 - Jérémy Chardy, French tennis player
1988 – Mike Posner, American singer
1988 – Nicolas Otamendi, Argentine footballer
1989 - Ron-Robert Zieler, German footballer
1990 - Moussa Koné, Ivory Coast footballer
1991 - Patrick Herrmann, German footballer
1991 - Casey Abrams, American singer
1993 – Jennifer Stone, American actress
1994 - Alex Galchenyuk, American ice hockey player
821 - Benedict of Ariane, French monk and saint (b. 747)
991 - Emperor En'yu of Japan (b. 959)
1242 - Henry (VII) of Germany (b. 1211)
1538 - Albrecht Altdorfer, German painter (b. 1480)
1554 – Lady Jane Grey, Queen of England for nine days (b. 1537)
1571 - Nicholas Throckmorton, English diplomat and politician (b. 1515)
1612 - Christopher Clavius, German astronomer (b. 1538)
1692 - Hendrick Hamel, Dutch sailor and bookkeeper (b. 1630)
1700 - Aleksei Shein, Russian general and statesman (b. 1662)
1724 - Elkanah Settle, English writer (b. 1648)
1763 – Pierre Carlet de Marivaut, French writer (b. 1688)
1771 – King Adolf Frederick of Sweden (b. 1710)
1787 – Rugjer Josip Boskovic, mathematician and physicist (b. 1711)
1789 – Ethan Allen, American patriot (b. 1738)
1799 - Lazzaro Spallanzani, Italian biologist (b. 1729)
1804 – Immanuel Kant, German philosopher (b. 1724)
1834 – Friedrich Schleiermacher, German philosopher (b. 1768)
1886 - Horatio Seymour, American politician, Governor of New York (b. 1810)
1896 – Ambroise Thomas, French composer (b. 1811)
1912 – Gerhard Armauer Hansen, Norwegian doctor and scientist (b. 1841)
1916 – Richard Dedekind, mathematician (b. 1831)
1929 – Lillie Langtry, singer and actress (b. 1853)
1933 – Henri Duparc, French composer (b. 1848)
1935 – Auguste Escoffier, French chef (b. 1846)
1936 - Ibra Charles Blackwood, Governor of South Carolina (b. 1878)
1942 – Grant Wood, American painter (b. 1891)
1949 – Imam Hassan al Banna, founder of the Muslim brotherhood (b. 1906)
1951 – Choudhary Rahmat Ali, founding father of Pakistan (b. 1897)
1954 – Dziga Vertov, Russian movie maker (b. 1896)
1960 - Jean-Michel Atlan, French painter (b. 1913)
1968 - Maria Caspar-Filser, German artist (b. 1878)
1970 - Ishman Bracey, American blues musician (b. 1901)
1971 – James C. Penney, American department store founder (b. 1875)
1976 – Sal Mineo, actor (b. 1939)
1979 – Jean Renoir, director (b. 1894)
1982 – Victor Jory, Canadian actor (b. 1902)
1983 – Eubie Blake, American musician and songwriter (b. 1883 or 1887)
1984 – Anna Anderson, claimant to the Russian throne (b. 1896)
1984 – Julio Cortázar, writer, intellectual (b. 1914)
1985 – Nicholas Colasanto, American actor (b. 1924)
1985 - Leslie Sarony, English entertainer and songwriter (b. 1897)
1992 – María Elena Moyano, Peruvian activist (b. 1960)
1993 – James Bulger, murder victim (b. 1990)
1995 – Robert Bolt, writer (b. 1924)
1996 – Bob Shaw, writer (b. 1931)
1998 - Gardner Ackley, American economist and diplomat (b. 1915)
2000 – Screamin' Jay Hawkins, American musician (b. 1929)
2000 – Tom Landry, American football coach (b. 1924)
2000 – Charles Schulz, American comics writer (b. 1922)
2001 – Kristina Söderbaum, German actress and photographer (b. 1912)
2002 - John Eriksen, Danish footballer (b. 1957)
2005 - Rafael Vidal, Venezuelan athlete (b. 1964)
2007 – Georg Buschner, East German footballer and manager (b. 1925)
2008 – Badri Patarkatsishvili, Georgian businessman (b. 1955)
2009 – Giacomo Bulgarelli, Italian footballer (b. 1940)
2010 – Nodar Kumaritashvili, Georgian luger (b. 1988)
2010 – Leroy Nash, American death row inmate (b. 1915)
2011 – Peter Alexander, Austrian singer and actor (b. 1926)
2011 – Betty Garrett, American actress (b. 1919)
2011 - Kenneth Mars, American actor (b. 1935)
2012 - David Kelly, Irish actor (b. 1929)
2013 - Christopher Dorner, American former police officer, and spree killer (b. 1979)
2014 - Sid Caesar, American actor and writer (b. 1922)
2014 - John Pickstone, English historian and author (b. 1944)
2015 - Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, Malaysian politician (b. 1931)
2015 - David Carr, American journalist (b. 1956)
2015 - Tomie Ohtake, Japanese-Brazilian artist (b. 1913)
2015 - Steve Strange, British musician (b. 1959)
2015 - Cornelis Pieter van den Hoek, Dutch resistance fighter (b. 1921)
2015 - Oliver Rackham, English landscape ecologist (b. 1939)
2015 - Gary Owens, American actor and television announcer (b. 1934)
2015 - Movita Castaneda, American actress (b. 1916)
2015 - Richie Pratt, American jazz drummer (b. 1943)
2015 - Ernest J. Sternglass, American physicist and professor (b. 1923)
2016 - Dominique D'Onofrio, Italian-Belgian football coach (b. 1953)
2016 - Eddie Barry, American ice hockey player (b. 1919)
2016 - Robert Frederick Froehlke, American lawyer (b. 1922)
2016 - Johnny Lattner, American football player (b. 1932)
2017 - Sione Lauaki, Tongan-New Zealand rugby player (b. 1981)
2017 - Dave Adolph, American football coach (b. 1937)
2017 - Damian, British pop singer (b. 1964)
2017 - Al Jarreau, American jazz and R&B singer (b. 1940)
2017 - Yitzhak Livni, Polish-born Israeli media executive and writer (b. 1924)
2017 - Quentin Moses, American football player (b. 1983)
2017 - Bobby Murdoch, English footballer (b. 1936)
2017 - Ren Xinmin, Chinese rocket scientist and engineer (b. 1915)
2017 - Clint Roberts, American politician (b. 1935)
2017 - Krystyna Sienkiewicz, Polish actress and singer (b. 1935)
2018 - Marty Allen, American actor and comedian (b. 1923)
2018 - Martin van der Borgh, Dutch racing cyclist (b. 1934)
2018 - Giuseppe Galasso, Italian historian and politician (b. 1929)
2018 - Luo Haocai, Chinese politician (b. 1934)
2018 - Grant McBride, Australian politician (b. 1949)
2018 - Fethia Mzali, Tunisian educator and politician (b. 1927)
2018 - Daryle Singletary, American country music singer (b. 1971)
Abraham Lincoln's birthday (United States)
Union Day (Burma)
Youth Day (Venezuela)
Red Hand Day (UN)
Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln were both born on this date in 1809, in a very rare occasion of two highly influential and famous people being born on exactly the same day as each other.
1071 - Norman forces under Robert Guiscard conquer Bari, present-day Italy.
1191 - Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor is crowned.
1450 – Battle of Formigny; Toward the end of the Hundred Years' War, the French attack and nearly destroy English forces, ending English domination in northern France.
1632 – Battle of Rain; Swedes under Gustavus Adolphus defeat the Holy Roman Empire during the Thirty Years' War.
1638 - Tokugawa shogunate forces put down the Shimabara Rebellion when they retake Hara Castle from the rebels.
1736 - Corsicans rebel against the Republic of Genoa and declare the Westphalian Theodor von Neuhoff as King.
1738 – Premiere in London of Serse, an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel.
1755 – Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language published in London.
1783 – Preliminary articles of peace ending the American Revolutionary War ratified.
1802 – William Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy come across a "long belt" of daffodils, inspiring the former to pen I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.
1861 - Abraham Lincoln calls for a volunteer force of 25,000 to stop the insurrection that soon became the American Civil War.
1865 – Abraham Lincoln dies after being shot the previous evening by John Wilkes Booth.
Andrew Johnson becomes the 17th President of the United States.
1892 – The General Electric Company is formed through the merger of the Edison General Electric Company and the Thomson-Houston Company.
1896 - Closing ceremony of the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens.
1900 - Philippine-American War: Filipino guerrillas launch a surprise attack on the United States infantry and begin the four-day Siege of Catubig, Philippines.
1912 – The passenger liner RMS Titanic sinks at about 2:20 am after hitting an iceberg almost three hours earlier.
1915 – The Armenian Genocide began when the Ottoman Empire undertook the systematic destruction of Armenian intellectuals and entrepreneurs within the city of Constantinople and later the entire Armenian population of the Empire.
1917 - Troop transporter Cameronia is sunk by a German U-boat east of Malta.
1920 – Anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti allegedly murder two security guards while robbing a shoe store.
1923 – Insulin first became generally available for use by diabetics.
1924 – Rand McNally publishes its first road atlas.
1927 – Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford and Norma and Constance Talmadge become the first celebrities to leave their footprints in cement at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood.
1935 – Roerich Pact signed in Washington D.C.
1936 - First day of the Arab revolt in Palestine.
1936 - Aer Lingus is founded, as the national airline of the Republic of Ireland.
1940 – The Allies start their attack on the Norwegian town of Narvik which was occupied by Nazi Germany.
1941 - World War II: The German Luftwaffe attack Belfast in a bombing raid, killing 1,000 people.
1942 – George Cross given to "to the island fortress of Malta - its people and defenders" by King George VI of the United Kingdom.
1945 – The Bergen-Belsen concentration camp is liberated.
1947 – Jackie Robinson's first time playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team, breaking that sport's color line.
1955 – The first McDonald's restaurant opens in Des Plaines, Illinois.
1962 - Georges Pompidou becomes Prime Minister of France.
1969 - North Korea shoots down a United States Navy aircraft over the Sea of Japan, killing all 31 people on board.
1970 - Cambodian Civil War: Massacres of the Vietnamese minority result in bodies flowing down the Mekong River to South Vietnam.
1983 – Tokyo Disneyland opens.
1984 - The first World Youth Day is held in St. Peter's Square, Vatican City.
1985 – Bernhard Langer becomes the first German to win The Masters Tournament (a golf tournament).
1985 – Marvin Hagler defeats Thomas Hearns by a knockout in round three to retain boxing's world middleweight championship in a fight nicknamed The War.
1986 - The United States launches Operation El Dorado Canyon, its bombing raids against Libyan targets in response to a bombing in West Germany that killed two American servicemen.
1989 – Hillsborough disaster: A human stampede occurs at Hillsborough, a football stadium in Sheffield, England, resulting in the loss of 96 lives.
All of the people killed had come to support Liverpool FC against Nottingham Forest in an FA Cup match.
1989 – Upon Hu Yaobang's death, the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 begin in the People's Republic of China.
1994 – Representatives of 124 countries and the European Communities sign the Marrakesh Agreements revising the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and setting up the World Trade Organization (effective January 1, 1995).
1997 – Fire sweeps through a campsite of Muslims making the Hajj pilgrimage; the official death toll is 343.
2001 – Easter day (not again until 2063).
2002 – An Air China Boeing 767-200, flight CA129 crashes into a hillside during heavy rain and fog near Pusan, South Korea, killing 128.
2010 – Response to the eruption of the volcano Eyjafjallajokull in Iceland: Norway, the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland shut all of their airspace for a week.
Several European countries also have to shut their airspace in the following days and weeks, due to the volcanic ash cloud.
2013 - 2013 Boston Marathon bombings: Two bombs explode near the finishing line of the Boston Marathon, killing 3 people and injuring over 140.
2014 - A lunar eclipse in which the Moon turns dark red is seen throughout the Americas and parts of the South Pacific Ocean.
2017 - A bomb attack on a bus convoy outside Aleppo, Syria, kills at least 126 people, most of them children.
2018 - The 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, come to an end.
2019 - Notre-Dame de Paris fire: Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris is heavily damaged by fire.
1282 - Frederick IV, Duke of Lorraine (d. 1329)
1367 - King Henry IV of England (d. 1413)
1452 – Leonardo da Vinci, Italian polymath (d. 1519)
1469 – Guru Nanak Dev, Sikh guru (d. 1539)
1552 - Pietro Cataldi, Italian mathematician (d. 1626)
1563 - Guru Arjun Dev, Sikh guru (d. 1606)
1641 - Robert Sibbald, Scottish physician (d. 1722)
1642 – Suleiman II, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1691)
1646 – King Christian V of Denmark (d. 1699)
1646 - Pierre Poiret, French mystic and philosopher (d. 1719)
1684 – Catherine I of Russia (d. 1727)
1707 – Leonhard Euler, Swiss mathematician (d. 1783)
1710 - Marie-Anne de Cupis de Camargo, French dancer (d. 1770)
1710 - William Cullen, Scottish physician and chemist (d. 1790)
1721 – Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland (d. 1765)
1744 - Charles Wilson Peale, American painter (d. 1827)
1783 - Maria Branwell, mother of the Bronte siblings (d. 1821)
1793 - Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve, German astronomer (d. 1864)
1797 - Adolphe Thiers, French writer and politician (d. 1877)
1800 – James Clark Ross, English explorer (d. 1862)
1809 - Hermann Grassmann, German polymath (d. 1877)
1814 - John Lothrop Motley, American diplomat (d. 1877)
1817 - Benjamin Jowett, English educator and theologian (d. 1893)
1821 - Joseph E. Brown, American politician, Governor of Georgia (d. 1894)
1828 - Jean Danjou, French captain (d. 1863)
1832 – Wilhelm Busch, German poet and writer (d. 1908)
1832 - Herbert Vaughan, English cardinal (d. 1903)
1841 - Joseph E. Seagram, Canadian politician and philanthropist (d. 1919)
1843 – Henry James, American writer (d. 1916)
1851 - Ponnambalam Ramanathan, Ceylonese-Tamil statesman (d. 1930)
1858 – Emile Durkheim, French sociologist and ethnologist (d. 1917)
1865 - Olga Boznanska, Polish painter (d. 1940)
1866 - Robert Livingston Beeckman, Governor of Rhode Island (d. 1935)
1874 - George Harrison Shull, American geneticist (d. 1954)
1874 – Johannes Stark, German physicist (d. 1957)
1877 – W. D. Ross, Scottish philosopher (d. 1971)
1883 – Stanley Bruce, 8th Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1967)
1886 - Nikolay Gumilyov, Russian poet (d. 1921)
1890 - Percy Shaw, English inventor (d. 1976)
1891 - Wallace Reid, American actor (d. 1923)
1892 – Corrie ten Boom, Dutch writer, activist, and Holocaust survivor (d. 1983)
1894 – Bessie Smith, American blues singer (d. 1937)
1894 - Nikita Khrushchev, leader of the Soviet Union (d. 1971)
1896 – Nikolay Nikolayevich Semyonov, Russian chemist (d. 1986)
1898 - Harry Edward, English sprinter (d. 1973)
1901 - René Pleven, Prime Minister of France (d. 1993)
1901 - Joe Davis, English snooker player (d. 1978)
1901 - Ajoy Mukherjee, Indian politician, Chief Minister of West Bengal (d. 1986)
1904 - Arshile Gorky, Armenian-American painter (d. 1948)
1907 – Nikolaas Tinbergen, Dutch ethologist (d. 1988)
1908 - Lita Grey, American actress (d. 1995)
1910 - Miguel Najdorf, Polish-Argentine chess player (d. 1997)
1912 – Kim Il-Sung, President of North Korea (d. 1994)
1915 - Elizabeth Catlett, American-Mexican artist and sculptor (d. 2012)
1915 – Walter Washington, American politician, Mayor of Washington, DC (d. 2003)
1917 - Hans Conried, American actor (d. 1982)
1920 – Richard von Weizsaecker, former President of Germany (d. 2015)
1920 - Thomas Szasz, Hungarian-American psychiatrist (d. 2012)
1921 – Georgi Beregovoi, Soviet-Russian cosmonaut (d. 1995)
1922 – Harold Washington, American politician, Mayor of Chicago (d. 1987)
1922 - Michael Ansara, Syrian-American actor (d. 2013)
1924 - Neville Marriner, English conductor and violinist (d. 2016)
1924 - Rikki Fulton, Scottish actor and comedian (d. 2004)
1927 - Ernie Copland, Scottish footballer
1927 - Robert Mills, American physicist (d. 1999)
1929 - Adrian Cadbury, English rower and businessman (d. 2015)
1930 – Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, 4th President of Iceland
1931 - Giovanni Reale, Italian historian and philosopher (d. 2014)
1931 – Tomas Tranströmer, Swedish poet (d. 2015)
1932 - Eva Figes, German-born English author (d. 2012)
1933 - Roy Clark, American singer, musician and television host
1933 - Elizabeth Montgomery, American actress (d. 1995)
1936 - Raymond Poulidor, French cyclist
1938 - Claudia Cardinale, Tunisian-born Italian actress
1938 - Hso Khan Pha, Burmese-Canadian geologist and politician
1938 - Jay Garner, American lieutenant general
1939 – Marty Wilder, British rock singer
1940 – Jeffrey Archer, British politician and writer
1940 - Yossef Romano, Israeli weightlifter (d. 1972)
1940 - Penelope Coelen, South African actress, model and beauty queen
1941 - Howard Berman, American politician
1942 – Walt Hazzard, American basketball coach (d. 2011)
1943 - Robert Lefkowitz, American physician and Nobel Prize winner
1943 - Mighty Sam McClain, American singer-songwriter (d. 2015)
1944 - Dzhokhar Dudayev, Chechen general and politician (d. 1996)
1944 - Dave Edmunds, Welsh singer and guitarist
1944 - Kunishige Kamamoto, Japanese footballer
1946 – Pete Rouse, American politician
1946 - Michael Tucci, American actor
1947 - Mike Chapman, Australian songwriter
1949 - Alla Pugacheva, Russian singer and composer
1949 - David Rendel, English politician (d. 2016)
1949 - Craig Zadan, American director, producer and screenwriter
1950 - Josiane Balasko, French actress, director and screenwriter
1950 - Paul Lüönd, Swiss musician (d. 2014)
1951 - John L. Phillips, American astronaut
1951 - Stuart Prebble, English broadcaster
1951 - Choei Sato, Japanese footballer
1955 - Jeff Golub, American musician (d. 2015)
1955 – Dodi al-Fayed, Egyptian businessman (d. 1997)
1956 - Michael Cooper, American basketball player and coach
1957 - Evelyn Ashford, American athlete
1957 - Hwang Kyo-ahn, South Korean politician, former Prime minister of South Korea
1958 – Benjamin Zephaniah, British writer
1958 – Abu Hamza al-Masri, Egyptian Islamic fundamentalist preacher
1959 – Emma Thompson, British actress
1960 – King Philippe of Belgium
1960 - Pedro Delgado, Spanish cyclist
1960 - Susanne Bier, Danish movie director
1961 – Carol W. Greider, American molecular biologist and Nobel Prize winner
1961 - Luca Barbarossa, Italian singer
1962 - Tom Kane, American voice actor
1963 - Beata Szydlo, Polish politician, Prime Minister of Poland
1966 – Samantha Fox, British singer, actress and model
1967 – Dara Torres, American swimmer
1967 - Frankie Poullain, British musician
1968 – Ed O'Brien, British musician (Radiohead)
1968 - Vano Merabishvili, Georgian politician
1969 - Jimmy Waite, Canadian ice hockey player
1971 - Kate Harbour, English voice actress
1972 - Trine Dyrholm, Danish actress and singer
1972 – Arturo Gatti, Canadian boxer (d. 2009)
1972 - Lou Romano, American voice actor
1973 - Teddy Lucic, Swedish footballer
1974 - Danny Way, American skateboarder
1975 - Adolfo Cambiaso, Argentine polo player
1976 - John Lamont, Scottish politician
1976 - Seigo Narazaki, Japanese footballer
1977 - Sudarshan Pattnaik, Indian sand artist
1977 - Lilia Vaygina-Efremova, Ukrainian biathlete
1978 – Soumaila Coulibaly, Malian footballer
1978 – Milton Bradley, American baseball player
1979 - Luke Evans, Welsh actor
1982 – Albert Riera, Spanish footballer
1982 – Seth Rogen, Canadian actor and writer
1983 - Alice Braga, Brazilian actress
1983 – Matt Cardle, English singer
1983 - Dudu Cearense, Brazilian footballer
1983 – Ilya Kovalchuk, Russian ice hockey player
1986 - Tom Heaton, English footballer
1986 - Quincy Owusu-Abeyje, Ghanaian footballer
1988 - Steven Defour, Belgian footballer
1988 – Eliza Doolittle, English singer
1988 - Leonie Elliott, English actress
1989 - Shawn Nicklaw, American footballer
1989 - Brandur Enni, Faroese singer
1990 – Emma Watson, English actress
1990 - Lily Carter, American pornographic actress
1991 - Daiki Arioka, Japanese actor and singer
1991 – Anastasia Vinnikova, Belarussian singer
1992 – Amy Deasismont, Swedish singer
1992 - Richard Sandrak, American bodybuilder, martial artist and actor
1992 - John Guidetti, Swedish footballer
1993 - Madeleine Martin, American actress
1997 - Maisie Williams, British actress
1999 - Denis Shapovalov, Israeli-born Canadian tennis player
571 - Emperor Kimmei of Japan
628 - Empress Suiko of Japan (b. 554)
1053 - Godwin, Earl of Wessex
1220 - Adolf of Altena, German archbishop (b. 1157)
1415 - Manuel Chrysolaris, Greek humanist and grammarian (b. 1355)
1446 – Filippo Brunelleschi, Italian architect (b. 1377)
1558 - Roxelana, Polish wife of Suleiman the Magnificent (b. 1500)
1621 - John Carver, English merchant and Governor of Plymouth Colony (b. 1576)
1641 - Domenico Zampieri, Italian painter (b. 1581)
1659 – Simon Dach, German poet (b. 1605)
1697 – King Charles XI of Sweden (b. 1665)
1719 - Françoise d'Aubigne, marquise de Maintenon, Queen of France (b. 1635)
1754 - Jacopo Riccati, Italian mathematician (b. 1676)
1764 – Madame de Pompadour, mistress of King Louis XV of France (b. 1721)
1765 – Mikhail Lomonosov, Russian scientist and writer (b. 1711)
1854 - Arthur Aikin, English chemist, mineralogist and writer (b. 1773)
1865 – Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States (b. 1809)
1889 – Father Damien, Belgian Roman Catholic priest and missionary (b. 1840)
1894 - James M. Harvey, American politician, 5th Governor of Kansas (b. 1833)
1898 - Kepa Te Rangihiwini, Maori military leader
1912 - People who died in the sinking of the RMS Titanic, including:
Edward Smith, captain of the RMS Titanic (b. 1850)
Thomas Andrews, Irish shipbuilder (b. 1873)
Jack Phillips, British wireless telegraphist (b. 1887)
John Jacob Astor IV, American businessman and billionaire (b. 1864)
Benjamin Guggenheim, American businessman (b. 1865)
1913 – Gabdulla Tukay, Tatar poet (b. 1886)
1925 – Fritz Haarmann, German serial killer (b. 1879)
1925 – John Singer Sargent, American painter (b. 1856)
1927 - Gaston Leroux, French writer (b. 1868)
1935 - Anna Ancher, Danish painter (b. 1859)
1938 - César Vallejo, Peruvian poet (b. 1892)
1942 – Robert Musil, Austrian writer (b. 1880)
1944 - Nikolai Fyodorovich Vatutin, Soviet military commander (b. 1901)
1949 - Wallace Beery, American actor (b. 1885)
1957 - Pedro Infante, Mexican actor and singer (b. 1917)
1962 - Clara Blandick, American actress (b. 1880)
1962 - Arsenio Lacson, Mayor of Manila (b. 1912)
1967 - Totò, Italian comedian, actor, writer and singer-songwriter (b. 1898)
1969 – Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg (b. 1887)
1971 – Gurgen Boryan, Armenian poet and playwright (b. 1915)
1972 – Frank Knight, American economist (b. 1885)
1974 - Giovanni D'Anzi, Italian songwriter (b. 1906)
1980 – Jean-Paul Sartre, French philosopher (b. 1905)
1983 – Corrie ten Boom, Dutch writer, activist and Holocaust survivor (b. 1892)
1984 – Tommy Cooper, Welsh comedy magician (b. 1921)
1986 – Jean Genet, French writer (b. 1910)
1988 – Kenneth Williams, British actor and comedian (b. 1926)
1989 - Hu Yaobang, Chinese politician (b. 1915)
1989 - Charles Vanel, French actor and director (b. 1892)
1990 – Greta Garbo, Swedish actress (b. 1905)
1994 – John Curry, British figure skater (b. 1949)
1998 – Pol Pot, Cambodian dictator (b. 1925)
2001 – Joey Ramone, American punk rocker (b. 1951)
2002 - Byron White, American football player, lawyer and jurist (b. 1917)
2004 – Mitsuteru Yokoyama, Japanese manga artist (b. 1934)
2008 – Sean Costello, American blues musician (b. 1979)
2009 – Clement Freud, British writer, broadcaster and Member of Parliament (b. 1924)
2009 - Laszlo Tisza, Hungarian-American physicist (b. 1907)
2011 – Vittorio Arrigoni, Italian activist (b. 1975)
2012 – Murray Rose, British-born Australian swimmer (b. 1939)
2013 - Richard Collins, Canadian actor (b. 1947)
2013 - Richard LeParmentier, British-American actor (b. 1946)
2013 - Sal Castro, American activist and teacher (b. 1933)
2014 - Owen Woodhouse, New Zealand judge (b. 1916)
2014 - Shane Gibson, American guitarist (b. 1979)
2014 - John Houbolt, American aerospace engineer (b. 1919)
2014 - Hugo Villar, Uruguayan physician and politician (b. 1925)
2015 - Surya Bahadur Thapa, Prime Minister of Nepal (b. 1928)
2015 - Alexander Nadson, Belarussian religious leader (b. 1926)
2015 - Jonathan Crombie, Canadian actor (b. 1966)
2015 - Tadahiko Ueda, Japanese footballer (b. 1947)
2016 - Anne Grommerch, French politician (b. 1970)
2017 - David Brumbaugh, American politician (b. 1956)
2017 - Clifton James, American actor (b. 1920)
2017 - Emma Morano, Italian supercentenarian, last-surviving person born in the 1800s (b. 1899)
2017 - Sylvia Moy, American songwriter and record producer (b. 1938)
2018 - R. Lee Ermey, American actor (b. 1944)
2018 - Michael Halliday, English-Australian linguist (b. 1925)
2018 - Judy Kennedy, American politician (b. 1944)
2018 - Waqar Ahmad Shah, Indian politician (b. 1943)
2018 - Frank Skartados, Greek-American politician (b. 1956)
2018 - Vittorio Taviani, Italian movie director (b. 1929)
2018 - Bob Braden, American computer scientist (b. 1934)
2018 - Frank Drowota, American judge (b. 1938)
2019 - Owen Garriott, American astronaut (b. 1930)
2019 - Aleksandar Kostov, Bulgarian footballer (b. 1938)
2019 - Les Reed, English songwriter (b. 1935)
2019 - Winston L. Shelton, American inventor and entrepreneur (b. 1922)
2019 - Joaquim Alberto Silva, Angolan footballer (b. 1974)
Tax Day (United States)
Kim Il-Sung's birthday (North Korea)
Father Damien Day (Hawaii)
Jackie Robinson Day in Major League Baseball
Bengali New Year
World Art Day
Calvin Coolidge (born John Calvin Coolidge Jr.; July 4, 1872 – January 5, 1933) was the 30th president of the United States between 1923 and 1929.
He was a conservative who supported business and lower taxes.
He was the only president of the United States to be born on July 4.
He was married to Grace Coolidge and had 2 children: John Calvin Coolidge III (born September 6, 1906 - died May 31, 2000) and John Calvin Jr. (born April 13, 1908 - died July 7, 1924).
His younger son John Calvin Coolidge IV died at 16 while playing tennis at the White House.
His son was wearing tennis shoes without socks and died from a toe infection.
He was buried at the foot of Hill Cemetery.
After this, President Coolidge may have been depressed.
Coolidge served as the Mayor of Northampton, Massachusetts.
He later served as the Governor of Massachusetts.
As governor, he became famous because of his response during the Boston Police Strike.
Coolidge fired the police who went on strike and gave the jobs to unemployed World War 1 veterans (he gave the same bonuses that the striking policemen asked for to the veterans).
In 1920, he was nominated Vice President under Warren G. Harding.
The Harding-Coolidge team won easily.
Harding died in 1923 and Coolidge became the next president.
He was inaugurated at his family farm in Vermont by his father John Calvin Coolidge Sr.
Coolidge was president during a prosperous economy and the country did not face many challenges.
He believed that the federal government should be as small as possible.
He supported tax cuts and wanted the federal government to not intervene in the economy.
Some think this is linked to the Great Depression.
Coolidge was criticized for refusing to give subsidies to farmers and when a giant flood happened in Mississippi during 1927, he did not want the federal government to be involved.
This was part of his belief of federalism, that the country's problems should be solved mainly by state governments and local governments rather than the federal government.
The legacy of Calvin Coolidge is mixed.
People who support more federal government involvement in the economy do not like him.
People who support less federal government involvement in the economy like him.
Silent Cal
Calvin Coolidge was nicknamed "Silent Cal" because he did not talk much.
There is a story that at a dinner party, a woman once told Coolidge that she could get more than two words out of him, to which he replied "You lose."
Coolidge's White House biography
1933 deaths
Deaths from coronary thrombosis
Governors of Massachusetts
Politicians from Vermont
Massachusetts Republicans
Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884 – December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, from 1945 to 1953.
He became president when President Franklin D. Roosevelt died in office.
Harry S. Truman was born on May 8, 1884, in Lamar, Missouri.
The initial, "S", in Truman's name has no meaning.
Truman was raised in Independence, Missouri.
He lived for 12 years as a Missouri farmer.
The presidential election of 1892 happened when Truman was eight years old.
He wanted Grover Cleveland, a Democrat like Truman's family, to win.
Grover Cleveland did win.
Truman joined the United States Military in 1917.
He went to France in World War I and became a captain in the Field Artillery.
Truman left the military in 1919.
That same year, he married Elizabeth Virginia Wallace.
He opened a clothing store in Kansas City.
Political life
Truman was active in the Democratic Party.
In 1922, he was elected judge of Jackson County Court.
Two years later, Truman lost the next county judge election.
However, he was elected county judge again in 1926.
In 1934, Truman was elected Senator of Missouri.
He became a member of the Interstate Commerce Committee.
He was also the vice-chairman of a subcommittee on railroad safety.
In 1940, Truman ran for re-election to the Senate.
First he would have to beat another Democrat, Governor Lloyd Stark, in a primary election.
The primary election would decide which Democrat would go on to face a Republican candidate in the final elections in November.
President Franklin Roosevelt and St. Louis Mayor Bernard Dickmann both wanted Stark to win.
Truman had a hard time getting money.
Most people thought he would lose.
However, about a month before the primary election, the railroad unions said that they wanted Truman to win.
Then, two days before primary election day, Bernard Dickmann also said that he wanted Truman to win.
Truman won by about 8,000 votes.
He also won the election in November.
Truman became the head of a committee that looked at how much money the United States was spending on defense during World War II.
He found billions of dollars of spending that he thought was a waste, and could be cut out of what the U.S. was spending.
Truman supported Roosevelt's leadership of the country in the war, but wanted to make the government less wasteful and more effective.
He became well known for leading that committee.
Vice Presidency, 1945
In 1944, President Roosevelt ran for reelection again.
Roosevelt was in bad health and he did not have much longer to live.
The Democratic Party realized that whoever they selected as Vice President could be the next president of the United States. (
In the U.S. government, if the President dies, the Vice President automatically becomes the new president.)
Henry A. Wallace, Roosevelt's former Vice President, was not chosen because he had a friendly attitude toward the Soviet Union, which many people saw as a dictatorship.
Roosevelt wanted Truman as his Vice President, and Truman was chosen.
They won the election, and Roosevelt began his fourth term as president.
On April 12, 1945, shortly after his fourth inauguration, Franklin Delano Roosevelt died.
Truman became president.
Presidency, 1945–53
Truman had become president during the last few months of World War II.
While Truman was vice president, Roosevelt never told him much about World War II.
At that time, people did not think of the Vice Presidency as an important job in politics.
Because of this, Truman entered the presidency knowing not much more than the average person about what the U.S. military was doing in World War II.
Nazi Germany surrendered less than a month after Truman became president.
This ended the war in Europe.
However, the Japanese kept fighting.
The Allies of World War II made the Potsdam Declaration, telling Japan to surrender or it would face "prompt and utter destruction."
Japan did not surrender, so Truman ordered the first atomic bomb to be dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6th, 1945.
Three days later, Truman ordered the second atomic bomb to be dropped on Nagasaki, Japan.
Japan surrendered and the war ended.
The huge destructive power of the atomic bombs razed both cities, and killed over one hundred thousand people, with many more dying of radiation induced illnesses over subsequent years.
People who disagreed with the decision, like General and future president Dwight Eisenhower, believe it was a cruel and inhumane attack on innocent people, when Japan was already close to being beaten.
Other people thought it was a good decision because it ended the war early.
Truman thought that if the U.S. had invaded Japan instead of using the bombs to end the war quickly, many more Americans would have died.
After the war, Truman ordered Europe (which was destroyed during the war) to be repaired with the Marshall Plan.
Germany was divided into two parts after the war.
The Soviet Union controlled East Germany.
The United States, Britain, and France controlled West Germany.