April 15 in History

The sinking of the RMS Titanic in April 1912 is one of the best-known maritime disasters in history. The largest passenger ship in the world at the time struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic on her maiden voyage and sank in roughly two hours and forty minutes. Of the roughly 2,200 people aboard, only about 700 survived. The tragedy shocked the public on both sides of the Atlantic and led to lasting changes in how ships are made safe.

On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson took the field at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn as first baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers, becoming the first African American to play in the modern major leagues. His debut ended roughly six decades of racial exclusion in the sport and became one of the best-known moments in the history of American civil rights, arriving years before the landmark legal and political victories of the 1950s and 1960s.