Emeka Nweze
Yesterday, France experienced one of her most devastating tragedies. The Norte-Dame de Paris, one of the most widely recognised symbols of the city of Paris and the French Nation was engulfed in fire.
April 15 in history has become synonymous with tragedies. The French cathedral fire marked another disaster to have taken place on that particular date.
Here is a list of other tragedies in history that occurred on April 15.
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln (1865)
On the tragic morning of 15th April 1865, at around 7:22 am, former American president Abraham Lincoln lost his battle against life and breathed his last. The 16th President of the United States was shot a day earlier by John Wilkes Booth, a famous actor, who was also a supporter of the Confederates. Lincoln was the first U.S President to be assasinated and his funeral marked and extend period of national mourning.
RMS Titanic sink (1912)
In the early hours of April 15 1912, the Titanic sank into the North Atlantic ocean, just four days into its first voyage from Southampton to New York. Titanic was the largest ocean liner in service at that time with a lot of prestige.
Titanic radio operators had received six warnings of sea ice on April 14 from other ships. However, Titanic prioritised time keeping over anything and kept traveling near her maximum speed when her lookouts sighted the iceberg. Unable to turn quickly enough, the ship struck the iceberg at around 23:40, and four hours later at 2:20 am, the ship sank.
The sink resulted in the deaths of 1,500 of the 2,224 people on board the ship, making it one of the deadliest marine disasters in history.
Hillsborough disaster (1989)
The Hillsborough disaster remains the worst disaster in British sporting history. The disaster was a fatal crush of people during FA cup semi-final match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forrest at the Hillsborough stadium in Sheffield.
The crash occurred in the two standing-alone area of the Leppings Lane stand allocated to Liverpool supporters. Although Liverpool had more supporters, Nottingham Forrest was allocated the larger area. 96 people were recorded dead and 766 were injured as a result of the disaster.
Boston marathon bombing (2013)
At the 117th edition of the Boston Marathon, two homemade pressure cooker bombs detonated 14 seconds and 210 yards apart at 2:49 pm., near the finish line of the race, killing 3 people and injuring approximately 264 people.
The FBI later identified the two suspects as Chechen Kyrgyzstani-American brothers Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Tamerlen Tsarnaev. After images of the two suspects were released, a manhunt ensued. Tsarnaev was shot several times by the police and his brother ran over him while escaping in a stolen car.
The manhunt continued for Dzhokhar, and on April 19, thousand of law enforcement officers searched a 20-block area of Watertown. At around 6 pm, a resident of Watertown discovered Dzhokhar hiding in a boat in his backyard. He was shot and wounded by the police before taken into custody.
Norte-Dame de Paris fire (2019)
On April 15 2019, at about 18:50 local time, catastrophe struck and left a nation in mourning. A huge fire that lasted for over 12 hours engulfed the roof of the Dame Cathedral, one of finest examples of French Gothic architecture, causing significant damage.
The fire is believed to have started in the cathedral’s attic, in the evening when the cathedral was open to tourists. Immediately the Paris prosecutors office, opened an investigation into the fire to be led by the Paris Region Judicial police.
