1775 – The first American society for the abolition of slavery was organized by Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush.
1828 – Noah Webster copyrights the first edition of his dictionary.
1865 – President Abraham Lincoln was shot and mortally wounded by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. (He died the next day.)
1902 – The first J.C. Penney store is opened in Kemmerer, Wyoming.
1912 – The British liner Titanic collided with an iceberg in the North Atlantic and began to sink.
1939 – The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck is first published.
