Today is Tuesday, April 15, the 106th day of 2008. There are 260 days left in the year. On this date

Today is Tuesday, April 15, the 106th day of 2008. There are 260 days left in the year. On this date in 1912, the British luxury liner RMS Titanic sinks in the North Atlantic off Newfoundland, less than three hours after striking an iceberg. Some 1,500 people die.

In 1817, the first American school for the deaf opens in Hartford, Conn. In 1861, three days after the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, S.C., President Lincoln declares a state of insurrection and calls out Union troops. In 1865, President Lincoln dies, several hours after being shot at Ford’s Theater in Washington by John Wilkes Booth. Andrew Johnson becomes the nation’s 17th president. In 1945, during World War II, British and Canadian troops liberate the Nazi concentration camp Bergen-Belsen. In 1947, Jackie Robinson, baseball’s first black major league player, makes his official debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers on opening day. (The Dodgers defeat the Boston Braves, 5-3.) In 1986, the United States launches an air raid against Libya in response to the bombing of a discotheque in Berlin on April 5; Libya says 37 people, mostly civilians, are killed.

April 15, 1983: Gov. Richard F. Celeste agrees that Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine is cost effective in training doctors, but the consortium nonetheless may be expected to trim its enrollment.

Sheriff James A. Traficant Jr. says an FBI special agent threatened him with reprisals if he moves against FBI agents on charges of dereliction of duty. In court, he tells U.S. District Judge Ann Aldrich that he wants a different judge to preside at his trial on federal bribery charges. He accuses her of bias and says he wants a judge who isn’t from Cleveland.

April 15, 1968: Youngstown clergy use Easter Sunday to deliver sermons urging Christian fellowship and efforts to overcome hatred as Christ overcame death.

Struthers police cite a railroad engineer after a 180-car Penn Central freight train ties up traffic at four downtown intersections for more than a half-hour Easter morning.

April 15, 1958: The Mill Creek Park Board gives the Mahoning County commissioners a week to take action to halt pollution of Lake Newport.

Nine Mahoning County men are among 172 new lawyers who passed the Ohio Bar examination. They are: Charles J. Bannon, William M. Collins, Lawrence V. Cregan, Phillip A. Crino, Elmer T. George, William G. Houser, Steve P. Stanos, James H. Williams and C. Robert Wright. Two from Trumbull County are John L. Breckenridge and David M. McCreary.

April 15, 1933: Peter J. Corll, Youngstown’s poor relief superintendent and former Mahoning County sheriff, will head the Valley Mead Brewing Co., organized by Youngstown and Cleveland interests, which purchased the French Creek Valley brewery at Meadville.

Dr. Alphonso D. Rockwell, 92, who invented the electric chair while seeking a more humane method of execution than hanging, dies in New York. Rockwell served on a committee with Thomas A. Edison to test the chair.