Historical Disasters & Tragedies that have occurred April 15th...

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Historical Disasters & Tragedies that have occurred April 15th - 20th

A number of tragic national and international events have occurred between April 15-20. This gallery gives you examples of why one could believe this stretch of days is "cursed."

Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States was assasinated on April 15, 1865.

RMS Titanic was a British passenger liner that sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after colliding with an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, UK to New York City, US. Photo by Central Press/Getty Images

The Hillsborough disaster was an incident that occurred on 15 April 1989 at the Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, England. During the FA Cup semi-final match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest football clubs, a human crush resulted in the deaths of 96 people and injuries to 766 others. Credit: David Cannon/Allsport

The Boston Marathon bombings were a series of two attacks targeting spectators and attendees of the city's annual marathon race on April 15, 2013. Two pressure cooker bombs exploded killing 3 people and injuring an estimated 264 others.The bombs exploded about 12 seconds and 210 yards apart, near the finish line on Boylston Street. Photo:1st Boston Marathon blast seen from 2nd floor and a half block away Source: Wikipedia Commons|Aaron Tang

The Virginia Tech massacre was a school shooting that took place on April 16, 2007, on the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia. Seung-Hui Cho, a senior at Virginia Tech, shot and killed 32 people and wounded 17 others in two separate attacks, approximately two hours apart, before committing suicide. Photo: Snapshot from one of several videos Cho Seung-hui sent to the media. Source: NBC News / MSNBC

On April 17, 2013, an ammonium nitrate explosion occurred at the West Fertilizer Company storage and distribution facility in West, Texas, eighteen miles north of Waco while emergency services personnel were responding to a fire at the facility. Fifteen people were killed, more than 160 were injured, and more than 150 buildings were damaged or destroyed. Investigators have confirmed that ammonium nitrate was the trigger for the explosion, but the cause of the initial fire is as yet unknown. Photo: Aerial photo of the west explosion site taken several days after blast (4/22/2013).

Ruby Ridge was the site of a deadly siege in Idaho in 1992. The incident involved Randy Weaver, his family, his friend Kevin Harris and agents of the US Marshals Service and FBI. It resulted in the death of Weaver's son Sammy, his wife Vicki, and Deputy U.S. Marshal William Francis Degan. The situation escalated on April 18, 1992 when a helicopter reported that Weaver had fired on them. This is the last photograph of Vicki Weaver before she was killed by an FBI sniper 22 Aug 1992 in the Ruby Ridge standoff. It was taken by USMS surveillance the morning of 21 Aug 1992 and was evidence at the subsequent trial. Source: Credited to Court Files, U.S. v Weaver in Walter "Ruby Ridge" Regan 2002

A 51-day siege of the Mount Carmel Center in Waco Texas ended on April 19 when U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno approved recommendations of veteran FBI officials to proceed with a final assault in which the Branch Davidians were to be removed from their building by force. In the course of the assault, the building caught fire. Barricaded inside, 76 Branch Davidians, including David Koresh, did not survive the fire; seventeen of these victims were children under 17. Source: Federal Bureau of investigation

The Oklahoma City bombing was a domestic terrorist bomb attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. It remained the most destructive act of terrorism committed in the United States until the September 11 attacks of 2001. The bombing killed 168 people and injured more than 680 others. The blast destroyed or damaged 324 buildings within a 16-block radius, destroyed or burned 86 cars, and shattered glass in 258 nearby buildings. Photo: Aerial view of en:Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building after bombing, 1995. Source: US Army Corps of Engineers

Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889. Hitler was at the centre of Nazi Germany, World War II in Europe, and the Holocaust which resulted in the deaths of at least eleven million people. Photo: 6th September 1938: The Chancellor of Germany, Adolf Hitler (1889 -1945) standing in his car as he travels through the ancient town of Nuremberg to open the Nazi Congress. In the rear seat of the car on the left is Hitler's secretary and friend Martin Bormann (1900 - 1945). (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

The Ludlow Massacre was an attack by the Colorado National Guard and Colorado Fuel & Iron Company camp guards on a tent colony of 1,200 striking coal miners and their families at Ludlow, Colorado, on April 20, 1914. Thirty-nine people, including women and eleven children, were killed; John D. Rockefeller Jr., the chief mine owner, was pilloried for what happened. This picture is a portrait of men, boys, and girls at the UMW camp for coal miners on strike against CF&I in Ludlow, Las Animas County, Colorado; sign on canvas tent behind the crowd reads: "Dispensary and office of Drs. Harvey and Davis Union Doctors." Credit: Western History/Genealogy Department, Denver Public Library.

The Columbine High School massacre was a school shooting which occurred on April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Colorado. In addition to shootings, the complex and highly planned attack involved a fire bomb to divert firefighters, propane tanks converted to bombs placed in the cafeteria, 99 explosive devices, and bombs rigged in cars. Two senior students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, murdered a total of 12 students and one teacher. They injured 24 additional students. The pair then committed suicide. Photo: The security camera of Columbine High School during the shooting.

The Johnson Space Center shooting was an incident of hostage taking that occurred on April 20, 2007 in the Communication and Tracking Development Laboratory, at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. The gunman, William Phillips, an employee for Jacobs Engineering shot and killed one person and took a hostage for over three hours before committing suicide. Police said Phillips was under review for poor job performance and he feared being dismissed. Photo: William A. Phillips, the gunman in the Johnson Space Center shooting. Source: Official JSC Photo made available via FOIA.

The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion killed 11 and caused the rig to sink, initiating a massive oil discharge in the Gulf of Mexico. The resulting fire could not be extinguished and, on 22 April 2010, Deepwater Horizon sank, leaving the well gushing at the seabed and causing the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history. Photo: Platform supply vessels battle the blazing remnants of the off shore oil rig Deepwater Horizon. A Coast Guard MH-65C dolphin rescue helicopter and crew document the fire aboard the mobile offshore drilling unit Deepwater Horizon, while searching for survivors. Multiple Coast Guard helicopters, planes and cutters responded to rescue the Deepwater Horizon's 126 person crew. Source: US Coast Guard

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Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States was assasinated on April 15, 1865.

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