April 14 in History

The Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage was founded in Philadelphia on April 14, 1775, just five days before the battles of Lexington and Concord. It was the first abolition society in North America. Benjamin Franklin served as its president from 1787 until his death in 1790. The society pursued legal challenges on behalf of free Black people who had been kidnapped and sold into slavery, a common practice. It also lobbied state legislatures for gradual emancipation laws. Pennsylvania passed the first state abolition act in 1780, partly due to the society's influence. The organization demonstrated that formal, sustained institutional pressure could challenge slavery through courts and legislatures, establishing a model that abolitionists would use for the next 90 years.

The first westbound Pony Express delivery reached San Francisco on April 14, 1860, completing the 1,966-mile route from St. Joseph, Missouri, in nine days and 23 hours. The rider system averaged 250 miles per day by using relay stations every 10-15 miles where riders switched to fresh horses in under two minutes. The final leg from Sacramento to San Francisco went by steamer. The Pony Express represented the fastest possible overland communication before the telegraph, carrying letters for $5 per half ounce, equivalent to about $175 today. Despite its romantic image, the service was a financial catastrophe. Russell, Majors and Waddell invested $500,000 and never turned a profit. The enterprise lasted just 18 months before the transcontinental telegraph made it obsolete.

John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre at approximately 10:15 PM on April 14, 1865, during a performance of Our American Cousin. Booth, a famous actor who knew the theater's layout, entered the presidential box and fired a .44 caliber Derringer into the back of Lincoln's head from point-blank range. He then leapt to the stage, catching his spur on a Treasury Guard flag and breaking his left fibula. Booth shouted "Sic semper tyrannis" (Thus always to tyrants) and escaped on horseback. Lincoln never regained consciousness and died at 7:22 AM the next morning at the Petersen House across the street. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton reportedly said "Now he belongs to the ages." Lincoln was 56.

Noah Webster received copyright protection for his American Dictionary of the English Language on April 14, 1828, after spending 26 years compiling 70,000 entries, 12,000 more than any previous English dictionary. Webster learned 26 languages to trace word etymologies. His dictionary deliberately standardized American spellings distinct from British English: "color" instead of "colour," "center" instead of "centre," "defense" instead of "defence." He believed an independent nation needed its own language. The first edition sold 2,500 copies at $20 each, roughly $600 in today's money. Webster mortgaged his home to finance the second edition. The Merriam brothers purchased the rights after his death in 1843, and Merriam-Webster remains the standard American dictionary.

The RMS Titanic struck an iceberg at 11:40 PM on April 14, 1912, in the North Atlantic approximately 400 miles south of Newfoundland. The collision opened a 300-foot gash along the starboard side below the waterline, flooding five of the sixteen watertight compartments. The ship was designed to float with four flooded; five was fatal. Captain Edward Smith ordered women and children to the lifeboats, but the ship carried only 20 boats with capacity for 1,178 people, roughly half the 2,224 aboard. Many boats launched partially empty because passengers initially refused to believe the ship was sinking. The water temperature was 28 degrees Fahrenheit. Most of the 1,517 who died succumbed to hypothermia rather than drowning.

Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich filed suit against Napster on April 13, 2000, after discovering that a demo of the song "I Disappear" was circulating on the peer-to-peer file-sharing service before its official release. The band identified 335,435 Napster users who had shared Metallica songs and demanded their accounts be terminated. Ulrich personally delivered 60,000 pages of user names to Napster's headquarters. The lawsuit became a cultural flashpoint: music fans saw Metallica as greedy millionaires attacking their audience, while artists saw Napster as organized theft. The case, combined with a separate suit from Dr. Dre, led to Napster's shutdown in 2001. The music industry's revenue had dropped 40% by 2010, forcing the shift to streaming that now defines the business.