On this date in history:

In 1775, the first slavery abolition society in North America was founded by Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush.

In 1828, Noah Webster published his American Dictionary of the English Language. It was the first dictionary of American English to be published.

In 1861, the flag of the Confederacy was raised over Fort Sumter, S.C., as Union troops there surrendered in the early days of the Civil War.

In 1865, John Wilkes Booth shot U.S. President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington. (Lincoln died the next morning. He was succeeded by Vice President Andrew Johnson.)

In 1927, the first Volvo was produced in Sweden.

In 1939, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck was published.

In 1994, in what was called a tragic mistake, two U.S. warplanes shot down two U.S. Army helicopters in northern Iraq's no-fly zone. All 26 people aboard were killed.

In 2003, U.S. military officials declared that the principal fighting in Iraq was over after Marines captured Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's home town.

In 2007, 32 people died in the collision of a truck and a bus carrying elementary schoolchildren on a highway in Turkey.

In 2008, Silvio Berlusconi swept back into power in a third term as prime minister of Italy in a new election that gave him control of both houses of Parliament.

In 2009, the United States lifted restrictions on Cuban-Americans visiting relatives in Cuba. Left intact were the trade embargo and travel restrictions for non-Cuban Americans.

In 2010, the devastating magnitude-7.1 Yushu earthquake staggered northwest China. (Officials reported the death toll eventually surpassed 2,600, with many thousands of people injured.)

In 2013, Nicolas Maduro was elected president of Venezuela.

In 2014, the Pulitzer Prize for public service went to the Washington Post and Guardian US for their stories based on documents leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.

Copyright 2015 by United Press International