On this date in history:

In 1817, the first U.S. public school for the deaf, Connecticut Asylum for the Education and Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Persons (now the American School for the Deaf), was founded at Hartford, Conn.

In 1865, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln died of an assassin's bullet fired the night before at Ford's Theatre in Washington. Vice President Andrew Johnson was sworn in as chief executive.

In 1912, the luxury liner Titanic sank in the northern Atlantic Ocean off Newfoundland after striking an iceberg the previous night. About 1,500 lives were lost.

In 1924, the first Rand McNally road atlas was published.

In 1947, Major League Baseball's color line was officially broken with the debut of Jackie Robinson for the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn on Opening Day. Robinson, who went on to become one of the game's great stars, walked and scored a run in the Dodgers' 5-3 victory over the Boston Braves.

In 1955, the first franchised McDonald's was opened in Des Plaines, Ill., by Ray Kroc, who got the idea from a hamburger restaurant in San Bernardino, Calif., run by the McDonald brothers.

In 1998, Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge leader who presided over a reign of terror in Cambodia in the late 1970s, died at a jungle outpost near the Cambodia-Thailand border.

In 1999, astronomers announced they discovered evidence of a planetary system in the constellation Andromeda. At the time it was the only known planet system other than the one around the sun.

In 2009, Tea Party protests, largely critical of U.S. President Barack Obama and his policies, had their biggest turnout to date on April 15, tax day -- in many cities.

In 2010, in a speech at the Kennedy Space Center, U.S. President Barack Obama outlined long-range space goals, including a manned flight to Mars by the mid-2030s.

In 2013, two pressure-cooker bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring more than 260.

In 2014, after sending a distress signal, a South Korean ferry capsized off the country's southern coast, an accident that killed about 300 people.

Copyright 2015 by United Press International