Today is Thursday, April 15, the 105th day of 2010. There are 260 days left in the year.

On this date:

In 1817, the first permanent American school for the deaf opened in Hartford, Conn.

In 1850, the city of San Francisco was incorporated.

In 1861, three days after the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, President Abraham Lincoln declared a state of insurrection and called out Union troops.

In 1865, President Abraham Lincoln died, nine hours after being shot the night before by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theater in Washington. Andrew Johnson became the nation's 17th president.

In 1912, the British luxury liner RMS Titanic sank in the North Atlantic off Newfoundland, less than three hours after striking an iceberg; some 1,500 people died.

In 1945, during World War II, British and Canadian troops liberated the Nazi concentration camp Bergen-Belsen.

In 1947, Jackie Robinson, baseball's first black major league player, made his official debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers on opening day. The Dodgers defeated the Boston Braves, 5-3.

In 1960, a three-day conference to form the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) began at Shaw University in Raleigh, N.C. The group's first chairman was Marion Barry.

In 1980, existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre died in Paris at age 74.

In 1990, actress Greta Garbo died in New York at age 84.

In 2009, tens of thousands of protesters staged "tea parties" around the country to tap into the collective angst stirred up by a bad economy, government spending and bailouts.

Thought for Today:

"Freedom is what you do with what's been done to you." — Jean-Paul Sartre, 1905-1980.