10 years ago

From the Journal Tribune: “The Shoreline Explorer trolley and shuttle service, set to connect several coastal York County towns beginning in June, recently announced The Cliff House Resort & Spa as its first sponsor. On Friday, representatives from the York County Community Action Corp., who have spearheaded the project, met with the owner of the resort in Ogunquit to pose with the first trolly painted and prepared for operation.”

50 years ago

From the Biddeford-Saco Journal: “Police Chief Robert Foran said today his department is making plans for the annual Bicycle Rodeo which is sponsored by the department and the Biddeford-Saco Lodge of Elks. ”

100 years ago

From the Biddeford Daily Journal: “Thursday evening, a little before 7 o’clock while George W. Mitchell was at work on his automobile at his home, located on 266 Alfred St., a spark from the wires set fire to some gasoline and the blaze spread. For a while, it looked as though it would do much damage. The fire department called the alarm from box 38 located on Alfred Street near Graham Street. While waiting, Mr. Mitchell and others were busy with shovels and dirt and soon had the blaze estinguished.”

— Christopher Murphy and Krysteana Scribner

Today in History

Today is Friday, April 15, the 106th day of 2016. There are 260 days left in the year.

On this date: In 1850, the city of San Francisco was incorporated. 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 1920, a paymaster and a guard were shot and killed during a robbery at a shoe company in South Braintree, Massachusetts; Italian immigrants Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were accused of the crime, convicted and executed amid worldwide protests that they hadn’t received a fair trial. In 1945, during World War II, British and Canadian troops liberated the Nazi concentration camp Bergen- Belsen. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had died on April 12, was buried at the Roosevelt family home in Hyde Park, New York. In 1989, 96 people died in a crush of soccer fans at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, England. Students in Beijing launched a series of pro-democracy protests; the demonstrations culminated in a government crackdown at Tiananmen Square. In 2013, two bombs packed with nails and other metal shards exploded at the Boston Marathon finish line, killing two women and an 8-year-old boy and injuring more than 260. In 2014, Boko Haram terrorists kidnapped some 276 girls from a school in northeastern Nigeria.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On April 15, 1912, the British luxury liner RMS Titanic foundered in the North Atlantic off Newfoundland more than 2 1/2 hours after hitting an iceberg; 1,514 people died, while less than half as many survived.

Ten years ago U.S.-led coalition forces using warplanes and artillery clashed with a small band of militants holed up in a house and a cave complex in eastern Afghanistan in fighting that killed at least seven Afghan civilians.

Five years ago The first of three days of tornadoes to strike the central and southern U.S. began; according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, there were an estimated 177 twisters and at least 38 fatalities.

One year ago Douglas Hughes, a postal carrier from Florida, flew a one-person gyrocopter onto the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol as a protest against money in politics; he later pleaded guilty to operating a gyrocopter without a license, a felony. — By The Associated Press