1912 – A British passenger line RMS Titanic sinks into the North Atlantic at 2:20 a.m., two hours and forty minutes after hitting an iceberg. Only 710 of the 2222 passengers and crew on board survive. The Titanic RMS, until that period, was presented as the maritime pride of Great Britain. The catastrophic drowning of the Titanic trans-ocean is considered one of the greatest tragedies known to mankind in peacetime.
1924 – Jup Kastrati was born in Shkodra, he was an Albanian researcher and academic. Due to anti-fascist convictions, the authorities during the Italian occupation interned him in the concentration camp, Comando Z, in Kodrat e Tepe, Shkodër, in the prison of Prizren. After the liberation he completed his higher studies at the Faculty of Philology at the State University of Tirana. He became a Doctor of Philological Sciences in 1982 with the dissertation “History of Albanian grammar” with 1500 typographical pages. In 1987 he was awarded the title Professor. Jup Kastrati has served in education for 47 years, of which 37 years, in high school. He is one of the founders of the Higher Pedagogical Institute of Shkodra, on September 2, 1957, and has worked hard for the establishment of the University of Shkodra. He was decorated with the orders “Teacher of the People” as well as “Grand Master of Work”. He was the head of the Department of Albanian language at the Higher Pedagogical Institute of Shkodra in 1973-1990. Jup Kastrati has given scientific lectures at the universities of Tirana, Prishtina, Skopje, Tetovo, Calabria, Naples, Salerno, Perugia, New York, etc. He is the author of many books. Within the years 1956-1999 he published 35 books. Scientific titles include: Assistant Professor, Doctor of Science, Professor
1945 – The Bergen-Belsen concentration camp is liberated by British troops. Originally this was an “exchange camp”, where Jewish hostages were held with the intention of exchanging them for German prisoners of war held abroad. The camp was later expanded to accommodate Jews from other camps. More than 50,000 internees of various nationalities died in the camp, including Anne Frank.
1946 – Faik Shatku, lawyer, minister and Albanian representative of the prefecture of Dibra in the National Assembly during the 1937-’39 legislature, dies in Tirana. On 01.06.1938 with the changes that were made in the government of the Prime Minister Koço Kotta, Faik Shatku was mandated as Minister of Justice, a position which he held until 07.04.1939. During this period he initiated the reform for the criminalization of some criminal offenses, repealed some archaic laws as well as reformatted the criminal and civil procedural legislation. With the invasion of Albania, on April 7, 1939, he left fascist Italy together with King Zog I and the accompanying suite for Turkey. In March 1940 he returned to his homeland, but was interned in Italy, without any motivation. He was first held in Bari prison and then in Bergamo. In May 1941 he was released from prison and returned home. Upon his return, he is appointed chairman of the audit commission at the Ministry of Finance. He passed away on April 15, 1946 in Tirana.
1969 – North Korea destroys a United States Navy aircraft over the Sea of Japan, killing all 31 crew members on board. The Lockheed EC-121M aircraft crashed 90 nautical miles (167 km) off the coast of North Korea and all 31 Americans (30 sailors and 1 sailor) on board were killed. This tragedy is the only major loss of U.S. air during the Cold War era.
1986 – United States launches Operation El Dorado Canyon, a military airstrike operation that targets Libyan targets. El Dorado Canyon was carried out in response to the blowing up of a disco in West Germany that killed two American soldiers. During these bombings, the residence of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, accused of financing terrorists, was also heavily attacked.
1989 – A human repression occurs at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield Wednesday F.C. in the FA Cup semi-finals, resulting in the deaths of 96 Liverpool fans. Confrontations between rival fans, respectively of both teams, would lead to a human collapse where Liverpool fans, in an attempt to get out of this situation, were pushed with each other. This would be one of the most serious tragedies of English football.
1990 – Greta Garbo, 85, dies. Garbo, was a Swedish-American film actress during the 1920s and 1930s. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Garbo in fifth place on its list of the biggest stars of classic Hollywood cinema. For most of her career she was known for her melancholy and miserable personality due to her portraits of many tragic characters in her films.
1994 – The Marrakesh Agreement on the Establishment of the World Trade Organization is adopted. The Marrakesh Agreement, manifested by the Marrakesh Declaration, was signed, in Morocco, by 123 nations. This marked the end of bilateral talks in the 8-year-old Uruguay Round and the creation of the World Trade Organization, which officially entered the fray on January 1, 1995.