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🇺🇸This Week In History - Abraham Lincoln Was Assassinated

🇺🇸This Week In History - Abraham Lincoln Was Assassinated

The week of April. 13 - April. 19 throughout history.

April 15, 2025

Welcome back History Nerds,

Nothing better than reading about history and having a good laugh. This week surely won’t disappoint, as we’ve got a bit of both for you. For all you festival goers, or hippies (whatever you prefer to call yourselves), this one will be especially interesting to you. Why might you ask? Well, it’s about one of the first ever acid trips. And don’t worry war enthusiasts, we’ve got you covered as well since the Bay of Pigs invasion also happened this week in history. We hope you enjoy!

Did You Know? On April 3, 1973, a guy walked down a New York City sidewalk, pulled out a 2.5-pound mobile phone the size of a brick, and made history. His name was Martin Cooper, and he was calling his biggest rival at Bell Labs just to say, basically, “Guess what I’m using?” It was the first mobile phone call ever—and the first recorded case of tech-based petty revenge.

During Your History Lesson You’ll Learn About:

Unlocking the Mind: The First LSD Trip
The Titanic: When “Unsinkable” Sank Anyway
The Bay Of Pigs Failure
The Night the Curtain Fell on Lincoln

The Story Boring LSD: Bicycle Day

On April 16, 1943, Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann stumbled upon the mind-altering effects of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), a compound he had synthesized five years earlier at Sandoz Laboratories in Basel. While handling the substance, Hofmann absorbed a small amount—likely through his fingertips—and experienced vivid, dreamlike sensations, marking the first accidental psychedelic trip. Intrigued, he deliberately ingested 250 micrograms on April 19, now celebrated as "Bicycle Day," and let’s just say he went on quite the journey. Accompanied by his assistant, Hofmann took his bike home through Basel’s streets as the drug took hold, his perception warping into kaleidoscopic visions and heightened awareness, lasting several hours.

Hofmann’s experiment, conducted in the midst of World War II’s gloom, unveiled LSD’s potential to probe the human psyche. His initial dose—considered high by later standards—induced intense visual distortions and emotional shifts, which he meticulously documented. The substance, derived from ergot fungus, had been part of his research into circulatory stimulants, but its psychoactive properties were unexpected. After recovering, Hofmann reported no hangover, only a lingering sense of clarity, sparking curiosity about its therapeutic and scientific possibilities.

This discovery, spanning April 16 to 19, laid the groundwork for psychedelic research, influencing psychiatry, culture, and neuroscience in decades to come. Not to mention fueling music festivals and raves across the world. Hofmann’s notes from those days, later published, described his Bicycle Day ride as a “fantastic voyage,” with sensations unfolding over roughly eight hours before subsiding. Though initially obscure, his findings at Sandoz Laboratories would resonate widely, cementing LSD’s place in history as a window into consciousness.

The Titanic: When “Unsinkable” Sank Anyway

On the night of April 14, 1912, the RMS Titanic—the largest and fanciest ship of its time—hit an iceberg and sank in the frigid North Atlantic. It was just four days into its maiden voyage from England to New York, and despite being called “unsinkable,” the ship proved otherwise in less than three hours. By the morning of April 15, over 1,500 people had lost their lives, making it one of the deadliest maritime disasters ever during peacetime. The Titanic was a masterpiece of design, but unfortunately, it was also a masterclass in what happens when you ignore ice warnings and don’t pack enough lifeboats.

The ship had over 2,200 passengers and crew, but lifeboat space for barely half. And most of the crew hadn’t practiced a proper evacuation. So when the iceberg hit, it was chaos—especially in the freezing water, where hypothermia set in fast. If you’ve seen the movie, you know the story of Jack and Rose—and yes, people are still arguing about whether Jack could’ve fit on that door. (Spoiler: he definitely could have. NASA could probably run the math at this point.)

For those who study military or naval history, the Titanic disaster is a case study in overconfidence, poor planning, and ignored warnings—a perfect storm of human error and natural force. It led to massive changes in maritime safety, including better lifeboat regulations, 24/7 radio watch, and the creation of the International Ice Patrol. So while it wasn’t a wartime sinking, the Titanic left behind hard lessons that changed naval operations forever. And yes—icebergs are still undefeated.

Trivia Time

In every issue of LOL History, we take a break from sharing historical events to bring you a quirky trivia section. Get ready to challenge your brain and impress your friends with some seriously weird knowledge

Who once lost a lookalike contest… of themselves?

Kennedy, Castro, and the CIA: The Bay of Pigs Showdown

On April 17, 1961, a group of Cuban exiles launched the ill-fated Bay of Pigs invasion, a bold but doomed attempt to topple Fidel Castro’s regime. Backed by the CIA, around 1,400 exiles—trained in Guatemala and armed with U.S. weapons—landed at Playa Girón on Cuba’s southern coast, hoping to spark a popular uprising. The operation, greenlit by President John F. Kennedy, stemmed from Cold War tensions, with the U.S. eager to curb Soviet influence in the Western Hemisphere after Castro’s 1959 revolution. But things unraveled fast.

The invasion, codenamed Operation Zapata, hit immediate snags. Castro’s forces, tipped off by intelligence leaks, were ready and waiting. Within hours, Cuban troops and militia overwhelmed the exiles, who lacked sufficient air support after Kennedy scaled back U.S. involvement at the last minute. Over the next three days, fierce fighting left the invaders outgunned—Cuban planes sank two of their supply ships, and artillery pounded their positions. By April 20, the operation was a bust: over 100 exiles were killed, and more than 1,200 were captured, later paraded on Cuban television.

This fiasco, unfolding from April 17 to 20, exposed the limits of covert U.S. operations and handed Castro a propaganda victory, solidifying his grip on power. The exiles, many of whom had fled Cuba after Castro’s rise, faced harsh interrogations, with some imprisoned for nearly two years before being released in a 1962 prisoner exchange. The defeat embarrassed the Kennedy administration, fueling distrust in U.S.-Cuba relations and escalating Cold War tensions, setting the stage for the Cuban Missile Crisis a year later.

The Night the Curtain Fell on Lincoln

On April 14, 1865, just five days after the Civil War essentially ended, President Abraham Lincoln decided to celebrate with a night out. He went to Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. to watch a comedy called Our American Cousin. But while Lincoln was enjoying the play from his box seat, John Wilkes Booth—a famous actor and angry Confederate sympathizer—snuck in and shot him in the back of the head. Booth shouted “Sic semper tyrannis” (“Thus always to tyrants!”), jumped onto the stage like he was still in character, and somehow escaped despite breaking his leg on landing.

Lincoln was rushed across the street to a boarding house where doctors tried everything they could—remember, this was 1865, so “everything” meant brandy, a metal probe, and a whole lot of hope. Sadly, the wound was too severe. On the morning of April 15, Abraham Lincoln died, becoming the first U.S. president to be assassinated. The country, which had just started to feel some relief after four bloody years of war, was immediately thrown back into grief and uncertainty.

The timing couldn’t have been worse. Lincoln had just won the war, held the Union together, and was ready to guide the country through its hardest chapter yet: putting it back together. His death wasn’t just the loss of a president—it was the loss of the one man with the vision, patience, and grit to actually pull it off. Booth thought he was making a statement. Instead, he left a scar so deep it would shape America’s future for generations. The war ended with surrender at Appomattox—but the fight to rebuild truly began the moment Lincoln drew his last breath.

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