Could there be any significance to this date for the bomber or bombers who struck in Boston?
Of course, April 15 is the deadline to file your federal taxes.
You probably already heard the attacks coincided with Patriots’ Day in Boston, an annual celebration of the battles of Lexington and Concord – the start of the Revolutionary War.
It’s also the date, in 1865, that Abraham Lincoln died from an assassin’s bullet.
On April 15, 1912, the Titanic sank in the North Atlantic, killing more than 1,500.
That same date in 1945 is when British and Canadian troops liberated the Bergen-Belsen Nazi concentration camp.
April 15, 1967, one of the largest protests ever on American soil saw 180,000 Vietnam War protestors gather in New York and San Francisco, some burning draft cards.
April 15, 1986, the U.S. launched as air raid against Libya in the wake of the discotheque bombing in Berlin that killed three and injured more than 200, many of them US servicemen. The U.S. airstrike reportedly killed three dozen people, many civilians.
On the same date a decade ago, looters ransacked Iraq’s National and Islamic libraries.
And last April 15, North Korea’s new leader Kim Jong-un made his first public speech.
While the images of the bombings at the storied Boston Marathon have shaken this nation, it’s important to note how rare these kinds of attacks are in the land of the free.
Yes, 168 lives were lost in the homegrown terror attack in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995.
And nearly 3,000 died in the 9/11 attacks in 2001.
But since then – until this April 15 - just 30 people have died in the U.S. in terrorist attacks, whether they’re homegrown or the work of outsiders.
Yes, there have been plenty of bombings and arson attacks in this country, but most of them have been the work of people bent on killing a specific person or persons.
It’s all-too easy to get caught up in how this could happen again, anywhere, at any event.
But it doesn’t. Most of us do the right thing. And many spend their lives stopping those who don’t.
And as you watch these Boston videos again, consider that it seems there are more people running towards the explosions to help rather than running away.
As for the source of this disaster, my guess is they’ll find some lunatic who picked the date simply because it was the Boston Marathon - a chance to make maximum impact.
That’s my take, please leave yours here on WTVR.com.
