April 16 (UPI) -- On this date in history: In 1862, the U.S. Congress abolished slavery in the District of Columbia. In 2005, the city officially began observing the date as Emancipation Day. In 1912, as crowds gathered outside its New York City offices, the White Star Line denied that it was withholding information on the sinking of RMS Titanic. File Photo courtesy National Archives In 1947, a fire aboard the French freighter Grandcamp in the Texas City, Texas, port on Galveston Bay ignited