Here’s a brief look back in time for this day, April 9.
In 1865, Confederate General in Chief Robert E. Lee surrenders to the Union’s Ulysses S. Grant in Appomattox Court House, VA, ending the American Civil War. This surrender was not done willingly, however. One day prior, a general from the Union named Phillip Sheridan and his men had chased Confederate troops across the Virginian countryside until Lee and his regiment had nowhere else to run. Desperate, Lee sent Sheridan a message offering his willingness to surrender in exchange for sparing his life. It was on this day when both Grant and Lee – both former brothers-in-arms during the Mexican-American War – agreed on the terms, bringing an end to the bloodiest conflict to have happened on U.S. soil.
In 1959, NASA reveals America’s first astronauts to the world. Codenamed “Project Mercury”, the goal for the newly formed National Aeronautic and Space Administration was to bring man into space. The Soviet Union’s Sputnik 1 proved that space travel was possible, thus beginning the Space Race. The first group of American astronauts were known as the Mercury Seven, who were named as follows: John Glenn, Alan Shepard, Gordon Cooper, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Scott Carpenter, and Deke Slayton. All seven would eventually make it to the final frontier.
In 2003, an image showing the toppling of a large statue depicting 5th Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is broadcasted to the world. This was during the Battle of Baghdad, in which civilians and American Marines alike contributed to bringing down the statue. It carried heavy symbolism towards the end of Hussein’s reign. He’d be captured a few months later in December as part of Operation Red Dawn, where’d he be found burrowed in a hole in the ground.