In the United States, today is National Former Prisoner of War Recognition Day.
In Tunisia, it’s Martyrs’ Day.
1682 — French explorer Robert La Salle reaches the lower Mississippi River . . . and claims it and all lands that touches it for France.
1865 — Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrenders his army to Union General Ulysses S. Grant, ending the Civil War.
1866 — The Civil Rights Bill of 1866 is passed by Congress over the veto of President Andrew Johnson, granting blacks the rights and privileges of American citizenship.
1867 — Passing by a single vote, the US Senate ratifies a treaty with Russia for the purchase of Alaska.
1940 — Germany invades neutral Norway and also Denmark.
1945 — Dietrich Bonhoeffer is executed by the Nazis for his role in the attempted assassination of Hitler.
1967 — The first Boeing 737 (a 100 series) takes its maiden flight.
1969 — The first British-built Concorde 002 makes its maiden flight.
1970 — Paul McCartney announces the official breakup of the Beatles.
1991 — The parliament of Georgia votes to have independence from USSR.
2003 — Baghdad falls to American forces.
2008 — Oil roars to record over $112 a barrell on US inventory drop and Boeing again delays its launch of the 787 Dreamliner.