Today in History

On April 9-10: April 9, 1682: Rene Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, claims the Mississippi River Basin, some 1,245,000 square miles, for France.

April 9, 1784: Great Britain ratifies the Treaty of Paris, signed the previous year, ending the American Revolutionary War.

April 9, 1865: Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrenders at Appomattox Cour House to Union General Ulysses S. Grant, ending the Civil War.