This day in history
Today is Tuesday, April 9, the 100th day of 2024. There are 266 days left in the year.
Birthdays: Satirical songwriter and mathematician Tom Lehrer is 96. Actor Michael Learned is 85. Actor Dennis Quaid is 70. Comedian Jimmy Tingle is 69. Talk show host Joe Scarborough is 61. Actor-sports reporter Lisa Guerrero is 60. Arizona Governor Doug Ducey is 60. Actor Mark Pellegrino is 59. Actor Cynthia Nixon is 58. Rock singer Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance is 47. Actor Keshia Knight Pulliam is 45. Rock musician Albert Hammond Jr. of The Strokes is 44. Actor Charlie Hunnam is 44. Actor Jay Baruchel is 42. Actor Leighton Meester is 38. R&B singer Jazmine Sullivan is 37. Actor Kristen Stewart is 34. Actor Elle Fanning is 26. Rapper Lil Nas X is 25.
▶ In 1865, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his army to Union Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia, effectively ending the Civil War after nearly four years.
▶ In 1939, Marian Anderson performed a concert at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., after the Black singer was denied the use of Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution.
▶ In 1940, during World War II, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway.
▶ In 1942, during World War II, some 75,000 Philippine and American defenders on Bataan surrendered to Japanese troops, who forced the prisoners into what became known as the Bataan Death March; thousands died or were killed en route.
▶ In 1959, NASA presented its first seven astronauts: Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard, and Donald Slayton. Architect Frank Lloyd Wright, 91, died in Phoenix.
▶ In 1968, funerals, private and public, were held for Martin Luther King Jr. at the Ebenezer Baptist Church and Morehouse College in Atlanta, five days after the civil rights leader was assassinated in Memphis.
▶ In 1969, Harvard students took over University Hall, one of the college’s oldest buildings, to demand the university end its ROTC program as the war escalated in Vietnam. (The next day, university administrators called in city and State Police, who used billy clubs and mace to remove the demonstrators.)
▶ In 1979, officials declared an end to the crisis involving the Three Mile Island Unit 2 nuclear reactor in Pennsylvania, 12 days after a partial core meltdown.
▶ In 2003, jubilant Iraqis celebrated the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s regime, beheading a toppled statue of their longtime ruler in downtown Baghdad.
▶ In 2005, Britain’s Prince Charles married longtime love Camilla Parker Bowles, who took the title Duchess of Cornwall.
▶ In 2010, Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens announced his retirement.
▶ In 2018, federal agents raided the office of President Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, seizing records on matters including a $130,000 payment made to porn actress Stormy Daniels.