In the village of Appomattox Court House, Virginia, on April 9,
1865, Robert E. Lee surrendered his 28,000 Confederate troops
to Union General Ulysses S. Grant, thus effectively ending the
American Civil War. Forced to abandon the Confederate capital
of Richmond, blocked from joining the surviving Confederate
force in North Carolina, and harassed constantly by Union
cavalry, Lee had no other option.

HONOLULU (AP) — Lou Conter, the last living survivor of the
USS Arizona battleship that exploded and sank during the
Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, has died. He was 102
years old.

His daughter, Louann Daley said Conter passed away at his
home Monday in Grass Valley, California following congestive
heart failure.

The ship sank with more than 80 percent of its 1,500-
man crew, including Rear Admiral Issac C. Kidd.

USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor, Honolulu, Hawaii.

On April 1, 1945, after suffering the loss of 116 planes and damage
to three aircraft carriers, 50,000 U.S. combat troops, under the
command of Lieutenant General Simon B. Buckner Jr., land on
the southwest coast of the Japanese island of Okinawa, 350 miles
south of Kyushu, the southern main island of Japan.

Determined to seize Okinawa as a base of operations for the army ground and air forces for a later assault on mainland Japan, more
than 1,300 ships converged on the island, finally putting ashore
50,000 combat troops.

General Buckner was killed during the closing days of the Battle
of Okinawa by enemy artillery fire, making him one of the highest-
ranking United States military officers lost to enemy fire during
World War II
  

Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr.

US Marines of the 2nd Battalion 22nd Regiment, land at
Green Beach One, Okinawa in the Ryukyu Islands. 

 
    SANDY KOZEL

Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th president of the United States and
one of the most highly regarded American generals of World War
II, died in Washington, D.C., at the age of 78.