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.
NANCY LYONS
On This Day In 1977 Concorde Made Its First Visit to New York’s
JFK Airport. It was no-passenger proving flight from Toulouse
to JFK.
The supersonic jet was initially barred from the Big Apple due
to noise concerns. The ban came to an end on 17 October.
The Siege of Yorktown, Virginia, the decisive battle in
America’s shocking triumph over the mighty British
Empire in its War of Independence, began on this day
in history, Sept. 28, 1781.
The siege ended three weeks later, on Oct. 19, with the
surrender of the British garrison led by Lord Charles
Cornwallis.
Painting depicts the surrender of the British at Yorktown.
General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Allied Commander, speaking at the opening of the surrender ceremonies, on
board USS Missouri (BB-63).
Aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, Japan formally
surrendered to the Allies, bringing an end to World
War II.
By the summer of 1945, the defeat of Japan was a foregone
conclusion. The Japanese navy and air force were destroyed.
The Allied naval blockade of Japan and intensive bombing of
Japanese cities had left the country and its economy devastated.
At the end of June, the Americans captured Okinawa, a Japanese
island from which the Allies could launch an invasion of the main Japanese home islands.
August 6, the U.S. B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped an atomic
bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, killing an estimated
80,000 people and fatally wounding thousands more.
On August 9, a second U.S. atomic bomb was dropped on the
Japanese coastal city of Nagasaki.
Army General Douglas MacArthur signs the Instrument of Surrender.
SANDY KOZEL
