• 1860 – On his phonautograph machine, Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville made the oldest known recording of an audible human voice, when he recorded himself singing "Au clair de la lune".
• 1865 – With their
supply trains destroyed by Union troops one day earlier, Confederate forces
under Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at the McLean House near
the Appomattox Court House in Virginia, effectively ending the American Civil
War.
• 1918 – World War
I: Aníbal Milhais's actions during the Battle of the Lys made him the only
person to be awarded Portugal's highest military honour, the Order of the Tower
and Sword, directly on the battlefield.
• 1948 – Fighters
from the Irgun and Lehi Zionist paramilitary groups attacked Deir Yassin near
Jerusalem, killing over 100.
• 2003 – Invasion of
Iraq: Coalition forces captured Baghdad and the statue of Saddam Hussein in
Firdos Square was toppled .
