Monday, April 09, 2012

TODAY IN HISTORY

APRIL 9
 1682:Mouth of River (Mississippi) claimed for France by de La Salle, naming it Louisiana.

1838:National Gallery of London, largest public collection of important paintings, opens its doors

1962:President John F. Kennedy throws the ceremonial first pitch at the grand opening of the new D.C. Stadium in a game between the Washington Senators and the Detroit Tigers; the Senators win 4-1. The stadium will be renamed Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in 1969, after JFK’s brother, the assassinated senator from New York and presidential candidate.  

1865: Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee meets Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in the home of Wilmer McLean in Appomattox Court House, Va., surrendering the Army of Northern Virginia and effectively ending the Civil War.   

1959:  Military test pilots Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard and Donald “Deke” Slayton are announced as the first seven astronauts of NASA’s Project Mercury, America’s first manned space program. The astronauts are soon nicknamed the “Mercury Seven.”
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