1865: General Joseph E. Johnston signed official surrender of what remained of the Confederate Army of Tennessee to Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman at Durham Station, North Carolina. Meanwhile, in a tobacco barn at the Garrett Farm in Carline County, Virginia, Union cavalry troopers caught up with and mortally wounded assassin John Wilkes Booth.
Also today in history, in the U.S. and elsewhere:
1828: Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire in support of Greek independence.
1859: New York Congressman and future Union general Daniel E. Sickles was acquitted of murdering his wife's lover on grounds of temporary insanity, the first time this argument is successfully used.
1944: Shortly after having left his headquarters at Archanes, Crete, Generalmajor Heinrich Kreipe was ambushed and abducted by British Commandos, Greek Special Operations Executive agents and Cretan resistance fighters led by Major Patrick Leigh Fermor. G
1945: The Baguio prison camp was liberated and its American and Filipino soon returned to combat against General Tomoyuki Yamashita's retreating army on Luzon.
1954: The quintessential guy movie and original "Eastern Western," The Seven Samurai, made its screen debut.
