This day in history: 9 april

Europa

• 1609: The Treaty of Antwerp was signed between Spain and the Dutch Republic, initiating a twelve-year truce in the Eighty Years’ War.
• 1682: Robert Cavelier de La Salle discovered the mouth of the Mississippi River, claiming it for France and naming it Louisiana.
• 1784: The Treaty of Paris, ending the American Revolutionary War, was ratified by King George III of Great Britain.
• 1860: Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville made the first known recording of an audible human voice on his phonautograph machine.
• 1909: The U.S. Congress passed the Payne–Aldrich Tariff Act, which had implications for European trade.
• 1917: The Battle of Arras began with the Canadian Corps executing a massive assault on Vimy Ridge during World War I.
• 1918: The Battle of the Lys saw the Portuguese Expeditionary Corps being crushed by German forces during the Spring Offensive in World War I.
• 1937: The Kamikaze, the first Japanese-built aircraft to fly to Europe, arrived at Croydon Airport in London.
• 1939: Marian Anderson, an African-American singer, gave a concert at the Lincoln Memorial after being denied the use of Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution.
• 1940: Nazi Germany invaded neutral Norway and Denmark, surprising the Norwegian, Danish, and British defenders. This event was part of Operation Weserübung, aimed at securing access to Swedish iron ore.
• 1942: The Battle of Bataan ended, and Japan’s 1st Air Fleet conducted an Indian Ocean raid, sinking the British aircraft carrier HMS Hermes and the Australian destroyer HMAS Vampire.
• 1945: Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran pastor and anti-Nazi dissident, was executed by the Nazi regime.
• 1989: The April 9 tragedy in Tbilisi, Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, where Soviet forces crushed an anti-Soviet, pro-independence demonstration, resulting in 21 deaths and hundreds of injuries. This event is now commemorated as National Unity Day in Georgia.
• 1991: Georgians voted overwhelmingly for independence from the Soviet Union in a referendum, with approximately 99% in favor.

America

• 1865: General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, effectively ending the American Civil War. This event marked a significant turning point in American history, hastening the conclusion of the war and leading to the surrender of other Confederate forces in the following weeks.
• 1942: American and Filipino defenders on Bataan surrendered to Japanese forces during World War II. This led to the infamous “Bataan Death March,” where approximately 70,000 captured soldiers were forced to march over 100 kilometers, resulting in numerous deaths due to exhaustion, hunger, and disease.
• 1962: The U.S. Navy evacuated Americans from the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, as part of Operation Eagle Pull. This evacuation came as the communist Khmer Rouge seized the capital city, ending a five-year war and leading to the notorious “killing fields” where hundreds of thousands of Cambodians were murdered or died from exhaustion, hunger, and disease.

Asia

• 1942: The largest surrender in U.S. history occurred when American and Filipino forces surrendered to the Japanese at Bataan, marking a significant event in World War II. This led to the infamous Bataan Death March, where approximately 76,000 Allied POWs, including 12,000 Americans, were forced to march 60 miles under harsh conditions, resulting in over 5,000 American deaths.
• 2003: Baghdad fell to U.S.-led forces, marking a pivotal moment in the Iraq War, which was initiated to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein due to his supposed possession of weapons of mass destruction.
• 2021: Cambodia reported a record 576 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, bringing the nationwide total to a significant number.
• 2021: Japan designated Tokyo, Kyoto, and nine other cities in Okinawa for stricter measures to reduce the number of COVID-19 cases, including closing businesses at 8:00 p.m. These measures were set to be in effect from April 15 until May 5 for Kyoto and Okinawa and until May 11 for Tokyo.
• 2021: The Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan granted Emergency Use Authorization for the Sinovac CoronaVac vaccine, marking a significant step in the country’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• 2021: South Korea announced the closure of nightclubs, bars, and other nightly entertainment facilities in the Seoul Capital Area and Busan beginning April 15, along with the extension of social distancing measures for three weeks due to concerns about a fourth wave of the pandemic.
• 2021: Greece restricted the use of the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine to people over 30 years old following reports of a possible link with rare blood clotting cases.
• 2021: Hungary surpassed 700,000 cases of COVID-19, indicating the severity of the outbreak in the country.

Africa

• 1939: African-American singer Marian Anderson gave a concert at the Lincoln Memorial after being denied the use of Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution. This event, while not directly in Africa, had significant implications for civil rights and racial equality, influencing African American history and the broader fight against racial discrimination.
• 2010: The funeral of South Africa’s white supremacist leader Eugene Terreblanche took place. Terreblanche was the leader of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB), a far-right, white supremacist political organization in South Africa. His death and funeral were significant events in the context of South Africa’s ongoing racial and political tensions.
• 2023: Martyrs’ Day in Tunisia, a public holiday observed every year on April 9, commemorates the Tunisian martyrs who died in the struggle for independence from French colonial rule. This day is a significant event in Tunisian history, reflecting the country’s fight for freedom and national identity.