9 April: Somebody Surrendered! Tornadoes A-Go-Go! Need Another Seven Astronauts; Love At Last For Prince Charles; Nick Adenhart, Two Others Killed

Today is Friday, April 9, the 99th day of 2010. There are 266 days left in the year. More History.Today's Highlight in History:
On April 9, 1959, NASA announced the selection of America's first seven astronauts: Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard and Donald Slayton.
On this date:
In 1413, Henry V was crowned king of England.
In 1682, French explorer Robert de La Salle claimed the Mississippi River Basin for France.
In 1816, the first all-black U.S. religious denomination, the AME church, was organized in Philadelphia.
In 1833, the nation's first tax-supported public library was founded in Peterborough, N.H.
In 1865, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered his army to Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia.

In 1866, the U.S. Congress passed the Civil Rights Bill of 1866, which granted blacks the rights and privileges of U.S. citizenship and formed the basis for the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
In 1939, on Easter Sunday, African-American contralto Marian Anderson gave a free open-air concert before more than 75,000 people from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington after the Daughters of the American Revolution denied her use of Constitution Hall because of her race.

In 1940, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway.
In 1942, American and Philippine defenders on Bataan capitulated to Japanese forces; the surrender was followed by the notorious Bataan Death March which claimed thousands of lives.In 1947, a series of tornadoes in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas claimed 181 lives.
In 1959, American architect Frank Lloyd Wright died in Phoenix, Ariz., at age 91. NASA announced the selection of America's first seven astronauts: Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard and Donald Slayton.
In 1960, the Boston Celtics won the NBA Finals for the second year in a row by defeating the St. Louis Hawks 122-103 in Game 7.
In 1963, by an act of the U.S. Congress, British statesman Winston Churchill became an honorary U.S. citizen.
In 1965, the newly built Astrodome in Houston featured its first baseball game, an exhibition between the Astros and the New York Yankees. (The Astros won, 2-1, in 12 innings.)
In 1976, the United States and the Soviet Union agreed on the size of nuclear tests for peaceful use.
In 1983, the space shuttle Challenger ended its first mission with a safe landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
In 1988, pro-Iranian Shiite Muslim hijackers who had seized a Kuwait Airways jetliner on April 5 killed one of their hostages as the plane sat on the ground in Larnaca, Cyprus.
In 1989, troops clashed with nationalist demonstrators in the capital of the Soviet republic of Georgia.
In 1991, the Soviet republic of Georgia declared its independence.
In 1992, former Panamanian ruler Manuel Noriega was convicted in Miami of eight drug and racketeering charges.
In 1996, President Bill Clinton signed a line-item veto bill into law. Former U.S. Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, D-Ill., pleaded guilty to mail fraud and was sentenced to 19 months in prison.
In 1997, a government of unity was launched in Angola, three years after the end of the country's 19-year civil war, with the seating of 70 members of the rebel UNITA party in parliament.
In 1998, tornadoes and storms took 39 lives in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi.
In 1999, the president of the African nation of Niger, Ibrahim Bare Mainassara, was assassinated, reportedly by members of his own guard. A military junta led by the commander of the presidential guards took over.
In 2000, President Eduard Shevardnadze won a second term as leader of Georgia; Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori fell just shy of the majority needed to avoid a runoff for an unprecedented third term, forcing a run-off in May that he won. However, a vote-fraud scandal forced him to step down later in the year. Vijay Singh won the Masters, closing with a 3-under 69 for a three-stroke victory over Ernie Els.
In 2001, American Airlines' parent company acquired bankrupt Trans World Airlines.
In 2003, jubilant Iraqis celebrated the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime, beheading a toppled statue of their longtime ruler in downtown Baghdad.

In 2004, authorities in Bulgaria said at least 40 people were injured, some seriously, in a toxic gas attack on a police station in Sofia. Four employees of Halliburton subsidiary KBR were killed in an attack on a fuel truck convoy near Baghdad; a U.S. soldier in the convoy, Sgt. Elmer Krause, was found dead weeks later. Four people went missing, including Army Specialist Keith M. Maupin, whose remains were found in 2008. The body of civilian truck driver Wiliam Bradley was found in January 2005; Thomas Hamill escaped his captors in May 2004; Timothy Bell remains unaccounted for.
In 2005, Britain's Prince Charles married longtime love Camilla Parker Bowles, who took the title Duchess of Cornwall.

Tens of thousands of supporters of a militant Shiite cleric filled central Baghdad's streets, demanding that American soldiers go home. A day after the funeral for Pope John Paul II, cardinals began an intense period of silence and prayer before their conclave to choose the next pope. Feminist author Andrea Dworkin died in Washington, D.C. at age 58. Also in 2005, authorities in Lusaka, Zambia, said at least 42 schoolchildren, on their way home at the end of the term, were killed near Lusaka when the truck in which they were riding overturned.
In 2007, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that his country could produce nuclear fuel on an industrial scale.
In 2008, the World Bank reported that worldwide food prices had risen 83 percent over the three-year period preceding February 2008. America's war commander in Iraq faced Congress for a second day; Army Gen. David Petraeus told lawmakers he was unlikely to endorse any fresh buildup of troops even if security in the country deteriorated. The Olympic torch was rerouted away from thousands of demonstrators and spectators who had crowded San Francisco's waterfront to witness the flame's symbolic journey to the Beijing Games during its only North American stop.
In 2009, North Korea's rubber-stamp parliament appointed Kim Jong Il to a third term as the nation's leader. The Obama administration asked Congress for $83.4 billion in additional funds for the balance of the 2009 fiscal year of which $75.8 billion was intended for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Los Angeles Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart, 22, and two others were killed in car crash by a suspected drunken driver. (Andrew Thomas Gallo, charged with three counts of second-degree murder, is awaiting trial.)
Today's Birthdays: Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner is 84. Singer/songwriter Tom Lehrer is 82. Naturalist Jim Fowler is 78. Actor Jean-Paul Belmondo is 77. Actress Michael Learned is 71. Country singer Margo Smith is 68. Country singer Hal Ketchum is 57. Actor Dennis Quaid is 56. Humorist Jimmy Tingle is 55. World Golf Hall of Famer Severiano Ballesteros is 53. Country musician Dave Innis (Restless Heart) is 51. Actress-sports reporter Lisa Guerrero is 46. Actor Mark Pellegrino is 45. Actress-model Paulina Porizkova is 45. Actress Cynthia Nixon is 44. Rock singer Kevin Martin (Candlebox) is 41. Rock singer Gerard Way (My Chemical Romance) is 33. Actress Keshia Knight Pulliam is 31. Rock musician Albert Hammond Jr. (The Strokes) is 30. Actor Ryan Northcott is 30. Actor Jay Baruchel is 28. Actor-singer Jesse McCartney is 23. Rhythm-and-blues singer Jazmine Sullivan is 23. Actress Kristen Stewart is 20. Actress Elle Fanning is 12.
More Birthdays.
Those Born On This Date Also Include: French poet Charles Baudelaire (1821); comic actor W.C. Fields (1879); actor/singer Paul Robeson and football Hall of Fame member Curly Lambeau (both in 1898); birth control pill inventor Gregory Pincus and actor Ward Bond, (both in 1903); former U.S. Sen. James William Fulbright, D-Ark. (1905); rock 'n' roll pioneer Carl Perkins (1932) & comedian Avery Schreiber (1935).
9 April In Entertainment
In 1962, "West Side Story" won the Academy Award for best picture.

In 1969, the album "Nashville Skyline" by Bob Dylan was released.
In 1976, folk singer and songwriter Phil Ochs hanged himself at his sister's home in New York. He was 35.
In 1979, "The Deer Hunter" won the best picture and best director Oscars. "Last Dance," from the soundtrack to the movie "Thank God It's Friday," won the best original song award.
In 1984, "Terms of Endearment" was the big winner at the Academy Awards. "Flashdance" was named best original song.
In 1988, the music world lost two singers. Brook Benton ("Frankie and Johnny," "The Boll Weevil Song") died of an illness in New York. Dave Prater from the duo Sam and Dave died in a car accident in Georgia.
In 1992, Amy Grant was honored with the Artist of the Year award at the Gospel Music Association's Dove Awards.
In 1997, Soundgarden announced its breakup.
Thought for Today: "The amount of satisfaction you get from life depends largely on your own ingenuity, self-sufficiency, and resourcefulness. People who wait around for life to supply their satisfaction usually find boredom instead." — William C. Menninger, American scientist, physician, engineer (1899-1966).