(Saturday, April 26, 1975) — “Stand by Me” by ex-Beatle John Lennon peaked at #20 on today’s Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for two weeks. It was Lennon eighth of twelve top 20 hits on the chart (1969-1984).
(Thursday, April 26, 1945, 8:00 p.m. CEST; during World War II) — Marshal Henri Philippe Petain, the head of France’s Vichy government during World War II, was arrested tonight when he returned to French territory after crossing the Swiss frontier at La Ferriere sous Joigne.
Video: 'Ken Burns The Civil War: Episode 9 The Better Angels of Our Nature (1865) |Ken Burns Docum' (Apr. 26, 1865 at 26:32)
(Wednesday, April 26, 1865; during the American Civil War) — After three separate days (April 17, 18 and 26, 1865) of negotiations, Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston surrendered the Army of Tennessee and all remaining Confederate forces still active in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida to Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman today at the Bennett Farm in Durham, Durham County, North Carolina.
It was the largest surrender of the war, totaling 89,270 soldiers.
Video: 'Ken Burns The Civil War: Episode 9 The Better Angels of Our Nature (1865) |Ken Burns Docum' (Apr. 26, 1865 at 26:07)
(Wednesday, April 26, 1865, at about 7:15 a.m.; during the American Civil War) — John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, died this morning about five hours after the men of the 16th New York Cavalry surrounded the tobacco barn he was sleeping in at Richard H. Garrett’s farm, just south of Port Royal, Caroline County, Virginia.
Booth had been shot in the neck by a soldier after he had refused to surrender and the barn was set on fire. As he lay dying, Booth looked at his hands and supposedly gasped, “Useless, useless.”