1865
American Civil War ends
In an event that is generally regarded
as marking the end of the Civil War, Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith,
commander of Confederate forces west of the Mississippi, signs the surrender
terms offered by Union negotiators. With Smith’s surrender, the last
Confederate army ceased to exist, bringing a formal end to the bloodiest four
years in U.S. history.
The American Civil War began on April
12, 1861, when Confederate shore batteries under General Pierre G.T. Beauregard
opened fire on Union-held Fort Sumter in South Carolina’s Charleston Bay.
During 34 hours, 50 Confederate guns and mortars launched more than 4,000
rounds at the poorly supplied fort, and on April 13 U.S. Major Robert Anderson,
commander of the Union garrison, surrendered. Two days later, U.S. President Abraham
Lincoln issued a proclamation calling for 75,000 volunteer soldiers to help
quell the Southern “insurrection.” Four long years later, the Confederacy was
defeated at the total cost of 620,000 Union and Confederate dead.
Bonus Story
1935
Babe Ruth Retires
On this day in 1935, Babe Ruth, one of the greatest players in
the history of baseball, ends his Major League playing career after 22 seasons,
10 World Series and 714 home runs. The following year, Ruth, a larger-than-life
figure whose name became synonymous with baseball, was one of the first five
players inducted into the sport’s hall of fame.
George Herman Ruth was born February 6, 1895, into a poor family
in Baltimore. As a child, he was sent to St. Mary’s Industrial School for Boys,
a school run by Roman Catholic brothers, where he learned to play baseball and
was a standout athlete. At 19, Ruth was signed by the Baltimore Orioles, then a
Boston Red Sox minor league team. Ruth’s fellow teammates and the media began
referring to him as team owner Jack Dunn’s newest “babe,” a nickname that
stuck. Ruth would later acquire other nicknames, including “The Sultan of Swat”
and “The Bambino.”
Ruth made his Major League debut as a left-handed pitcher with
the Red Sox in July 1914 and pitched 89 winning games for the team before 1920,
when he was traded to the New York Yankees.
After Ruth left Boston, in what
became known as “the curse of the Bambino,” the Red Sox didn’t win another
World Series until 2004. In New York, Ruth’s primary position changed to outfielder
and he led the Yankees to seven American League pennants and four World Series
victories. Ruth was a huge star in New York and attracted so many fans that the
team was able to open a new stadium in 1923, Yankee Stadium, dubbed “The House
That Ruth Built.”
The southpaw slugger’s final season, in 1935, was with the
Boston Braves. He had joined the Braves with the hope that he’d become the
team’s manager the next season. However, this dream never came to pass for a
disappointed Ruth, who had a reputation for excessive drinking, gambling and
womanizing.
Many of the records Ruth set remained in place for decades. His
career homerun record stood until 1974, when it was broken by Hank Aaron.
Ruth’s record of 60 homeruns in a single season (1927) of 154 games wasn’t
bested until 1961, when Roger Maris knocked out 61 homers in an extended season
of 162 games. The Sultan of Swat’s career slugging percentage of .690 remains
the highest in Major League history.
Ruth died of throat cancer at age 53 on August 16, 1948, in New
York City. His body lay in state at Yankee Stadium for two days and was visited
by over 100,000 fans.