Confederate General Joseph Johnston surrenders the Army of Tennessee, along with all active Confederate units in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. Johnston surrendered to General William T. Sherman, whom he had opposed during the Atlanta Campaign, at Bennett Place in Durham, North Carolina.
John Wilkes Booth, President Lincoln's assassin, dies of his wounds in Port Royal, Virginia. Booth, who had fled with David Herold, refused to surrender while surrounded by Union soldiers in a tobacco barn. Union Sergeant Boston Corbett mortally wounded Booth as Booth remained in the barn.
Explosions at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic kill thousands of people and spread radioactive waste across Eastern and Northern Europe. The nuclear accident proved the cracks in the Soviet regime as it tried to cover up the damage, and began an international movement protesting nuclear power.
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