Today in history: April 9

2003: Baghdad fell to U.S.-led forces on this day in 2003, several weeks after the start of the Iraq War, a conflict begun to oust Iraqi Pres. Ṣaddām Ḥussein because of his supposed possession of weapons of mass destruction.

2001: American Airlines officially completed its acquisition of Trans World Airlines and became the world's largest airline.

1970: Paul McCartney announces the official break-up of the Beatles

1968: Murdered civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., is buried.

1966: The statue of Winston Churchill is dedicated at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C.

1965: The Astrodome, an indoor stadium, opened in Houston, Texas, hosting its first baseball game.

1963: Winston Churchill becomes the first honorary U.S. citizen.

1963: An act of Congress conferred honorary U.S. citizenship on Sir Winston Churchill.

1950: Comedian Bob Hope makes his first television appearance.

1945: The Red Army is repulsed at the Seelow Heights on the outskirts of Berlin.

1942: In the Battle of Bataan, American and Filipino forces are overwhelmed by the Japanese Army.

1940: Germany invades Norway and Denmark.

1939: African American contralto Marian Anderson sang to an Easter Sunday crowd of 75,000 at the Lincoln Memorial after the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to allow her to sing at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C.

1921: Russo-Polish conflict ends with signing of the Riga Treaty.

1917: The Battle of Arras begins as Canadian troops begin a massive assault on Vimy Ridge.

1916: The German army launches its third offensive during the Battle of Verdun.

1900: British forces route Boers at Kroonstadt, South Africa.

1898: Paul Robeson, a celebrated American singer, actor, and political activist, was born.

1865: General Robert E. Lee surrenders his rebel forces to Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, Va.

1865: General Robert E. Lee, commander of the Army of Northern Virginia of the Confederate States of America, signed a treaty of surrender at Appomattox Court House, ending the American Civil War.

1859: Realizing that France has encouraged the Piedmontese forces to mobilize for invading Italy, Austria begins mobilizing its army.

1770: Captain James Cook discovers Botany Bay on the Australian continent.

1731: British Captain Robert Jenkins loses an ear to a band of Spanish brigands, starting a war between Britain and Spain: The War of Jenkins' Ear.

1682: Robert La Salle claims lower Mississippi River and all lands that touch it for France.

1682: René-Robert Cavelier, sieur (lord) de La Salle, claimed the Mississippi River basin for France, naming it Louisiana.

1454: The city states of Venice, Milan and Florence sign a peace agreement at Lodi, Italy.

1388: The Battle of Näfels culminated in a major victory for the Swiss Confederation in the first century of its struggle for self-determination against Habsburg overlordship.

1241: In the Battle of Liegnitz, Mongol armies defeat Poles and Germans.

715: Constantine ends his reign as Catholic Pope.

193: In the Balkans, the distinguished soldier Septimius Severus is proclaimed emperor by the army in Illyricum.