This Day In History: April 9th

This Day in History: Mark Twain gets his riverboat pilot's license, giving him the material which would make him famous in the coming decades when he publishes "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and other books which became classics of American literature, 1859; General Robert E. Lee surrenders at Appomattox, effectively ending the Civil War- America's costliest, deadliest and most bitter internal struggle which claimed roughly 600,000 casualties- roughly 4% of the population- the equivalent of 12 million dead today, 1865; NASA introduces the very first astronauts to America who would go forward in Project Mercury, a story detailed in the wonderful movie (and book by Tom Wolfe before it) called 'The Right Stuff', 1959; Paul McCartney saddens the entire world and announces the break-up of the Beatles, ending "The Sixties", 1970  www.GenePisasale.com -Gene Pisasale, Author of "The Forgotten Star", "Abandoned Address- The Secret of Frick's Lock", "Lafayette's Gold- The Lost Brandywine Treasure" and the column "Living History" which runs bi-weekly in The Daily Local News and other Chester county, Pa. media outlets