Timeline April 1865

Events in April 1865 10

• 1804 – 1865 Richard Cobden (1804-1865) Died 2 April 1865, aged 60 Richard Cobden was a British politician and manufacturer who led the campaign against the Corn Laws and championed free trade. He co-negotiated the 1860 Anglo-French free trade treaty and remained an influential voice in Parliament until his death.
• 1809 – 1865 Abraham Lincoln 16th President — saved the Union, abolished slavery Abraham Lincoln (Feb 12, 1809 – Apr 15, 1865) was the 16th President 1861-1865. He led the Union through the Civil War, issued the Emancipation Proclamation, and was assassinated at Ford's Theatre on April 14, 1865.
• 1825 – 1865 Ambrose Powell Hill (1825-1865) Died 2 April 1865, aged 39 A. P. Hill was a Confederate lieutenant general who commanded the Third Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia. He was killed in action near Petersburg, Virginia, days before Lee's surrender at Appomattox.
• 1838 – 1865 John Wilkes Booth (1838-1865) Died 26 April 1865, aged 26 John Wilkes Booth was an American stage actor who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre. He was tracked down and killed by Union soldiers in Virginia twelve days after the shooting.
• 1861 – 1865 Lincoln presidency 16th President — led Union through Civil War Abraham Lincoln served as the 16th President from March 4, 1861 until his assassination on April 15, 1865. He issued the Emancipation Proclamation (1863), freeing slaves in Confederate states, and guided the nation through its greatest crisis.
• 1865 Robert E. Lee surrenders at Appomattox Court House Effective end of the American Civil War Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. The surrender marked the effective end of four years of civil war, though smaller Confederate forces held out for weeks afterward.
• 1865 Assassination of Abraham Lincoln Shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theatre President Abraham Lincoln was shot by actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth while watching a play at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. He died the following morning, becoming the first U.S. president to be assassinated, just days after the Confederacy's surrender.
• 1865 – 1869 A. Johnson presidency 17th President — 1865 to 1869 Andrew Johnson assumed the presidency on April 15, 1865 after Lincoln's assassination. His lenient Reconstruction policies clashed with Congress, leading to his impeachment in 1868. He was acquitted by one vote in the Senate.
• 1865 Cornell University chartered Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White found university Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White received a charter to found Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, established on the principle of an institution where any person could find instruction in any study. It became one of the founding Ivy League research universities.
• 1865 Sinking of the steamboat Sultana Deadliest maritime disaster in US history A boiler explosion destroyed the overcrowded steamboat Sultana on the Mississippi River near Memphis, killing around 1,800 people, many of them Union soldiers recently released from Confederate prison camps. It remains the deadliest maritime disaster in United States history.