On This Day, April 9: Tornado tears across three states, kills 169

Damage is seen around the Woodward County Courthouse in Oklahoma after a tornado roared through April 9, 1947. File Photo courtesy of the National Weather Service

April 9 (UPI) — On this date in history:

In 1413, Henry V was crowned king of England.

In 1816, the first all-black U.S. religious denomination, the AME church, was organized in Philadelphia.

In 1865, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at the Appomattox Court House in Virginia, bringing the Civil War to a close.

In 1866, the U.S. Congress passed the Civil Rights Bill of 1866, which granted African Americans the rights and privileges of U.S. citizenship and formed the basis for the 14th Amendment.

In 1939, on Easter Sunday, African-American contralto Marian Anderson gave a free open-air concert before more than 75,000 people from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington after the Daughters of the American Revolution denied her use of Constitution Hall because of her race.

In 1940, Germany invaded Norway and Denmark.

In 1947, a tornado roared through at least 12 towns in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas, killing 169 people. The twister traveled 221 miles across the three states.

In 1959, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration introduced America’s first astronauts to the public. The seven men — military test pilots M. Scott Carpenter, L. Gordon Cooper, John H.Glenn, Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, Walter M. “Wally” Schirra, Alan B. Shepard and Donald K. “Deke” Slayton — were selected from a group of 32 candidates to take part in Project Mercury.

In 1963, by an act of the U.S. Congress, British statesman Winston Churchill became an honorary U.S. citizen.

In 1965, the Astrodome opened in Houston for the first indoor Major League Baseball game.

In 1976, the United States and Soviet Union agreed on the size of nuclear tests for peaceful use.

In 1996, former U.S. Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, D-Ill., pleaded guilty to mail fraud and was sentenced to 17 months in prison.

In 1999, the president of Niger, Ibrahim Bare Mainassara, was assassinated and a military junta led by the commander of the presidential guards took over.

In 2003, Iraqis, with help from Americans, toppled a 20-foot-tall statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad’s Firdos Square.

In 2005, Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, married his longtime companion, Camilla Parker Bowles, at Windsor Castle. She took the title duchess of Cornwall.

In 2007, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that his country could produce nuclear fuel on an industrial scale.

In 2010, U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, 11 days shy of 90, announced he would retire after 35 years on the court where he was widely regarded as leader of the liberal bloc.

In 2018, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., became the first sitting senator to give birth. She had a daughter, Maile Pearl Bowlsbey.

In 2021, Prince Philip, the longest-serving consort of a reigning British monarch, died after weeks of illness. He was 99.