WHAT ALL HAPPENED JANUARY TO APRIL 1865
Find out what all happened January to April 1865

Union cavalry troopers corner and shoot dead John Wilkes Booth, assassin of President Lincoln, in Virginia. (26. April 1865)

U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward and his family are attacked in his home by Lewis Powell. (14. April 1865)

American Civil War: Robert E. Lee surrenders the Army of Northern Virginia (26,765 troops) to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, effectively ending the war. (9. April 1865)

End of the Uruguayan War, with a peace agreement between President Tomás Villalba and rebel leader Venancio Flores, setting the scene for the destructive War of the Triple Alliance. (20. February 1865)

Uruguayan War: The Siege of Paysandú ends as Brazilian and Coloradans capture Paysandú, Uruguay. (2. January 1865)

East Cape War: The Volkner Incident in New Zealand. (2. March 1865)

American Civil War: The Confederate States of America agree to the use of African American troops. (13. March 1865)

U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is shot in Ford's Theatre by John Wilkes Booth (died April 15th). (14. April 1865)

American Civil War: In Virginia, Confederate forces temporarily capture Fort Stedman from the Union. (25. March 1865)

The steamboat SS Sultana, carrying 2,400 passengers, explodes and sinks in the Mississippi River, killing 1,700, most of whom are Union survivors of the Andersonville and Cahaba Prisons. (27. April 1865)

American Civil War: Fort Fisher in North Carolina falls to the Union, thus cutting off the last major seaport of the Confederacy. (15. January 1865)

President Abraham Lincoln signs the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. (1. February 1865)

The New York State Senate creates Cornell University as the state's land grant institution. (27. April 1865)

American Civil War: The Siege of Petersburg is broken – Union troops capture the trenches around Petersburg, Virginia, forcing Confederate General Robert E. Lee to retreat. (2. April 1865)

Astronomer Pietro Angelo Secchi demonstrates the Secchi disk, which measures water clarity, aboard Pope Pius IX's yacht, the L'Immaculata Concezion. (20. April 1865)

American Civil War: Union forces under Major General William T. Sherman set the South Carolina State House on fire during the burning of Columbia. (18. February 1865)

American Civil War: Union forces capture Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederate States of America. (3. April 1865)

American Civil War: Confederate General Robert E. Lee becomes general-in-chief. (31. January 1865)

Abraham Lincoln dies after being shot the previous evening by actor John Wilkes Booth. (15. April 1865)

American Civil War: Confederate President Jefferson Davis and most of his Cabinet flee the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia. (2. April 1865)