Actually, Lee surrendered on the 9th of April, 1865.
December, 1947: Discovery of the transistor. Almost nothing we take for granted today would be possible without it.
- The year of the “Spanish Armada” and the rise in power of the English Navy.
Ha! 
How is Rap like Porn? Both are better with the sound turned off.
June 4-6, 1942 Battle of Midway. Turning point in the Pacific war. If we had not sunk the 4 main Japanese aircraft carriers the Japanese would have taken Midway which would have threatened Hawaii. As it was the Japanese navy became much less of a threat and we were able to begin the island hopping campaign against Japanese interests.
The battle of Hastings 1066. The Anglo-Saxon reign of england ended with the victory by William the Conquerer who came from a long lineage of Nordic conquests centuries before.
732 the Battle of Poiters. The victory of Charles Martel and the Franks at the Battle of Poitiers ended the expansion of the Muslim faith into Europe.
1314 the Battle of Bannockburn. Robert the Bruce defeated Edward II and secured Scotland’s independance.
1315 the Battle of Morgarten. The Swiss led by the canton of Schwyz, gained a victory over Leopold I (Hapsburg) Duke of Austria The victory led to an expanded Swiss alliance. By 1353 Switzerland was established.
1347-1353 The Black Death wiped out between 19 to 35 million people out of a total estimated population of about 75 million. In today’s numbers the plague would have wiped out about 1 billion people!
Let’s not forget about August 6 & 9, 1945 where the US wiped out two entire Japanese cities and about 200,000 people with 2 single blasts. There are several what if scenarios which have been put forward showing that had this not happened it would have cost the US about 1,000,000 casualties and the Japanese about twice that number.
Dates are important to remember because what happened and to remember to not make the mistakes of our ancestors.
The dates I previously illustrated which of course predated our country’s founding still had an effect on the course of our nation. Had not Charles Martel stopped the Muslims at Poiters we may have had Islam as our major national religion. If the Swiss had not won at Morgarten we would not have Swiss bank accounts. Robert the Bruce proved that the English could be defied and beaten. The Black Death certainly limited the expansion of humanity for many years and probably postponed the expansion to the “new world” of America. The battle of Hastings put England on a course of colonialism which spanned almost 1,000 years and culminated in the founding of America.