General Robert E. Lee addresses his soldiers of the Army of Northern Virginia for the last time before their formal surrender at Appomattox, Virginia. After the Civil War Lee would become president of Washington College in Lexington, which would later be renamed Washington and Lee University.
Following their surrender at the Battle of Bataan, American and Filipino prisoners-of-war begin the Bataan Death March. The march, led by Japanese captors, forced starving and injured prisoners to hike north through the jungle while being beaten, starved, and sometimes executed by the Japanese.
King James I signs a royal charter authorizing the creation of the London Company, also known as the Charter of the Virginia Company of London. The joint stock company sought to establish British settlements in North America, successfully creating the Jamestown settlement the following year.
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