1. On April 8, 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Confederate Army to General Ulysses S. Grant at the Appomattox Court House, effectively ending the American Civil War. The site is now preserved as Appomattox Court House National Historical Park.

2. In 1970, Virginia Governor Linwood Holton signed a bill that allowed the state's colleges and universities to desegregate. The legislation helped to pave the way for greater racial integration in higher education across the United States.

3. On April 8, 2014, Navy SEAL Chris Kyle was posthumously awarded the Texas Legislative Medal of Honor for his service as a sniper in the Iraq War. Kyle, who was born and raised in Texas, was known as the deadliest sniper in American history, with 160 confirmed kills.

4. In 1864, the Battle of Mansfield took place in Louisiana, in which Confederate General Richard Taylor defeated a Union force led by General Nathaniel Banks. Many soldiers from Virginia fought in the battle, which was a strategic victory for the Confederacy.

5. On April 8, 1820, a group of enslaved African Americans led by Gabriel Prosser planned to launch a rebellion against white plantation owners in Virginia. The revolt was ultimately unsuccessful, and Prosser and many of his followers were executed. The event is viewed as a precursor to other slave uprisings and helped to fuel the abolitionist movement in the United States.