The history of today APRIL 9

It had become popular in 1915 to mail coconuts to the Mainland. The April 9 issue of The Advertiser reported how the thunderous roll of coconuts down the post office's mail chute interfered with conversation.

1865: Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrenders at Appomattox, Va., hastening the end of the Civil War.

1903: Both houses of the Legislature override Gov. Sanford Dole's veto of a joint resolution making Hawaiian and English the official languages of the Territory. The House had been conducting its daily business in both languages.

1905: The Honolulu lodge of Elks is the first organization to take out a liquor-selling license under a new club license law and the Pacific Club is the second. The Pacific Club had recently been fined $100 for selling liquor without a license.

1968: Services are held for slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in Atlanta. Tens of thousands pay their final respects in a funeral tribute unprecedented in the nation's history. Meanwhile, racial violence sparked by King's assassination spreads coast to coast. The known death toll from the disturbances has climbed to 38.

1969: The Pan Am signs go up on the building — at the corner of Kapi'olani and Kaheka — that ever since has been known as the Pan Am building. The Outdoor Circle complained, but the signs were legal. The signs were approved shortly before the city's new Comprehensive Zoning Code went into effect. The signs would have been illegal under the new code.

1969: Honolulu Stadium's board of trustees votes to tear down the "Termite Palace" at the end of the 1972 football season. The decision was made after a recommendation by a structural engineer.

1971: Six inmates, including five men either convicted of murder or awaiting trial for murder, break out of Halawa Jail. All six would be eventually recaptured.

1991: A 12-hour O'ahu-wide electrical failure is triggered when two overhead power lines short-circuit within 10 minutes of each other. Power was restored to O'ahu, except for a few isolated areas, by 8:27 p.m. It was O'ahu's biggest outage ever and the third such islandwide blackout in eight years.

1995: O'ahu Sugar Co. grinds its last haul of cane at its Waipahu Sugar Mill; the last field of sugar was burned the previous Friday. The 98-year-old company went out of business because of rising costs.

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