Student Commentary

Phillip III of Spain began the expulsion of the country's "Morisco" (Muslims who converted to Christianity and their descendants) population on April 9, 1609, based on the Crown's fears that the Morisco population retained Muslim beliefs. Hundreds of thousands of Moriscos would be expelled from the country from 1609-1614. The expulsions took place just over 100 years after Spain's Jewish population was expelled in 1492. Learn more about the expulsion of the Moriscos.

On April 9, 1867, the U.S. Senate voted to ratify the Treaty with Russia for the Purchase of Alaska and thereby approve the purchase of the territory from Russia for $7.2 million. Initially, the purchase was made to keep Alaska away from the British. It was politically unpopular with many Americans who denounced it is "Seward's Folly", after U.S. Secretary of State William Seward, who had lobbied for the purchase. Seward was later vindicated by the discovery of gold and oil in Alaska.

Learn more about the Alaska Purchase from the U.S. State Department.

On April 9, 1747, Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat, became the last man to be beheaded in England when he was executed on Tower Hill for his part in the Jacobite rising of 1745. Learn more about the legal history and practice of beheading.