Today is Palm Sunday, April 9, the 99th day of 2017. There are 266 days left in the year.

Today’s highlight: On April 9, 1967, the first test flight of Boeing’s new 737 took place as the jetliner took off from Boeing Field in Seattle on a 2½-hour trip to Paine Field.

On this date:

In 1682, French explorer Robert de La Salle claimed the Mississippi River Basin for France.

In 1865, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered his army to Union Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia.

In 1913, the first game was played at Ebbets Field, the newly built home of the Brooklyn Dodgers, who lost to the Philadelphia Phillies, 1-0.

In 1917, during World War I, Canadian forces launched a successful counter-offensive against German troops in the Battle of Vimy Ridge on the Western Front.

In 1939, singer Marian Anderson performed a concert at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. after being denied the use of Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution.

In 1942, during World War II, some 75,000 Philippine and American defenders on Bataan surrendered to Japanese troops, who forced the prisoners to travel on foot more than 60 miles to a prison camp in what became known as the Bataan Death March. (Thousands died or were killed en route.)

In 1959, NASA presented its first seven astronauts: Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard and Donald Slayton. Architect Frank Lloyd Wright, 91, died in Phoenix, Arizona.

In 1965, the newly built Astrodome in Houston featured its first baseball game, an exhibition between the Astros and the New York Yankees, with President Lyndon B. Johnson in attendance. (The Astros won, 2-1, in 12 innings.)

Today’s birthdays: Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner is 91. Satirical songwriter and mathematician Tom Lehrer is 89. Naturalist Jim Fowler is 87. Actor Jean-Paul Belmondo is 84. Actress Michael Learned is 78. Actor Dennis Quaid is 63. Talk show host Joe Scarborough is 54. Actress-model Paulina Porizkova is 52. Actress Cynthia Nixon is 51. Actress Keshia Knight Pulliam is 38. Rock musician Albert Hammond Jr. (The Strokes) is 37. Actor Jay Baruchel is 35. Actress Annie Funke (TV: “Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders”) is 32. Actor Jordan Masterson is 31. Actress Leighton Meester is 31. Actor-singer Jesse McCartney is 30. Actress Kristen Stewart is 27. Actress Elle Fanning is 19. Actor Isaac Hempstead Wright is 18. Classical crossover singer Jackie Evancho is 17.

Thought for today: “I believe in God, only I spell it Nature.” — Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959).

Associated Press