December 9
is the 343rd day (344th in leap years) of the year in the
Gregorian calendar. There are 22 days remaining.
*
1425 - The Catholic University of
Leuven is founded
*
1531 - First apparition of the
Virgin Mary (
Our Lady of Guadalupe) to
Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin on Tepeyac Hill
*
1793 -
New York City's first daily
newspaper, the
American Minerva, is established by
Noah Webster.
*
1824 -
Battle of Ayacucho:
Peruvian nationalists led by
Antonio José de Sucre defeat
Spanish colonial forces and secure the independence of Peru.
*
1835 - The
Republic of Texas captures
San Antonio.
*
1851 - The first
YMCA in
North America is established in
Montreal, Quebec.
*
1856 - The
Iranian city of
Bushehr surrenders to occupying
British forces.
*
1861 -
American Civil War: The
Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War is established by the
U.S. Congress.
*
1872 - In
Louisiana,
P. B. S. Pinchback becomes the first serving
African-American governor of a U.S. state.
*
1875 -
Massachusetts Rifle Association "America's Oldest Active Gun Club" is founded.
*
1888 - Statistician
Herman Hollerith installs his self-designed computing device at the
United States War Department.
*
1897 - Activist
Marguerite Durand founds the
feminist daily
newspaper,
La Fronde in
Paris.
*
1905 - In
France, the law
separating church and state is passed.
*
1931 - The
Constituent Cortes approves the constitution which establishes the
Second Spanish Republic.
*
1937 -
Second Sino-Japanese War:
Battle of Nanjing -
Japanese troops under the command of Lt. Gen.
Asaka Yasuhiko launch an assault on the
Chinese city of
Nanjing.
*
1940 -
World War II:
Operation Compass -
British and
Indian troops under the command of Major-General
Richard O'Connor attack
Italian forces near
Sidi Barrani in
Egypt.
*
1941 - World War II: The
Republic of China,
Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea and
Cuba declare war on
Germany and
Japan.
*
1945 -
General George S. Patton is injured in an automobile crash in occupied
Germany. He dies twelve days later.
*
1946 - The "
Trials of War Criminals before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals" began with the "
Doctors' Trial", prosecuting
doctors alleged to be involved in
human experimentation.
*
1950 -
Harry Gold is sentenced to thirty years in jail for helping
Klaus Fuchs pass information about the
Manhattan Project to the
Soviet Union. His testimony is later instrumental in the prosecution of
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.
*
1953 -
Red Scare:
General Electric announces that all
communist employees will be discharged from the company
*
1958 - Red Scare: The
John Birch Society founded in the
United States.
*
1960 - The first episode of
ITV soap-opera
Coronation Street is aired.
*
1961 - The trial of
Nazi Adolf Eichmann in
Israel ends with him being found guilty of 15 criminal charges, including charges of crimes against humanity, crimes against the Jewish people and membership of an outlawed organization.
* 1961 -
Tanganyika becomes independent from Britain.
*
1965 -
Kecksburg UFO incident*
1969 - Groundbreaking of
Washington, D.C.'s
Metrorail system.
*
1981 -
Philadelphia police officer
Daniel Faulkner is shot and killed during a routine traffic stop of a vehicle driven by
William Cook,
Abu-Jamal's younger brother.
*
1982 - Activist
Norman Mayer threatens to blow up the
Washington Monument, before being killed by
United States Park Police.
*
1986 -
Israeli-Palestinian conflict: The
First Intifada begins in the
Gaza Strip and
West Bank*
1990 -
Lech Wałęsa becomes the first directly elected president of
Poland.
*
1992 - The separation of
Charles, Prince of Wales and
Diana, Princess of Wales is announced
*
1447 -
Chenghua, Emperor of China (d.
1487)
*
1508 -
Gemma Frisius, Dutch mathematician and cartographer (d.
1555)
*
1561 - Sir
Edwin Sandys, British-born Virginian colonist (d.
1629)
*
1571 -
Metius (Adriaan Adriaanszoon), Dutch mathematician and astronomer (d.
1635)
*
1579 -
Martin de Porres, Peruvian saint (d.
1639)
*
1594 - King
Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden (d.
1632)
*
1608 -
John Milton, English poet (d.
1674)
*
1610 -
Baldassare Ferri, Italian castrato (d.
1680)
*
1652 -
Augustus Quirinus Rivinus, German physician and botanist (d.
1723)
*
1667 -
William Whiston, English mathematician (d.
1752)
*
1748 -
Claude Louis Berthollet, French chemist (d.
1822)
*
1842 -
Peter Kropotkin, Russian anarchist (d.
1921)
*
1847 -
George Grossmith, English actor (d.
1912)
*
1850 -
Emma Abbott, American soprano (d.
1891)
*
1868 -
Fritz Haber, German chemist and
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1934)
*
1871 -
Joe Kelley, American baseball player (d.
1943)
*
1876 -
Berton Churchill, American actor (d.
1940)
*
1882 -
Joaquín Turina, Spanish composer (d.
1949)
*
1886 -
Clarence Birdseye, American frozen food manufacturer (d.
1956)
*
1889 -
Hannes Kolehmainen, Finnish long-distance runner and Olympic gold medalist (d.
1966)
*
1891 -
Maksim Bahdanovič, Belarusian poet (d.
1917)
*
1895 -
Conchita Supervia, Spanish opera singer (d.
1936)
*
1897 -
Hermione Gingold, British actress (d.
1987)
*
1898 -
Emmett Kelly, American circus clown (d.
1979)
*
1899 -
Jean de Brunhoff, French author (d.
1937)
*
1901 -
Carol Dempster, American actress (d.
1991)
* 1901 -
Ödön von Horváth, Hungarian-born writer (d.
1938)
* 1901 -
Jean Mermoz, French pilot (d.
1936)
*
1902 -
Margaret Hamilton, American actress (d.
1985)
*
1905 -
Dalton Trumbo, American writer (d.
1976)
*
1906 -
Grace Murray Hopper, American computer pioneer (d.
1992)
*
1909 -
Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., American actor (d.
2000)
*
1911 -
Broderick Crawford, American actor (d.
1986)
*
1912 -
Tip O'Neill,
Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (d.
1994)
*
1915 -
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, German-born soprano (d.
2006)
*
1916 -
Kirk Douglas, American actor and film producer
*
1917 -
James Rainwater, American physicist and
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1986)
*
1918 -
Jerome Beatty Jr., American author of children's books
*
1919 -
William Lipscomb, American chemist and
Nobel Prize laureate
*
1920 -
Carlo Azeglio Ciampi,
President of the Italian Republic*
1922 -
Redd Foxx, American comedian and actor (d.
1991)
*
1926 -
Henry Way Kendall, American physicist and
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1999)
* 1926 -
Jan Křesadlo, Czech writer (d.
1995)
*
1927 -
Pierre Henry, French composer
*
1928 -
Dick Van Patten, American actor
*
1929 -
John Cassavetes, American actor and film director (d.
1989)
* 1929 -
Bob Hawke, twenty-third
Prime Minister of Australia*
1930 -
Buck Henry, American actor, comedian, writer, director, and producer
*
1931 -
Ladislav Smoljak, Czech actor, director and humourist
*
1933 -
Morton Downey Jr., American talk show host (d.
2001)
*
1934 - Dame
Judi Dench British actress
* 1934 -
Junior Wells, American blues harmonica player (d.
1998)
*
1937 -
Darwin Joston, American actor (d.
1998)
*
1938 -
Deacon Jones, American football player
*
1941 -
Beau Bridges, American actor
* 1941 -
Dan Hicks, American musician
*
1942 -
Dick Butkus, American football player
*
1946 -
Sonia Gandhi, Italian-born Indian politician, chair of the United Progressive Alliance
*
1947 -
Tom Daschle, American politician
* 1947 -
Jaak Jõerüüt, Soviet-born Estonian politician
*
1950 -
Joan Armatrading, West Indian-born British singer
*
1952 -
Michael Dorn, American actor
* 1952 -
Liaqat Baloch, Pakistani politician
*
1953 -
John Malkovich, American actor
*
1954 -
Herman Finkers, Dutch comedian
*
1957 -
Donny Osmond, American singer and actor
*
1958 -
Nick Seymour, Australian bassist (
Crowded House)
*
1960 -
Juan Samuel, Major League Baseball Player
*
1961 -
David Anthony Higgins, American actor
*
1962 -
Felicity Huffman, American actress
*
1964 -
Paul Landers, German guitarist (
Rammstein)
*
1966 -
Toby Huss, American actor
*
1967 -
Joshua Bell, American violinist
* 1967 -
Gheorghe Popescu, Romanian footballer
*
1968 -
Kurt Angle, American amateur and professional wrestler
* 1968 -
Dave Harold, British snooker player
* 1968 -
Brian Bell, American guitarist (
Weezer)
*
1969 -
Jakob Dylan, American singer and songwriter (
The Wallflowers)
* 1969 -
Bixente Lizarazu,
French international footballer and World Cup winner
*
1972 -
Tre Cool (Frank Edwin Wright III), German-born American drummer (
Green Day)
* 1972 -
Reiko Aylesworth, American actress
* 1972 -
Fabrice Santoro, Tahitian-born French tennis player
*
1976 -
Imogen Heap, British singer and songwriter
*
1978 -
Jesse Metcalfe, American actor (
Desperate Housewives)
*
1981 -
Diya Mirza, Indian actress
*
1983 -
Dariusz Dudka, Polish footballer
*
1991 -
Prince Joachim, Archduke of Austria-Este, Belgian Prince
*
1165 - King
Malcolm IV of Scotland*
1292 -
Sheikh Saadi,
Persian sufi poet
*
1437 -
Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (b.
1368)
*
1544 -
Teofilo Folengo, Italian poet (b.
1491)
*
1565 -
Pope Pius IV (b.
1499)
*
1603 -
William Watson, English conspirator (b.
1559)
*
1625 -
Ubbo Emmius, Dutch historian and geographer (b.
1547)
*
1636 -
Fabian Birkowski, Polish writer (b.
1566)
*
1641 -
Anthony van Dyck, Flemish painter (b.
1599)
*
1669 -
Pope Clement IX (b.
1600)
*
1674 -
Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, English statesman and historian (b.
1609)
*
1692 -
William Mountfort, English actor and dramatist
*
1706 - King
Peter II of Portugal (b.
1648)
*
1718 -
Vincenzo Coronelli, Italian cartographer and encylopaedist (b.
1650)
*
1793 -
Gabrielle de Polastron, comtesse de Polignac, French aristocrat (b.
1749)
*
1798 -
Johann Reinhold Forster, German botanist (b.
1729)
*
1830 -
Heinrich Christian Friedrich Schumacher, Danish surgeon, botanist and professor of anatomy (b.
1757)
*
1854 -
Almeida Garrett, Portuguese writer (b.
1799)
*
1887 -
Mahmadu Lamine, Senegalese marabout and military leader
*
1894 -
Pafnuty Chebyshev, Russian mathematician (b.
1821)
*
1930 -
Andrew "Rube" Foster, American baseball player and founder of the Negro National League
*
1937 -
Nils Gustaf Dalén, Swedish physicist and
Nobel Prize laureate (b.
1869)
*
1941 -
Dmitry Merezhkovsky, Russian writer and philosopher (b.
1865)
*
1964 - Dame
Edith Sitwell, British poet and critic (b.
1887)
*
1965 -
Branch Rickey, American baseball commissioner (b.
1884)
*
1970 -
Sir Feroz Khan Noon, Prime Minister of
Pakistan*
1971 -
Ralph Bunche, American diplomat and
Nobel Prize laureate (b.
1904)
*
1971 -
Sergey Konenkov, Russian sculptor (b.
1874)
*
1972 -
Louella Parsons, American gossip columnist (b.
1881)
*
1984 -
Nicholas "Razzle" Dingley, British drummer (
Hanoi Rocks) (b.
1960)
*
1993 -
Danny Blanchflower, Northern Irish footballer and football manager (b.
1926)
*
1995 -
Toni Cade Bambara, American author (b.
1939)
*
1996 -
Mary Leakey, British archeologist and anthropologist (b.
1913)
*
1998 -
Shaughnessy Cohen, Canadian politician (b.
1948)
* 1998 -
Archie Moore, American boxer and World
Light-Heavyweight Champion (b.
1913)
*
1999 -
Franjo Tudjman, first President of Croatia (b.
1922)
*
2002 -
Stan Rice, American painter, educator, and poet (b.
1942)
*
2003 -
Paul Simon, U.S. Senator from Illinois (b.
1928)
*
2004 -
David Brudnoy, American radio personality (b.
1940)
* 2004 -
Lea De Mae, Czech actress (b.
1976)
*
2005 -
György Sándor, Hungarian pianist (b.
1912)
* 2005 -
Robert Sheckley, American author (b.
1928)
*
Calendar of saints:
** Saint
Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin : optional memorial
**
Peter Fourier, founder of the Congregation of Notre Dame
* Also see
December 9 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics); specifically the conception of
Saint Anne*
Scandinavia (specifically
Sweden): Anna's Day. Recognizes everyone named Anna, and marks the day to start the preparation process of the
lutefisk to be consumed on
Christmas Eve.
*
Tanzania -
Independence Day (of Tanganyika from Britain,
1961)
*
Anti-Corruption Day [
1]
*
BBC: On This DayDecember 8 -
December 10 -
November 9 -
January 9 --
listing of all days
