November 9

Historic Events

2023

U.S. surgeons at NYU Langone Health announce the world's first whole eye transplant. ›

2020

Second Nagorno-Karabakh War: An armistice agreement is signed by Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia. ›

2014

A non-binding self-determination consultation is held in Catalonia, asking Catalan citizens their opinion on whether Catalonia should become a state and, if so, whether it should be an independent state. ›

2012

A train carrying liquid fuel crashes and bursts into flames in northern Myanmar, killing 27 people and injuring 80 others. ›

2012

At least 27 people are killed and dozens are wounded in conflicts between inmates and guards at Welikada prison in Colombo. ›

2011

The first national test of the Emergency Alert System is activated in the United States at 2:00 p.m. EST. ›

2005

The Venus Express mission of the European Space Agency is launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. ›

2005

Suicide bombers attack three hotels in Amman, Jordan, killing at least 60 people. ›

2004

Firefox 1.0 is released. ›

2000

Uttarakhand officially becomes the 27th state of India, formed from thirteen districts of northwestern Uttar Pradesh. ›

1999

TAESA Flight 725 crashes after takeoff from Uruapan International Airport in Uruapan, Michoacán, Mexico, killing all 18 people on board. ›

1998

A U.S. federal judge, in the largest civil settlement in American history, orders 37 U.S. brokerage houses to pay US$1.03 billion to cheated NASDAQ investors to compensate for price fixing. ›

1998

Capital punishment in the United Kingdom, already abolished for murder, is completely abolished for all remaining capital offences. ›

1994

The chemical element darmstadtium is discovered. ›

1993

Stari Most, the "old bridge" in the Bosnian city of Mostar, built in 1566, collapses after several days of bombing by Croat forces during the Croat–Bosniak War. ›

1989

Cold War: Fall of the Berlin Wall: East Germany opens checkpoints in the Berlin Wall, allowing its citizens to travel to West Berlin. ›

1985

Garry Kasparov, 22, of the Soviet Union, becomes the youngest World Chess Champion by beating fellow Soviet Anatoly Karpov. ›

1979

Cold War: Nuclear false alarm: The NORAD computers and the Alternate National Military Command Center in Fort Ritchie, Maryland, detect a purported massive Soviet nuclear strike. After reviewing the raw data from satellites and checking the early-warning radars, the alert is cancelled. ›

1971

American banker John List murdered his wife, mother, and three children with a pair of handguns. ›

1970

Vietnam War: The Supreme Court of the United States votes 6–3 against hearing a case to allow Massachusetts to enforce its law granting residents the right to refuse military service in an undeclared war. ›

1967

Apollo program: NASA launches the unmanned Apollo 4 test spacecraft, atop the first Saturn V rocket, from Florida's Cape Kennedy. ›

1965

Several U.S. states and parts of Canada are hit by a series of blackouts lasting up to 13 hours in the Northeast blackout of 1965. ›

1965

A Catholic Worker Movement member, Roger Allen LaPorte, protesting against the Vietnam War, sets himself on fire in front of the United Nations building. ›

1963

At a coal mine in Miike, Japan, an explosion kills 458 and hospitalises 839 with carbon monoxide poisoning. ›

1963

The Tsurumi rail accident on the Tōkaidō Main Line in Yokohama kills 162 people. ›

1960

Robert McNamara is named president of the Ford Motor Company, becoming the first non-Ford family member to serve in that post. He resigns a month later to join the newly elected John F. Kennedy administration. ›

1953

Cambodia gains independence from France. ›

1945

Soo Bahk Do and Moo Duk Kwan martial arts are founded in Korea. ›

1943

An agreement for the founding of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration is signed by 44 countries in the White House, Washington, D.C. ›

1942

Battle of Stalingrad: German forces of the 6th Army under general Friedrich Paulus reach the river bank of the Volga, capturing 90% of the ruined city of Stalingrad and splitting the remaining Soviet forces into two narrow pockets. ›

1940

Warsaw is awarded the Virtuti Militari by the Polish government-in-exile. ›

1938

Kristallnacht occurs, instigated by the Nazis using the killing of German diplomat Ernst vom Rath by Herschel Grynszpan as justification. ›

1937

Second Sino-Japanese War: The Chinese Army withdraws from the Battle of Shanghai. ›

1936

American fashion designer Ruth Harkness seeks and captures a nine-week-old panda cub in Sichuan; named Su Lin, he becomes the first live giant panda to enter the United States. ›

1935

The Committee for Industrial Organization, the precursor to the Congress of Industrial Organizations, is founded in Atlantic City, New Jersey, by eight trade unions belonging to the American Federation of Labor. ›

1923

In Munich, police and government troops crush the Nazi Beer Hall Putsch. ›

1921

The National Fascist Party (Partito Nazionale Fascista or PNF) is founded in Italy. ›

1918

Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany abdicates after the German Revolution, and Germany is proclaimed a Republic. ›

1917

The Balfour Declaration is published in The Times newspaper. ›

1914

SMS Emden is sunk by HMAS Sydney in the Battle of Cocos. ›

1913

The Great Lakes Storm of 1913, the most destructive natural disaster ever to hit the lakes, reaches its greatest intensity after beginning two days earlier. The storm destroys 19 ships and kills more than 250 people. ›

1907

The Cullinan Diamond is presented to King Edward VII on his birthday. ›

1906

Theodore Roosevelt is the first sitting President of the United States to make an official trip outside the country, doing so to inspect progress on the Panama Canal. ›

1905

The Province of Alberta, Canada, holds its first general election. ›

1901

Prince George, Duke of Cornwall (later George V of the United Kingdom), becomes Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester. ›

1900

Russian invasion of Manchuria: Russia completes its occupation of Manchuria with 100,000 troops. ›

1888

Jack the Ripper murders Mary Jane Kelly, his final victim in the Whitechapel murders. ›

1887

The United States receives rights to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. ›

1881

Mapuche rebels attack the fortified Chilean settlement of Temuco. ›

1880

A major earthquake strikes Zagreb and destroys many buildings, including Zagreb Cathedral. ›

1872

The Great Boston Fire of 1872. ›

1870

The Battle of Coulmiers ends in a Pyrrhic victory for the French army during the Franco-German War of 1870. ›

1867

The Tokugawa shogunate hands back power to the Emperor of Japan, starting the Meiji Restoration. ›

1862

American Civil War: Union General Ambrose Burnside assumes command of the Army of the Potomac, after George B. McClellan is removed. ›

1851

Kentucky marshals abduct abolitionist minister Calvin Fairbank from Jeffersonville, Indiana, and take him to Kentucky to stand trial for helping a slave escape. ›

1799

Napoleon Bonaparte leads the Coup of 18 Brumaire ending the Directory government, and becoming First Consul of the successor Consulate Government. ›

1791

The Dublin Society of United Irishmen is founded. ›

1780

American Revolutionary War: In the Battle of Fishdam Ford a force of British and Loyalist troops fail in a surprise attack against the South Carolina Patriot militia under Brigadier General Thomas Sumter. ›

1729

Spain, France and Great Britain sign the Treaty of Seville. ›

1720

The synagogue of Judah HeHasid is burned down by Arab creditors, leading to the expulsion of the Ashkenazim from Jerusalem. ›

1719

In a treaty between Sweden and Hanover at the close of the Great Northern War, Sweden cedes the Duchies of Bremen and Verden (in northern Germany) to Hanover. ›

1688

Glorious Revolution: William of Orange captures Exeter. ›

1620

The Bohemian King Frederick I flees Prague to Vratislav one day after the defeat of his troops in the Battle of White Mountain. ›

1580

Second Desmond Rebellion: The Siege of Smerwick ends with the Catholic garrison surrendering to the English forces under Arthur Grey. The majority of the garrison is massacred the next day. ›

1520

More than 50 people are sentenced and executed in the Stockholm Bloodbath. ›

1456

Ulrich II, Count of Celje, last ruler of the County of Cilli, is assassinated in Belgrade. ›

1431

The Battle of Ilava: The Hungarians defeat the Hussite army. ›

1372

Trần Duệ Tông succeeds his brother Trần Nghệ Tông as King of Vietnam. ›

1330

At the Battle of Posada, Basarab I of Wallachia defeats the Hungarian army of Charles I Robert. ›

1323

Siege of Warangal: Prataparudra surrenders to Muhammad bin Tughlaq, officially marking the end of the Kakatiya dynasty. ›

1313

Louis the Bavarian defeats his cousin Frederick I of Austria at the Battle of Gammelsdorf. ›

1307

Knights Templar officer Hugues de Pairaud is forced to confess during the Trials of the Knights Templar. He was persecuted on the charges of false idolism and sodomy. ›

1277

The Treaty of Aberconwy, a humiliating settlement forced on Llywelyn ap Gruffudd by King Edward I of England, brings a temporary end to the Welsh Wars. ›

1180

The Battle of Fujigawa: Minamoto forces (30,000 men) under Minamoto no Yoritomo defeat Taira no Koremori during a night attack near the Fuji River but he escapes safely with the routed army. ›

694

At the Seventeenth Council of Toledo, Egica, a king of the Visigoths of Hispania, accuses Jews of aiding Muslims, sentencing all Jews to slavery. ›