December 9

Historic Events

2021

Fifty-five people are killed and more than 100 injured when a truck with 160 migrants from Central America overturned in Chiapas, Mexico. ›

2019

A volcano on Whakaari / White Island, New Zealand, kills 22 people after it erupts. ›

2017

The Marriage Amendment Bill receives royal assent and comes into effect, making Australia the 26th country to legalize same-sex marriage. ›

2016

President Park Geun-hye of South Korea is impeached by the country's National Assembly in response to a major political scandal. ›

2016

At least 57 people are killed and a further 177 injured when two schoolgirl suicide bombers attack a market area in Madagali, Adamawa, Nigeria in the Madagali suicide bombings. ›

2013

At least seven are dead and 63 are injured following a train accident near Bintaro, Indonesia. ›

2012

A plane crash in Mexico kills seven people including singer Jenni Rivera. ›

2008

Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich is arrested by federal officials for crimes including attempting to sell the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by President-elect Barack Obama. ›

2006

Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on STS-116 carrying the P5 truss segment of the International Space Station. ›

2003

A blast in the center of Moscow kills six people and wounds several more. ›

1996

Gwen Jacob is acquitted of committing an indecent act, giving women the right to be topless in Ontario, Canada. ›

1992

American troops land in Somalia for Operation Restore Hope. ›

1987

Israeli–Palestinian conflict: The First Intifada begins in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. ›

1979

The eradication of the smallpox virus is certified, making smallpox the first of only two diseases that have been driven to extinction (with rinderpest in 2011 being the other). ›

1973

British and Irish authorities sign the Sunningdale Agreement in an attempt to establish a power-sharing Northern Ireland Executive and a cross-border Council of Ireland. ›

1971

Indo-Pakistani War: The Indian Air Force executes an airdrop of Indian Army units, bypassing Pakistani defences. ›

1969

U.S. Secretary of State William P. Rogers proposes his plan for a ceasefire in the War of Attrition; Egypt and Jordan accept it over the objections of the PLO, which leads to civil war in Jordan in September 1970. ›

1968

Douglas Engelbart gave what became known as "The Mother of All Demos", publicly debuting the computer mouse, hypertext, and the bit-mapped graphical user interface using the oN-Line System (NLS). ›

1965

Kecksburg UFO incident: A fireball is seen from Michigan to Pennsylvania; with witnesses reporting something crashing in the woods near Pittsburgh. ›

1961

Tanganyika becomes independent from Britain. ›

1960

The first episode of Coronation Street, the world's longest-running television soap opera, is broadcast in the United Kingdom. ›

1956

Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 810-9, a Canadair North Star, crashes near Hope, British Columbia, Canada, killing all 62 people on board. ›

1956

An Aeroflot Lisunov Li-2 crashes near Anadyr, killing all 12 people on board. ›

1953

Red Scare: General Electric announces that all communist employees will be discharged from the company. ›

1950

Cold War: Harry Gold is sentenced to 30 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. ›

1948

The Genocide Convention is adopted. ›

1946

The subsequent Nuremberg trials begin with the Doctors' Trial, prosecuting physicians and officers alleged to be involved in Nazi human experimentation and mass murder under the guise of euthanasia. ›

1946

The Constituent Assembly of India meets for the first time to write the Constitution of India. ›

1941

World War II: China, Cuba, Guatemala, and the Philippine Commonwealth declare war on Germany and Japan. ›

1937

Second Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Nanking: Japanese troops under the command of Lt. Gen. Yasuhiko Asaka launch an assault on the Chinese city of Nanking. ›

1935

Student protests occur in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, and are subsequently dispersed by government authorities. ›

1935

Walter Liggett, an American newspaper editor and muckraker, is killed in a gangland murder. ›

1931

The Constituent Cortes approves a constitution which establishes the Second Spanish Republic. ›

1922

Gabriel Narutowicz is elected the first president of Poland. ›

1917

World War I: Field Marshal Allenby captures Jerusalem from the Ottoman Empire. ›

1917

World War I: The Kingdom of Romania signs the Armistice of Focșani with the Central Powers. ›

1911

A mine explosion near Briceville, Tennessee, kills 84 miners despite rescue efforts led by the United States Bureau of Mines. ›

1905

In France, a law separating church and state is passed. ›

1893

National Assembly bombing by Auguste Vaillant during the Ère des attentats (1892–1894). ›

1872

In Louisiana, P. B. S. Pinchback becomes the first African American governor of a U.S. state following the impeachment of Henry C. Warmoth. ›

1868

The first traffic lights are installed, outside the Palace of Westminster in London. Resembling railway signals, they use semaphore arms and are illuminated at night by red and green gas lamps. ›

1861

American Civil War: The Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War is established by Congress. ›

1856

The Iranian city of Bushehr surrenders to occupying British forces. ›

1851

The first YMCA in North America is established in Montreal. ›

1835

Texas Revolution: The Texian Army captures San Antonio following the Siege of Béxar. ›

1824

Patriot forces led by General Antonio José de Sucre defeat a Royalist army in the Battle of Ayacucho, putting an end to the Peruvian War of Independence. ›

1822

French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel, in a memoir read to the Academy of Sciences, coins the terms linear polarization, circular polarization, and elliptical polarization, and reports a direct refraction experiment verifying his theory that optical rotation is a form of birefringence. ›

1775

American Revolutionary War: British troops and Loyalists, misinformed about Patriot militia strength, lose the Battle of Great Bridge, ending British rule in Virginia. ›

1636

The Qing dynasty of China, led by Emperor Hong Taiji, invades Joseon. ›

1531

The Virgin of Guadalupe first appears to Juan Diego at Tepeyac, Mexico City. ›

1432

The first battle between the forces of Švitrigaila and Sigismund Kęstutaitis is fought near the town of Oszmiana (Ashmyany), launching the most active phase of the Lithuanian Civil War. ›

730

Battle of Marj Ardabil: The Khazars annihilate an Umayyad army and kill its commander, al-Jarrah ibn Abdallah al-Hakami. ›

536

Gothic War: The Byzantine general Belisarius enters Rome unopposed; the Gothic garrison flees the capital. ›