What Happened on September 9
Historical Events
- 1000 Battle of Svolder, Baltic Sea: King Olaf on board the Long Serpent defeated in one of the greatest naval battles of the Viking Age. He leaps to his death overboard.
- 1776 Congress officially renames the country as the United States of America (from the United Colonies)
- 1817 Alexander Twilight, probably first African American to graduate from a US college, receives BA degree at Middlebury College
- 1914 First fully mechanized unit in the British Army created - the Canadian Automobile Machine Gun Brigade (WWI)
- 1993 Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization exchange letters of mutual recognition
- 2015 Queen Elizabeth II becomes Great Britain's longest-reigning monarch at 63 years and seven months, beating the previous record set by her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria
- More Historical Events
Sep 9 in Film & TV
- 1951 1st broadcast of "Love of Life" on CBS-TV
- 1956 Elvis Presley appears on "The Ed Sullivan Show" for the 1st time
Sep 9 in Sport
- 1972 Soviet Union beats the United States 51-50 in the most controversial game in international basketball history; with US leading 50-49 the final 3 seconds is replayed 3 times until the Soviets finally win
Did You Know?
Mary Stuart, at nine months old, is crowned "Queen of Scots" in the central Scottish town of Stirling
On September 9, 1543
William Bligh
Leo Tolstoy
Fred Spofforth
Colonel Sanders
Otis Redding
Adam SandlerWould You Believe?
Nurse Sally Tompkins is officially commissioned as an officer (and its only woman officer) by the Confederate US Army
On September 9, 1861
Famous Weddings
- 1770 Founding Father of America Robert R. Livingston (23) weds John Steven's daughter Mary Stevens
- 1995 American figure skater Nancy Kerrigan (25) weds her agent Jerry Solomon (41) at the Church of the Covenant, Boston
- 1995 American pop singer Chynna Phillips (27) weds American actor William Baldwin (32)
More Weddings
William the Conqueror
James IV
Mao Zedong
Burgess Meredith
Ahmad Shah Massoud
Edward TellerArticles, Photos and Quiz
Mutiny On The Bounty
William Bligh, born on this day, became known as a sadistic sea captain who drove his men to the Mutiny on the Bounty. But was he in fact a victim of fiction?
September 9, 1754
Weekly Quiz for September 9-15
In 1776 US Congress officially adopted the name 'United States of America', what was the previous name? Which war saw the 1st use of tanks on the battlefield?
