Historical Events in 2009

Events 1 - 200 of 327

• Jan 1 61 die in nightclub fire in Bangkok, Thailand.
• Jan 1 75th Orange Bowl: #21 Virginia Tech beats #12 Cincinnati, 20-7

• Jan 1 95th Rose Bowl: #5 Southern California beats #6 Penn State, 38-24
• Jan 1 Slovakia officially adopts the Euro currency and becomes the sixteenth Eurozone country.

• Jan 2 75th Sugar Bowl: #6 Utah beats #4 Alabama, 31-17
• Jan 3 Israeli ground forces invade Gaza.
• Jan 3 The Bitcoin network is created as the first block of the digital currency is mined by a person or group of people using the name Satoshi Nakamoto
• Jan 4 Phil Taylor, with a 7–1 victory in the final over Dutchman Raymond van Barneveld wins his 12th PDC World Darts title, his 14th in all; his 110.94 average remains a record for the PDC World Darts Championship final
• Jan 5 38th Fiesta Bowl: #3 Texas beats #10 Ohio State, 24-21

• Jan 6 Israel begins an assault on the Gaza Strip

• Jan 8 14th Critics' Choice Movie Awards: Slumdog Millionaire wins Best Film
• Jan 8 A 6.2 magnitude earthquake hit Costa Rica´s region of Volcan Poás, with an epicenter near Cinchona. It was caused by Varablanca-Angel fault.
• Jan 8 College Football, 11th BCS National Championship, Dolphin Stadium, Miami Gardens: #2 Florida beats #1 Oklahoma, 24-14
• Jan 9 Hopman Cup Tennis, Perth: Dominik Hrbatý beats Russia's Marat Safin 6-7, 7-5, 7-6 for an unassailable 2-0 lead, and Slovakia's 3rd title

• Jan 13 Global shipping experiences a drop in trade, as exports from South Korea dropping an annualised 30%, with Taiwan and Japan experiencing a 42% and 27% drop respectively

• Jan 18 AFC Championship, Heinz Field, Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh Steelers beat Baltimore Ravens, 23-14
• Jan 18 NFC Championship, University of Phoenix Stadium: Arizona Cardinals beat Philadelphia Eagles, 32-25

• Jan 20 Joe Biden assumes the office of the Vice President of the United States
• Jan 23 Dendermonde nursery attack occurred in Dendermonde, Belgium.
• Jan 23 UK officially enters recession as GDP falls by 1.5% in the last quarter of 2008 following a 0.6% drop in the third quarter, with unemployment growing by 131,000 to 1.92 million (6.1%)

• Jan 25 25th Sundance Film Festival: "Precious" based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire" wins Grand Jury Prize Dramatic
• Jan 25 57th NHL All-Star Game, Bell Centre, Montreal, Quebec: East beats West, 12-11, SO; MVP: Alexei Kovalev, Montreal Canadiens, RW

• Jan 26 "I Run to You" single by Lady Antebellum is released (Grammy Award Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal 2009, Billboard Song of the Year 2009)

• Jan 29 Rod Blagojevich, Governor of Illinois, is removed from office after being convicted of corruption charges

• Jan 31 In Kenya, at least 113 people are killed and over 200 injured following an oil spillage ignition in Molo, days after a massive fire at a Nakumatt supermarket in Nairobi killed at least 25 people.

• Feb 1 Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir is elected as the first female Prime Minister of Iceland, becoming the first openly gay Head of Government in the modern world.
• Feb 1 Super Bowl XLIII, Raymond James Stadium, Tampa, FL: Pittsburgh Steelers beat Arizona Cardinals, 27-23; MVP: Santonio Holmes, Pittsburgh, WR

• Feb 5 59th Berlin International Film Festival: "The Milk of Sorrow" wins the Golden Bear
• Feb 5 The United States Navy guided missile cruiser Port Royal runs aground off Oahu, Hawaii, damaging the ship as well as a coral reef
• Feb 7 Bushfires in Victoria left 173 dead in the worst natural disaster in Australia's history.

• Feb 8 NFL Pro Bowl, Aloha Stadium, Honolulu, HI: NFC beats AFC, 30-21; MVP: Larry Fitzgerald, Arizona Cardinals, WR

• Feb 12 40th NAACP Image Awards: "The Secret Life of Bees" wins Outstanding Motion Picture
• Feb 12 Colgan Air Flight 3407 crashes near Buffalo in the state of New York killing 50 people.
• Feb 13 The Dutch Statistics agency confirms the Netherlands are in recession
• Feb 13 Unix time passed 1,234,567,890 seconds February 13, 2009 at exactly 23:31:30 (UTC).
• Feb 15 51st Daytona 500: Matt Kenseth wins shortened race; called off with 48 laps to go after a severe rainstorm hits the track

• Feb 18 The Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics announced that the Taiwanese economy has contracted an unprecedented 8.36% in the fourth quarter of 2008; thus placing the country in a technical recession
• Feb 21 29th Golden Raspberry Awards: "The Love Guru" wins
• Feb 22 81st Academy Awards: "Slumdog Millionaire", Sean Penn & Kate Winslet win

• Feb 25 BDR massacre in Pilkhana, Dhaka, Bangladesh. 74 People are being killed, including more than 50 Army officials, by Bangladeshi Boarder Guards inside its headquarter.
• Feb 27 Statistics Finland informs that Finland's gross domestic product diminished by 1.3% in the last quarter of 2008 from the previous quarter
• Mar 1 Steven Holcomb pilots USA-1 sled to victory in the 4-man competition at the World Bobsled Championships at Mt Van Hoevenberg, NY; first American win in the event in 50 years
• Mar 3 The building of the Historisches Archiv der Stadt Köln (Historical Archives) in Cologne, Germany, collapses.
• Mar 3 The Sri Lankan cricket team is attacked by terrorists while on their way to the Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore for 2nd Test against Pakistan; match abandoned
• Mar 4 International Criminal Court issues an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur becoming the first sitting head of state to be indicted
• Mar 4 Malaysia has a 50% chance of slipping into the recession as growth is expected to reach just 0.5% for the year, announces the executive director Datuk Mohamed Ariff Abdul Kareem of the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research
• Mar 4 U.S. Steel announce the closure of the Stelco Lake Erie Works in Nanticoke, Ontario due to the increasingly worsening effects of the global economic slowdown

• Mar 11 Winnenden school shooting - 17 people are killed at a school in Germany.
• Mar 13 30th Big East Men's Basketball Tournament: #5 Louisville beats #10 Villanova, 69-55
• Mar 14 Canterbury winger Hazem El Masri becomes highest point scorer in Australian Rugby League history; 33rd minute penalty in Bulldogs' 34-12 win over Manly at ANZ Stadium, Sydney takes him to 2,178; Andrew Johns, 2,176
• Mar 15 50th SEC Men's Basketball Tournament: Mississippi State beats Tennessee, 64-61
• Mar 15 56th ACC Men's Basketball Tournament: #9 Duke beats #22 Florida State, 79-69
• Mar 21 Ireland completes a Grand Slam with a 17-15 win over Wales at Millennium Stadium, Cardiff to win the Six Nations Rugby Championship
• Mar 22 Cricket Women's World Cup: England defeats New Zealand by 4 wickets
• Mar 22 Mount Redoubt, a volcano in Alaska began erupting after a prolonged period of unrest
• Mar 25 Gay dating site Grindr launched by Joel Simkhai, first ever dating application to combine dating information and location
• Mar 27 Situ Gintung, an artificial lake in Indonesia, fails killing at least 99 people.

• Mar 31 "Boom Boom Pow" single released by The Black Eyed Peas (Grammy Award for Best Music Video 2010, Billboard Song of the Year 2009)
• Apr 1 Croatia and Albania join NATO
• Apr 3 Australia formally adopts the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
• Apr 4 162nd Grand National: French-bred 100/1 outsider Mon Mome, ridden by Liam Treadwell, wins by 12 lengths from defending champion Comply or Die

• Apr 5 North Korea launches its controversial Kwangmyŏngsŏng-2 rocket. The satellite passed over mainland Japan, which prompted an immediate reaction from the United Nations Security Council, as well as participating states of Six-party talks

• Apr 6 71st NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: North Carolina beats Michigan State, 89-72; Tar Heels' 5th national title; Ty Lawson 21 points
• Apr 6 A 6.3 magnitude earthquake strikes near L'Aquila, Italy, killing at least 253.
• Apr 7 28th NCAA Women's Basketball Championship: Connecticut beats Louisville, 76-54; Huskies' 6th national title with center Tina Charles MOP

• Apr 12 73rd US Masters Tournament, Augusta National GC: Ángel Cabrera wins his 2nd major title in a playoff with Chad Campbell and Kenny Perry; Cabrera, first Masters champion from Argentina and South America

• Apr 12 U.S. Navy rescues captain Richard Phillips, killing three pirates and capturing a fourth

• Apr 15 Even though official government sources state that Argentina's GDP will actually grow this year, private consulting firms state that Argentine economy has actually been in recession since October 2008

• Apr 20 113th Boston Marathon: Deriba Merga of Ethiopia wins men's event in 2:08:42; Salina Kosgei of Kenya women's champion in 2:32:16
• Apr 23 Gamma ray burst (GRB) 090423 is observed for 10 seconds, the most distant object of any kind and also the oldest known object in the universe

• Apr 26 55th British Academy Television Awards: "Harry and Paul" Best Comedy, "Wallander" Best Drama
• Apr 30 Chrysler automobile company files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
• Apr 30 Failed attack on the Dutch Royal Family results in 7 deaths and 17 injured
• Apr 30 The United Kingdom formally ends combat operations in Iraq
• May 1 Carol Ann Duffy is appointed British Poet Laureate - first Scot and woman Laureate

• May 1 Same-sex marriage is legalized in Sweden
• May 2 135th Kentucky Derby: Calvin Borel wins aboard 50-1 long shot Mine That Bird after running dead last until the final turn

• May 10 PGA Players Championship, TPC at Sawgrass: Henrik Stenson of Sweden shoots a bogey-free final round 66 to win by 4 strokes from Englishman Ian Poulter
• May 11 An American soldier in Iraq opened fire on a counseling center at Camp Liberty in Bagdhad, leaving 5 other US soldiers dead and 3 soldiers wounded

• May 15 Eurostat report that Austria, Belgium, and Romania have all entered recession in the first quarter of 2009
• May 15 French Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies announce French narrowly avoided recession in 2008, gross domestic product shrank 1.2% in 1st quarter of 2009 after falling by 1.5% in final quarter of 2008
• May 16 134th Preakness: Calvin Borel aboard Rachel Alexandra wins in 1:55.08
• May 16 54th Eurovision Song Contest: Alexander Rybak for Norway wins singing "Fairytale" in Moscow

• May 17 Video game Minecraft is first released to the public while in development
• May 18 Sri Lankan Civil War: The LTTE are defeated by the Sri Lankan government, ending almost 26 years of fighting between the two sides.
• May 19 Sri Lanka announces victory in its 25-year war against the terrorist organization, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam

• May 20 Mexico is the first Latin American country to officially enter recession
• May 24 62nd Cannes Film Festival: "The White Ribbon" directed by Michael Haneke wins the Palme d'Or
• May 24 Indianapolis 500: 2001 and 2002 champion Hélio Castroneves of Brazil wins his record tying 3rd Indy title from the pole position; 60th victory in the race for Firestone
• May 24 IPL Cricket Final, New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg, RSA: Deccan Chargers beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by 6 runs; Herschelle Gibbs top scores, 53 (48)
• May 24 Manchester United wins 1-0 at Hull City Stadium to win English Premier League title for 3rd consecutive season, for a second time; equals Liverpool's record of 18 league titles
• May 24 Senior PGA Championship Men’s Golf, Canterbury GC: Michael Allen wins his lone major title by 2 strokes from runner-up Larry Mize
• May 25 North Korea conducts its second nuclear test while also conducting several missile tests
• May 25 Thailand’s economy shrank more than expected in the first quarter of 2009, contracting the most in a decade and plunging the nation into recession
• May 26 NHL Eastern Conference Final: Pittsburgh Penguins beat Carolina Hurricanes, 4 games to 0
• May 27 NHL Western Conference Final: Detroit Red Wings beat Chicago Black Hawks, 4 games to 1
• May 27 South Africa enters the global recession; the first recession for South Africa in 17 years
• May 27 UEFA Champions League Final, Rome: Barcelona beats Manchester United, 2-0; first Spanish treble of La Liga, Copa del Rey and Champions League

• May 30 English FA Cup Final, Wembley Stadium, London (89,391): Chelsea beats Everton, 2-1; Frank Lampard scores 72' winner
• May 30 Super Rugby Final, Pretoria: Morné Steyn kicks 5 conversions & 2 penalties as the Bulls thump the Chiefs (Waikato, NZ), 61-17
• Jun 1 Air France Flight 447 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Brazil on a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. All 228 passengers and crew were killed.
• Jun 1 General Motors files for chapter 11 bankruptcy. It is the fourth largest United States bankruptcy in history.
• Jun 2 Switzerland officially enters the global recession
• Jun 5 At least 32 people are killed in Peru during clashes between the police and indigenous protesters
• Jun 5 Chile officially enters recession; it is the first South American country to enter the global recession

• Jun 6 French Open Women's Tennis: Svetlana Kuznetsova beats fellow Russian and World #1 Dinara Safina 6-4, 6-2
• Jun 7 63rd Tony Awards: "Billy Elliot the Musical" (musical) and "God of Carnage" (play) win

• Jun 8 First section of the elevated High Line park, built on an old railway opens in New York from Gansevoort Street to 20th Street
• Jun 9 Brazil officially enters recession
• Jun 11 Bulgarian authorities declare the country is officially in recession after dropping 1.6% in the last quarter of 2008
• Jun 11 Texas mother hit by lightning while standing in her kitchen in her Texas home. Witnesses say lightning came through a light fixture, struck her chest and exited her foot. Survived after three days in hospital.
• Jun 11 The World Health Organization declares H1N1 swine flu to be a global pandemic, the first such incident in over forty years
• Jun 12 Protests in Iran following the presidential election.
• Jun 12 Stanley Cup Final, Joe Louis Arena, Detroit, MI: Pittsburgh Penguins edge Detroit Red Wings, 2-1 for a 4-3 series win; Penguins 3rd Championship
• Jun 12 TSC: All television broadcasts in the United States switch from analog NTSC to digital ATSC transmission.
• Jun 14 LPGA Championship Women's Golf, Bulle Rock GC: 22 year old Tour rookie Anna Nordqvist of Sweden wins her only major title by 4 strokes ahead of runner-up Lindsey Wright
• Jun 14 NBA Finals: Los Angeles Lakers beat Orlando Magic, 99-86 in Game 5 for franchise's 15th NBA championship; MVP: Kobe Bryant

• Jun 21 ICC Men's Cricket T20 World Cup, Lord's, London: Pakistan wins their first title beating Sri Lanka by 8 wickets; Player of the Series: Sri Lankan all-rounder Tillakaratne Dilshan (317 runs)
• Jun 21 ICC Women's Cricket T20 World Cup, Lord's: England 86/4 win inaugural event; beat New Zealand 85; England's Katherine Brunt takes 3 for 6
• Jun 22 Two Metro subway trains collide in Washington, D.C., killing 9 and injuring over 80

• Jun 24 Glastonbury Festival in Pilton, England opens: Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, and Blur headline; other performers include Fleet Foxes, Tom Jones, Spinal Tap, Lady Gaga, and The Script

• Jun 25 Colombia enters into recession after witnessing 0.7% contraction in the last quarter of 2008 and 0.6% in the following quarter
• Jun 25 NBA Draft: Oklahoma power forward Blake Griffin first pick by Los Angeles Clippers
• Jun 27 The Tower of Hercules in northern Spain - only preserved Roman lighthouse still in use is inscribed as a World Heritage Site [1]

• Jun 30 Turkey records its fastest contraction of 13.8% in the first quarter of 2009 compared to 2008, leading the country into recession; this is Turkey's biggest economic slump since 1945
• Jun 30 Yemenia Flight 626 crashes off the coast of Moroni, Comoros killing 152 people and leaving 1 survivor

• Jul 3 Mark II.5 Skytrain cars enter service in Metro Vancouver.

• Jul 4 Wimbledon Women's Tennis: Serena Williams beats older sister Venus 7-6, 6-2 for her 3rd Wimbledon singles title
• Jul 5 Ethnic rioting breaks out in Ürümqi, Xinjiang, People's Republic of China
• Jul 5 Wimbledon Men's Tennis: Roger Federer beats Andy Roddick of the US 5-7, 7-6, 7-6, 3-6, 16-14 for a record 15th Grand Slam singles title
• Jul 6 Jadranka Kosor became first female prime minister of Croatia

• Jul 12 US Open Women's Golf, Saucon Valley CC: Eun-Hee Ji of South Korea wins her lone major title, 1 stroke ahead of American runner-up Candie Kung

• Jul 14 80th All Star Baseball Game: AL wins 4-3 at Busch Stadium, St Louis
• Jul 14 Singapore experiences a seasonally adjusted and annualised growth of 20.4% in the second quarter as a result of increased pharmaceuticals production and construction, bringing the country out of the recession

• Jul 15 A 7.9 Magnitude earthquake registers 160km west of Invercargill, New Zealand, creating a small tsunami
• Jul 17 Jakarta double bombings at the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton Hotels killed 9 people including 4 foreigners
• Jul 18 Five members of one family are found murdered at Epping, New South Wales.

• Jul 19 The Wesley Impact: black spot the size of Earth discovered on Jupiter after unknown object crashed onto the planet
• Jul 23 42nd San Diego Comic-Con International opens at San Diego Convention Center

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