On This Day in History for July 9

Events 1 - 100 of 147

• 455 Roman military commander Avitus is proclaimed emperor of the Western Roman Empire
• 660 Battle of Hwangsanbeol: At Nonsan, China a 50,000 strong Silla force led by general Kim Yu-shin annihilate the army of Baekje and kill their leader general Gyebaek
• 711 Berbers under Tarik-ibn Ziyad occupy North Spain
• 1357 Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor assists laying the foundation stone of Charles Bridge in Prague
• 1371 Pope Gregory XI names Arnold II of Horne as bishop of Utrecht
• 1386 Battle at Sempach: Swiss beat duke Leopold III of Austria

• 1517 Gelderse crowd robber murders population of Asperen

• 1541 Estevão da Gama departs Massawa, leaving behind 400 matchlock men and 150 slaves under his brother Christovão da Gama, with orders to help the Emperor of Ethiopia defeat Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al-Ghazi who has invaded his Empire
• 1553 Battle at Sievershausen Solingen: van Saksen beats Alcibiades
• 1572 19 Catholic priests hanged in Gorcum
• 1609 Emperor Rudolf II grants Bohemian protestants freedom of religion
• 1672 William III inaugurated as viceroy of Holland/Zealand
• 1686 Germany, Sweden and Spain sign anti-French League of Augsburg
• 1745 Bonnie Prince Charlie's "Elisabeth" battles with HMS Lion


• 1755 Battle at Duquesne (Pittsburgh): French troops beat British
• 1755 British General Edward Braddock mortally wounded during French and Indian War
• 1766 British premier Rockingham resigns

• 1780 Denmark declares neutrality
• 1789 French Revolution: the National Assembly renames itself the National Constituent Assembly
• 1790 Russo-Swedish War: Second Battle of Svensksund - in the Baltic Sea, the Swedish Navy captures one third of the Russian fleet
• 1795 James Swan pays off the $2,024,899 US national debt
• 1800 Mt Vernon Gardens becomes site of 1st summer theater in US

• 1810 Napoleon annexes the Kingdom of Holland as part of the First French Empire
• 1815 1st natural gas well in US is discovered

• 1816 Argentina declares independence from Spain
• 1835 St Etienne-Lyons railway opens in France
• 1842 Notary Stamp Law passes
• 1846 Captain Montgomery claims Yerba Buena (San Francisco) for US
• 1846 The territory of the District of Columbia south of the Potomac River (39 mi² or about 100 km²) is returned to Virginia through an Act of Congress
• 1852 Fire destroys 1,100 construction sites in Montreal, Canada
• 1853 Admiral Perry and US Navy visit Japan
• 1860 Temperature hits 115°F in Fort Scott and 112°F in Topeka, Kansas
• 1862 General John Hunt Morgan captures Tompkinsville, Kentucky
• 1863 John Hunt Morgan's cavalry aid into Indiana [->JUL 13]
• 1863 Union troops enter Port Hudson


• 1864 Battle of Monocacy, Maryland, confederate forces led by Lieutenant General Jubal Early

• 1868 1st African American cabinet member in South Carolina, Francis L Cardozo as Secretary of State
• 1868 Tennessee and South Carolina are 1st to ratify the 14th Amendment to the US constitution, guaranteeing civil rights
• 1869 Corncob pipe, made from small corn kernels, invented
• 1872 Doughnut cutter patents granted to John Blondel, Thomaston, Maine
• 1876 Black landowner murdered in Hamburg South Carolina
• 1878 An improved corncob pipe patents by Henry Tibbe, Washington, Missouri

• 1900 The Commonwealth of Australia is established by the British House of Commons
• 1908 CHU (Christian Historic Union) Dutch political party forms
• 1910 Walter Brookins becomes 1st to pilot an airplane to 1 mile altitude
• 1914 1st US duplicate auction bridge championship held, Lake Placid, NY
• 1915 Germany surrenders South West Africa to Union of South Africa
• 1916 1st cargo submarine to cross Atlantic arrives in US from Germany

• 1918 101 killed and 171 injured in worst US train wreck, Nashville, Tennessee
• 1918 US Congress creates Distinguished Service Medal (not to be confused with other countries' decorations of the same name)
• 1922 Johnny Weissmuller swims 1st 100m free style under 1 minute

• 1926 Coup under General Sinel de Cordes in Portugal
• 1927 William T Francis named US minister to Liberia
• 1932 Yanks' Ben Chapman hits 2 inside-the-park HRs, tying record
• 1932 The state of São Paulo revolts against the Brazilian Federal Government, starting the Constitutionalist Revolution

• 1940 German Evangelist Church protests against euthanasia pogroms
• 1941 Dutch-American Physicist Abraham Pais is awarded his Ph.D. in Holland five days before a Nazi deadline banning Jews from receiving degrees
• 1943 5th day of battle at Kursk: Germans occupy Verchopenje
• 1943 British air raid sinks U-435
• 1944 In World War II, US troops secure Saipan as Japan falls
• 1944 U-740 sunk by depth charges from a British Liberator aircraft

• 1948 Satchel Paige, 42, debuts in majors pitching 2 scoreless inn for Cleve
• 1950 13.15" (33.40 cm) of rainfall, York, Nebraska (state 24-hour record)

• 1953 1st helicopter passenger service (NYC)
• 1955 E. Frederic Morrow is the first African American executive on US White House staff
• 1955 Strike in Belgium for 5 day work week

• 1957 Discovery of element 102 (Nobelium) announced
• 1958 Giant splash caused by fall of 90 million tons of rock & ice into Lituya Bay, Alaska washes 1,800 feet up the mountain
• 1962 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Johnston Island

• 1963 Crusher Lisowski beats Verne Gagne in Minneapolis, to become NWA champ
• 1965 John Edrich completes 310* v NZ in 532 minutes, 52 fours 5 sixes
• 1965 Senators Frank Howard ties record with 7 strikeouts in DH
• 1968 15.68" (39.83 cm) of rainfall, Columbus, Mississippi (state 24-hour record)
• 1970 In Atlanta, Chief-No-ka-homa is joined by cousin Chief Round-the-Horn

• 1972 USSR performs underground nuclear test

• 1972 Springhill Massacre: British snipers shoot dead five Catholic civilians and wounded two others in Springhill, Belfast
• 1972 The ceasefire between the Provisional IRA and the British Army comes to an end
• 1973 9th Maccabiah games opens in Tel Aviv, Israel

• 1975 The National Assembly of Senegal passes a law that paves way for a (albeit highly restricted) multi-party system
• 1976 England all out for 71 v WI at Old Trafford, Holding 14 5-7-17-5

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• 1511 Dorothea of Saxe-Lauenburg, Queen of Denmark and Norway, born in Lauenburg Castle, Germany (d. 1571)
• 1513 John van Hembyze, Flemish Calvinist, born in Ghent, Belgium (d. 1584)
• 1577 Thomas West, 3rd & 12th Baron De La Warr, English Jamestown colonist and Governor of Virginia, born in Wherwell, Hampshire, England (d. 1618)
• 1578 Ferdinand II, King of Bohemia & Hungary and German Emperor (1619-37), born in Graz, Austria (d. 1637)
• 1589 John of Saint Thomas [Juan Poinset], Portuguese theologist, born in Lisbon, Portugal (d. 1644)
• 1654 Emperor Reigen, 112th Emperor of Japan, born in Kyoto, Japan (d. 1732)
• 1689 Alexis Piron, French dramatist (La Métromanie), born Dijon, France (d. 1773)
• 1721 Johann Nikolaus Götz, German poet (Die Mädcheninsel), born in Worms, Germany (d. 1781)
• 1753 William Waldegrave, 1st Baron Radstock, Governor of Newfoundland, born in England (d. 1825)
• 1764 Ann Radcliffe, English Gothic novelist (The Romance of the Forest), born in London (d. 1823)
• 1766 Johanna Schopenhauer, German writer and mother of Arthur Schopenhauer, born in Gdańsk, Royal Prussia, Crown of the Kingdom of Poland (d. 1838)
• 1766 Jacob Perkins, American inventor, born in Newburyport, Massachusetts (d. 1849)
• 1775 Matthew Lewis, English novelist (The Monk), born in London (d. 1818)
• 1777 Henry Hallam, British lawyer and historian (d. 1859)
• 1786 Sophie Hélène Béatrix, Princess of France, daughter of Louis XVI of France and Marie Antoinette, born in Palace of Versailles, France (d. 1787)
• 1800 Friedrich Gustav Jakob Henle, German pathologist, born in Fürth, Bavaria (d. 1885)
• 1802 Thomas Davenport, American iventor (invented 1st commercial electric motor), born in Williamstown, Vermont (d. 1837)
• 1808 Alexander William Doniphan, American lawyer and soldier, born in Mason County, Kentucky (d. 1887)

• 1825 Jules Oppert, French-German Assyriologist (decodes characters), born in Hamburg, Germany (d. 1905)
• 1828 Luigi Oreglia di Santo Stefano, Italian Catholic churchman and last surviving cardinal of Pius IX, born in Bene Vagienna, Italy (d. 1913)
• 1831 Johan Philip van der Kellen, Dutch stamp cutter, lithographer and writer, born in Utrecht, Netherlands (d. 1906)
• 1836 Camille de Renesse, Belgian nobleman and entrepreneur, born in Brussels, Belgium (d. 1904)
• 1848 Robert I, Duke of Parma, last ruling Duke of Parma, born in Florence, Tuscany (d. 1907)
• 1856 Daniel Guggenheim, American mining magnate and philanthropist, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (d. 1930)
• 1857 Frederick II, Grand Duke of Baden (1907-18), born in Karlsruhe, Grand Duchy of Baden (d. 1928)
• 1858 Franz Boas, German-American anthropologist and linguist (Mind of Primitive Man), born in Minden, Westphalia, Prussia (d. 1942)
• 1879 Friedrich Adler, Austrian socialist politician, revolutionary and murderer of premier Storgkh, born in Vienna, Austria (d. 1960)
• 1879 Carlos Chagas, Brazilian sanitary physician, born in Oliveira, Minas Gerais, Empire of Brazil (d. 1934)
• 1887 Samuel Eliot Morison, American historian (Admiral of the Ocean Sea), born in Boston, Massachusetts (d. 1976)
• 1889 Léo Dandurand, American-Canadian hockey executive, born in Bourbonnais, Illinois (d. 1964)
• 1894 Pyotr Kapitsa, Russian physicist (Nobel 1978), born in Kronshtadt, Russian Empire (d. 1984)
• 1898 Gerard Walschap, Flemish writer (Mary, Revolt in Congo), born in Londerzeel, Belgium (d. 1989)
• 1901 Barbara Cartland, English romance author (Camfield #69), born in Edgbaston, Birmingham, England (d. 2000)
• 1902 Gerhard Pohl, German writer (Crazy Ferdinand), born in Trachenberg, Silesia (d. 1966)
• 1905 Myles Horton, American educator and Civil Rights Movement teacher, born in Savannah, Tennessee (d. 1990)
• 1906 Beene Dubbelboer, Dutch writer (Secret Resistance), born in Tweede Exloërmond, Netherlands (d. 1982)
• 1908 Rasheed Turabi, Pakistani scholar, orator and philosopher, born in Hyderabad, India (d. 1973)
• 1911 Simon Fraser [Shimi], Lord Lovat, Scottish head of clan Fraser and cattle breeder, born in Inverness (d. 1995)
• 1911 Mervyn Peake, British writer and illustrator (Gormenghast books), born in Lushan District, Jiangxi, China (d. 1968)
• 1911 John Archibald Wheeler, American physicist (first American involved in the theoretical development of the atomic bomb), born in Jacksonville, Florida (d. 2008)
• 1914 Willi Stoph, German politician (Prime Minister of German Democratic Republic 1964-73), born in Schöneberg, Berlin, Germany (d. 1999)

• 1918 Rowley Israel Arenstein, South African attorney and communist
• 1919 Peggy Braithwaite, lighthouse-keeper, born on Piel Island (d. 1996)
• 1921 Jacob J. Hage, Dutch farmer and WW II resistance fighter
• 1922 Hassan II [Mawlāy al-Ḥasan Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf], King of Morocco (1961-99), born in Rabat, Morocco (d. 1999)
• 1925 Peter Ludwig, German businessman and art collector, born in Koblenz, Germany (d. 1996)
• 1925 Tom Luken, American politician (U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio), born in Cincinnati, Ohio (d. 2018)
• 1926 Ben Roy Mottelson, American-Danish physicist (Nobel 1975), born in Chicago, Illinois
• 1926 Murphy Anderson, American comic artist (DC Comics), born in Asheville, North Carolina (d. 2015)
• 1926 Mathilde Krim, American medical researcher and founding chairman of amfAR (Foundation for AIDS Research), born in Como, Italy (d. 2018)
• 1932 Donald Rumsfeld, American politician (involved in Watergate), born in Chicago, Illinois
• 1933 Oliver Sacks, English Neurologist and author (Awakenings), born in London (d. 2015)

• 1935 Wim [Willem Frederik] Duisenberg, Dutch Minister of Finance (PvdA), born in Heerenveen, Netherlands (d. 2005)
• 1936 June Jordan, Carribean-American playwright and poet (His Own Where), born in Harlem, New York (d. 2002)
• 1937 David Hockney, English artist (Pop Art), born in Bradford, England
• 1941 James Scott, director (Strike it Rich)
• 1941 Scotty Baesler, American politician (U.S. House of Representatives from Kentucky), born in Lexington, Kentucky
• 1942 Hermann Burger, Swiss poet and writer, born in Menziken, Switzerland (d. 1989)
• 1942 Paul B. Henry, American professor of political science and politician from the U.S. state of Michigan, born in Chicago, Illinois (d.1993)
• 1943 John H. Casper, USAF and astronaut (STS 36, 54, 62, 77), born in Greenville, South Carolina
• 1944 Glen Cook, American sci-fi author (Shadowline, Star's End), born in NYC, New York
• 1945 Dean Koontz, American sci-fi author (Star Quest, Beastchild), born in Everett, Pennsylvania
• 1945 Lewis F. Payne Jr., American politician (Rep-D-Virginia), born in Amherst, Virginia
• 1945 Root Boy Slim [Foster MacKenzie III], American entertainer, born in Asheville, North Carolina (d. 1993)
• 1946 Joe Micelli, American rocker, born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana
• 1948 Hassan Wirajuda, Indonesian politician (15th Foreign Minister of Indonesia), born in Tangerang, Banten, Indonesia

• 1953 Dave Camp, American politician (U.S. House of Representatives from Michigan), born in Midland, Michigan
• 1953 Irina D Latysheva, Russian cosmonaut, born in Moscow, Russia
• 1953 Thomas Ligotti, American author (Songs of a Dead Dreamer), born in Detroit, Michigan
• 1955 Sergei Krichevsky, Ukrainian cosmonaut, born in Primorya, Russia
• 1957 Tim Kring, American writer and producer, born in El Dorado County, California
• 1959 Clive Stafford Smith, British human-rights lawyer, born in Cambridge
• 1960 Christopher J "Gus" Loria, Major USMC/astronaut, born in Newton, Massachusetts
• 1965 Jason Rhoades, American installation artist (d. 2006)
• 1967 Gunnar Axén, Swedish politician
• 1968 Lars Gyllenhaal, Swedish author
• 1970 Masami Tsuda, Japanese manga author
• 1971 Marc Andreessen, American software developer
• 1974 Sian Berry, British politician
• 1982 Ashly DelGrosso, American ballroom dancer
• 1982 Alecko Eskandarian, Armenian-American footballer
• 1986 Dominic Cervi, American footballer

• 1735 Author, poet, critic and lexicographer and writer of the first English dictionary Dr. Samuel Johnson (25) marries the widow Elizabeth "Tetty" Porter, 21 years his senior

• 1988 "Facts of Life," Lisa Whelchel weds Steve Cauble
• 1999 Princess Alexia of Greece and Denmark (33) weds architect and yachtsman Carlos Morales Quintana (28) at St. Sophia Cathedral in London, England

• 1228 Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury
• 1386 Leopold III of Austria (b. 1351)
• 1441 Jan/Johannes van Eyck, Flemish painter (Lamb Gods), dies
• 1553 Maurice, Elector of Saxony (b. 1521)
• 1639 Entonius Walaeus, Dutch Calvinist theologist, dies at 65
• 1654 Ferdinand IV, King of the Romans, Bohemia and Hungary, dies of smallpox at 20
• 1677 Angelus Silesius [Johann Scheffer], German medical/mystic poet, dies
• 1696 Waclaw Potocki, Polish poet (Wojna Chocimska), dies
• 1706 Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville, French Canadian sailor and explorer (b. 1661)
• 1716 Joseph Sauveur, French sound engineer, dies at 63
• 1737 de' Medici, last Medici-grand duke of Toscane, dies
• 1742 John Oldmixon, English historian (b. 1673)
• 1746 Philip V, King of Spain (1700-24, 1724-46), dies at 62
• 1755 Edward Braddock, British General, mortally wounded at Fort Duquesne during French & Indian War. Dies 13th July.
• 1756 Pieter Langendijk, Dutch painter, etcher and playwright (Wiskunstenaars), dies at 72
• 1766 Jonathan Mayhew, American Congregational minister, dies at 45
• 1795 Henry Seymour Conway, British general and statesman (b. 1721)
• 1797 Edmund Burke, British author/parliament leader (Reflections), dies at 68
• 1805 Georg W "Franz" Panzer, German vicar/librarian, dies at 76
• 1843 Washington Allston, US painter/author, dies at 63
• 1845 Jacob earl of Rechteren/Appeltern, gov of Gelderland, dies at 57
• 1850 Sajjid Ali Mohammed Bab, Persian founder of Babism

• 1852 Thompson McKennan, American politician who served as the 2nd United States Secretary of the Interior, dies at 58
• 1855 FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan, British Army officer (commander of the British forces during the Crimean War), dies of dysentery in Crimea at 66

• 1856 James Strang, Mormon splinter group leader (b. 1813)
• 1875 Francis Preston Blair Jr, famed St Louis lawyer, dies at 54
• 1880 Paul Broca, French brain surgeon and anthropologist (located speech center), dies at 56
• 1882 Ignacio Carrera Pinto, Chilean war hero(b. 1848)
• 1893 George Christopher Cato, Natal pioneer and first mayor of Durban South Africa, dies at 79
• 1903 Alphonse François Renard, Belgian geologist, dies at 60
• 1909 Kasimir Felix Badeni, Premier of Polish/Austria (1895-97), dies at 62
• 1923 William R. Day, American diplomat and Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, dies at 74

• 1937 Oliver Law, first African-American commander of U.S. troops (b. 1899)
• 1938 Benjamin N. Cardozo, American lawyer and jurist, dies at 68
• 1947 Lucjan Żeligowski, Polish general (b. 1865)

• 1968 Allyn Edwards, host (One Minute Please, Mr Citizen), dies at 53
• 1968 Vardis Fisher, American writer (Passion Spin the Plot), dies at 73
• 1969 Gertrude Dixon, compiler of Shunryu Suzuki's Zen Mind, dies
• 1974 Sonia Gaskell, Russian/Neth choreographer (Diaghilev), dies at 70

• 1977 Loren C Eiseley, US anthropologist/writer (Animal Secrets), dies at 69

• 1977 Loren Eiseley, American anthropologist and natural science writer (The Unexpected Universe), dies at 69
• 1978 Abdul Razak al-Naif, premier of Iraq, murdered
• 1979 Cornelia Otis Skinner, dies at 78
• 1981 Wilhelm H C Tenhaeff, para-psychologist, dies at 87
• 1983 Keith Wickenden, British Politician (b. 1932)
• 1985 Charlotte, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg (b. 1896)
• 1985 Jimmy Kinnon, Scottish founder of Narcotics Anonymous (b. 1911)
• 1986 Karl-Heinz Beckurts, West german Siemens manager, murdered
• 1986 Le Duan, Vietnamese politician, dies at 78
• 1988 Anthony Holland, AIDS sufferer committed suicide at 60
• 1988 Barbara Woodhouse, dog trainer, dies at 78 of a stroke
• 1990 Brigitte D'Ortschy, German author, trnslator and Zen teacher Sanbo Kyodan line, dies in Japan at 69
• 1993 Cut Meijer, [Saul Messel], historian and rabbi to Paramaribo, dies at 80
• 1995 Jacques Molicard, translator/Navigator, dies at 62
• 1995 James Cameron Tudor, politician, dies at 66
• 1995 John Eric Tieman, production Manager (The Guardian), dies at 67
• 1995 W Fenton Morley, preacher, dies at 83
• 1996 Douglas G Chapman, biomathematical statistician, dies at 76
• 1996 Peter Martini, British journalist, dies at 31
• 1996 Susan Cowdy, British ornithologist, dies at 81
• 1999 Robert de Cotret, Canadian politician (b. 1944)
• 2002 Laurence Janifer, American writer (b. 1933)
• 2002 Kenneth Snowman, British jeweller and antiquarian, dies at 82
• 2004 Chuck Cadman, Canadian politician (b. 1948)
• 2004 Paul Klebnikov, American journalist (b. 1963)
• 2005 Rafiq Zakaria, Indian politician and Islamic religious cleric, dies at 86
• 2008 Séamus Brennan, Irish politicain (b. 1948)
• 2010 Jessica Anderson, Australian novelist (b. 1916)
• 2010 Vonetta McGee, American actress, dies from cardiac arrest at 65
• 2012 Terepai Maoate, Prime Minister of the Cook Islands, dies from prostate cancer at 78
• 2016 Robert Nye, British novelist and poet (Falstaff), dies at 77
• 2018 Lord Carrington [Peter Carington, 6th Baron Carrington], British conservative politician, former British Foreign Secretary (1979-82) and NATO Secretary General (1984-8), dies at 99

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