On This Day in History for May 9

1502 Christopher Columbus leaves Spain on his 4th and final trip to the New World

1768 John Hancock pays duties on 25 pipes of wine, only one fourth of his ship's carrying capacity. British officials accuse him of unloading the rest during the night to avoid paying duties on the entire cargo.

1816 Lady Caroline Lamb publishes the Gothic novel "Glenarvon", a thinly disguised account of her affair with Lord Byron which also depicts her husband William Lamb

1865 President Andrew Johnson issues a proclamation declaring armed resistance in the South is virtually at an end; this is the commonly accepted end date of the American Civil War

1914 US President Woodrow Wilson proclaims Mother's Day

1922 The International Astronomical Union formally adopt Annie Jump Cannon's stellar classification system, which with only minor changes, is still used today

1926 1st flight over the North Pole claimed by Richard E. Byrd and co-pilot Floyd Bennett. Later discovery of Byrd's diary suggests they may have turned back 150 miles short of the pole due to an oil leak.

1930 John Masefield is appointed British Poet Laureate by King George V

1941 British intelligence at Bletchley Park breaks German spy codes after capturing Enigma machines aboard the weather ship Muenchen

1941 Louis Buchalter is arraigned in New York state court on the 1936 Joseph Rosen murder along with three other murders

1945 World War II: Hermann Goering is captured by the United States Army

1946 King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy abdicates and is succeeded by his son Umberto II who reigns for only 34 days before the monarchy is abolished

1956 War Reparations and Peace Settlement between Philippines and Japan was finally signed at Malacañang Palace under Magsaysay administration

1964 Khrushchev visits Egypt

1969 Following his release from prison Ian Paisley, North Ireland Loyalist holds a 'victory' meeting

1800 John Brown, American abolitionist and revolutionary (Harpers Ferry), born in Torrington, Connecticut (d. 1859)

1873 Howard Carter, British archaeologist and egyptologist who found King Tutankhamun's tomb, born in London (d. 1939)

1882 Henry J. Kaiser, American ship builder and industrialist (Liberty Ships, Jeeps, Boulder Dam), born in Sprout Brook, New York (d. 1967)

1942 Physicist Robert Hofstadter (27) weds Nancy Givan

1657 William Bradford, American governor (Plymouth Colony, Mass), dies at 57

1810 Benjamin Lincoln, American military officer (Battles of Saratoga, Charleston and Yorktown during the American Revolutionary War), dies at 77

1963 Charles Vyner Brooke, 3rd and last White Rajah of Sarawak (1917-46), dies at 88

1978 Aldo Moro, Five times Prime Minister of Italy, assassinated by the Marxist-Leninist terrorist organization Red Brigades at 61

1979 Cyrus Eaton, Canadian-American financier, industrialist and steel magnate, dies at 95

1986 Tenzing Norgay, Tibetan climber who was the 1st to reach the summit of Mount Everest in 1953 with Edmund Hillary, dies of a cerebral hemorrhage at 71

2012 Vidal Sassoon, British-American hair stylist & CEO of Vidal Sasson, dies from leukemia at 84