December 9

is the 343rd day (344th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 22 days remaining.

Events

1425 - The Catholic University of Leuven is founded
1531 - First apparition of the Virgin Mary (Our Lady of Guadalupe) to Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin on Tepeyac Hill
1793 - New York City's first daily newspaper, the American Minerva, is established by Noah Webster.
1824 - Battle of Ayacucho: Peruvian nationalists led by Antonio José de Sucre defeat Spanish colonial forces and secure the independence of Peru.
1835 - The Republic of Texas captures San Antonio.
1851 - The first YMCA in North America is established in Montreal, Quebec.
1856 - The Iranian city of Bushehr surrenders to occupying British forces.
1861 - American Civil War: The Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War is established by the U.S. Congress.
1872 - In Louisiana, P. B. S. Pinchback becomes the first serving African-American governor of a U.S. state.
1875 - Massachusetts Rifle Association "America's Oldest Active Gun Club" is founded.
1888 - Statistician Herman Hollerith installs his self-designed computing device at the United States War Department.
1897 - Activist Marguerite Durand founds the feminist daily newspaper, La Fronde in Paris.
1905 - In France, the law separating church and state is passed.
1931 - The Constituent Cortes approves the constitution which establishes the Second Spanish Republic.
1937 - Second Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Nanjing - Japanese troops under the command of Lt. Gen. Asaka Yasuhiko launch an assault on the Chinese city of Nanjing.
1940 - World War II: Operation Compass - British and Indian troops under the command of Major-General Richard O'Connor attack Italian forces near Sidi Barrani in Egypt.
1941 - World War II: The Republic of China, Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea and Cuba declare war on Germany and Japan.
1945 - General George S. Patton is injured in an automobile crash in occupied Germany. He dies twelve days later.
1946 - The "Trials of War Criminals before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals" began with the "Doctors' Trial", prosecuting doctors alleged to be involved in human experimentation.
1950 - Harry Gold is sentenced to thirty 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.
1953 - Red Scare: General Electric announces that all communist employees will be discharged from the company
1958 - Red Scare: The John Birch Society founded in the United States.
1960 - The first episode of ITV soap-opera Coronation Street is aired.
1961 - The trial of Nazi Adolf Eichmann in Israel ends with him being found guilty of 15 criminal charges, including charges of crimes against humanity, crimes against the Jewish people and membership of an outlawed organization.
1961 - Tanganyika becomes independent from Britain.
1965 - Kecksburg UFO incident
1969 - Groundbreaking of Washington, D.C.'s Metrorail system.
1981 - Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner is shot and killed during a routine traffic stop of a vehicle driven by William Cook, Abu-Jamal's younger brother.
1982 - Activist Norman Mayer threatens to blow up the Washington Monument, before being killed by United States Park Police.
1987 - Israeli-Palestinian conflict: The First Intifada begins in the Gaza Strip and West Bank
1990 - Lech Wałęsa becomes the first directly elected president of Poland.
1992 - The separation of Charles, Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales is announced

Births

1447 - Chenghua, Emperor of China (d. 1487)
1508 - Gemma Frisius, Dutch mathematician and cartographer (d. 1555)
1561 - Sir Edwin Sandys, British-born Virginian colonist (d. 1629)
1571 - Metius (Adriaan Adriaanszoon), Dutch mathematician and astronomer (d. 1635)
1579 - Martin de Porres, Peruvian saint (d. 1639)
1594 - King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden (d. 1632)
1608 - John Milton, English poet (d. 1674)
1610 - Baldassare Ferri, Italian castrato (d. 1680)
1652 - Augustus Quirinus Rivinus, German physician and botanist (d. 1723)
1667 - William Whiston, English mathematician (d. 1752)
1748 - Claude Louis Berthollet, French chemist (d. 1822)
1842 - Peter Kropotkin, Russian anarchist (d. 1921)
1847 - George Grossmith, English actor (d. 1912)
1850 - Emma Abbott, American soprano (d. 1891)
1868 - Fritz Haber, German chemist and Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1934)
1871 - Joe Kelley, American baseball player (d. 1943)
1876 - Berton Churchill, American actor (d. 1940)
1882 - Joaquín Turina, Spanish composer (d. 1949)
1886 - Clarence Birdseye, American frozen food manufacturer (d. 1956)
1889 - Hannes Kolehmainen, Finnish long-distance runner and Olympic gold medalist (d. 1966)
1891 - Maksim Bahdanovič, Belarusian poet (d. 1917)
1895 - Conchita Supervia, Spanish opera singer (d. 1936)
1897 - Hermione Gingold, British actress (d. 1987)
1898 - Emmett Kelly, American circus clown (d. 1979)
1899 - Jean de Brunhoff, French author (d. 1937)
1901 - Carol Dempster, American actress (d. 1991)
1901 - Ödön von Horváth, Hungarian-born writer (d. 1938)
1901 - Jean Mermoz, French pilot (d. 1936)
1902 - Margaret Hamilton, American actress (d. 1985)
1905 - Dalton Trumbo, American writer (d. 1976)
1906 - Grace Murray Hopper, American computer pioneer (d. 1992)
1909 - Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., American actor (d. 2000)
1911 - Broderick Crawford, American actor (d. 1986)
1912 - Tip O'Neill, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (d. 1994)
1915 - Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, German soprano
1916 - Kirk Douglas, American actor and film producer
1917 - James Rainwater, American physicist and Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1986)
1918 - Jerome Beatty Jr., American author of children's books
1919 - William Lipscomb, American chemist and Nobel Prize laureate
1920 - Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, President of the Italian Republic
1922 - Redd Foxx, American comedian and actor (d. 1991)
1926 - Henry Way Kendall, American physicist and Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1999)
1926 - Jan Křesadlo, Czech writer (d. 1995)
1927 - Pierre Henry, French composer
1928 - Dick Van Patten, American actor
1929 - John Cassavetes, American actor and film director (d. 1989)
1929 - Bob Hawke, twenty-third Prime Minister of Australia
1930 - Buck Henry, American actor, comedian, writer, director, and producer
1931 - Ladislav Smoljak, Czech actor, director and humourist
1933 - Morton Downey Jr., American talk show host (d. 2001)
1934 - Dame Judi Dench British actress
1934 - Junior Wells, American blues harmonica player (d. 1998)
1937 - Darwin Joston, American actor (d. 1998)
1938 - Deacon Jones, American football player
1941 - Beau Bridges, American actor
1941 - Dan Hicks, American musician
1942 - Dick Butkus, American football player
1946 - Sonia Gandhi, Italian-born Indian politician, chair of the United Progressive Alliance
1947 - Tom Daschle, American politician
1947 - Jaak Jõerüüt, Soviet-born Estonian politician
1950 - Joan Armatrading, West Indian-born British singer
1952 - Michael Dorn, American actor
1952 - Liaqat Baloch, Pakistani politician
1953 - John Malkovich, American actor
1954 - Herman Finkers, Dutch comedian
1957 - Donny Osmond, American singer and actor
1958 - Nick Seymour, Australian bassist (Crowded House)
1960 - Juan Samuel, Major League Baseball Player
1961 - David Anthony Higgins, American actor
1962 - Felicity Huffman, American actress
1964 - Paul Landers, German guitarist (Rammstein)
1967 - Joshua Bell, American violinist
1967 - Gheorghe Popescu, Romanian footballer
1968 - Kurt Angle, American amateur and professional wrestler
1968 - Dave Harold, British snooker player
1968 - Brian Bell, American guitarist (Weezer)
1969 - Jakob Dylan, American singer and songwriter (The Wallflowers)
1969 - Bixente Lizarazu, French international footballer and World Cup winner
1972 - Tre Cool (Frank Edwin Wright III), German-born American drummer (Green Day)
1972 - Reiko Aylesworth, American actress
1972 - Fabrice Santoro, Tahitian-born French tennis player
1976 - Imogen Heap, British singer and songwriter
1978 - Jesse Metcalfe, American actor (Desperate Housewives)
1981 - Diya Mirza, Indian actress
1983 - Dariusz Dudka, Polish footballer
1991 - Prince Joachim, Archduke of Austria-Este, Belgian Prince

Deaths

1165 - King Malcolm IV of Scotland
1292 - Sheikh Saadi, Persian sufi poet
1437 - Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1368)
1544 - Teofilo Folengo, Italian poet (b. 1491)
1565 - Pope Pius IV (b. 1499)
1603 - William Watson, English conspirator (b. 1559)
1625 - Ubbo Emmius, Dutch historian and geographer (b. 1547)
1636 - Fabian Birkowski, Polish writer (b. 1566)
1641 - Anthony van Dyck, Flemish painter (b. 1599)
1669 - Pope Clement IX (b. 1600)
1674 - Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, English statesman and historian (b. 1609)
1692 - William Mountfort, English actor and dramatist
1706 - King Peter II of Portugal (b. 1648)
1718 - Vincenzo Coronelli, Italian cartographer and encylopaedist (b. 1650)
1793 - Gabrielle de Polastron, comtesse de Polignac, French aristocrat (b. 1749)
1798 - Johann Reinhold Forster, German botanist (b. 1729)
1830 - Heinrich Christian Friedrich Schumacher, Danish surgeon, botanist and professor of anatomy (b. 1757)
1854 - Almeida Garrett, Portuguese writer (b. 1799)
1887 - Mahmadu Lamine, Senegalese marabout and military leader
1894 - Pafnuty Chebyshev, Russian mathematician (b. 1821)
1930 - Andrew "Rube" Foster, American baseball player and founder of the Negro National League
1937 - Nils Gustaf Dalén, Swedish physicist and Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1869)
1941 - Dmitry Merezhkovsky, Russian writer and philosopher (b. 1865)
1964 - Dame Edith Sitwell, British poet and critic (b. 1887)
1965 - Branch Rickey, American baseball commissioner (b. 1884)
1970 - Sir Feroz Khan Noon, Prime Minister of Pakistan
1971 - Ralph Bunche, American diplomat and Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1904)
1971 - Sergey Konenkov, Russian sculptor (b. 1874)
1972 - Louella Parsons, American gossip columnist (b. 1881)
1984 - Nicholas "Razzle" Dingley, British drummer (Hanoi Rocks) (b. 1960)
1993 - Danny Blanchflower, Northern Irish footballer and football manager (b. 1926)
1995 - Toni Cade Bambara, American author (b. 1939)
1996 - Mary Leakey, British archeologist and anthropologist (b. 1913)
1998 - Shaughnessy Cohen, Canadian politician (b. 1948)
1998 - Archie Moore, American boxer and World Light-Heavyweight Champion (b. 1913)
1999 - Franjo Tudjman, first President of Croatia (b. 1922)
2002 - Stan Rice, American painter, educator, and poet (b. 1942)
2003 - Paul Simon, U.S. Senator from Illinois (b. 1928)
2004 - David Brudnoy, American radio personality (b. 1940)
2004 - Lea De Mae, Czech actress (b. 1976)
2005 - György Sándor, Hungarian pianist (b. 1912)
2005 - Robert Sheckley, American author (b. 1928)

Holidays and observances

Calendar of saints:
- Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin : optional memorial
- Peter Fourier, founder of the Congregation of Notre Dame
Also see December 9 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics); specifically the conception of Saint Anne
Scandinavia (specifically Sweden): Anna's Day. Recognizes everyone named Anna, and marks the day to start the preparation process of the lutefisk to be consumed on Christmas Eve.
Tanzania - Independence Day (of Tanganyika from Britain, 1961)
Anti-Corruption Day ^*

External links

BBC: On This Day

December 8 - December 10 - November 9 - January 9 -- listing of all days

Gourt Home::Gourt :: December 9

Events

Births

Deaths

Holidays and observances

External links