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 Virgen Mary 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.
- 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.
- 1968 - Douglas Engelbart publicly demonstrates his pioneering hypertext system, NLS, in San Francisco.
- 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
- 2001 - Chris Jericho unifies the WWE Championship and WCW World Heavyweight Championship for the first time ever at WWE Vengeance.
- 2005 - The draw for the 2006 Football World Cup takes place in Leipzig, Germany.
- 2005 - The last regular Routemaster bus service in London, route 159, ends.
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)
- 1667 - William Whiston, English mathematician (d. 1752)
- 1748 - Claude Louis Berthollet, French chemist (d. 1822)
- 1842 - Peter Kropotkin, Russian anarchist (d. 1921)
- 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)
- 1897 - Hermione Gingold, British actress (d. 1987)
- 1898 - Emmett Kelly, American circus clown (d. 1979)
- 1899 - Jean de Brunhoff, French author (d. 1937)
- 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)
- 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
- 1946 - Walter Orange, American drummer (The Commodores)
- 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
- 1953 - John Malkovich, American actor
- 1957 - Donny Osmond, American singer and actor
- 1958 - Nick Seymour, Australian bassist (Crowded House)
- 1962 - Felicity Huffman, American actress
- 1964 - Paul Landers, German guitarist (Rammstein)
- 1967 - Joshua Bell, American violinist
- 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
- 1981 - Diya Mirza, Indian actress
Deaths
- 1165 - King Malcolm IV of Scotland
- 1292 - Sheikh Saadi, great 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
- 1887 - Mahmadu Lamine, Senegalese marabout and miltary leader
- 1894 - Pafnuty Chebyshev, Russian mathematician
- 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)
- 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 Pakistan
- 1971 - Ralph Bunche, American diplomat and Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1904)
- 1972 - Louella Parsons, American gossip columnist (b. 1881)
- 1984 - Nicholas "Razzle" Dingley, British drummer (Hanoi Rocks) (b. 1960)
- 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)
- 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 - Robert Sheckley an American author (b. 1928)
Holidays and observances
External links
December 8 - December 10 - November 9 - January 9 -- listing of all days