May 9

Events

• 328 - Athanasius elected bishop of Alexandria
• 1092 - Lincoln Cathedral is consecrated.
• 1429 - Joan of Arc defeats the English troops besieging Orleans.
• 1502 - Christopher Columbus leaves Spain for his fourth and final trip to the "New World".
• 1671 - Thomas Blood, disguised as a clergyman, attempts to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London. He is immediately caught because he is too drunk to run with the loot. He would later be condemned to death and then mysteriously pardoned and exiled by King Charles II.
• 1726 - Five men who were arrested during the raid on Mother Clap's molly house in London are executed at Tyburn.
• 1887 - Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show opens in London.
• 1901 - Australia opens its first parliament in Melbourne.
• 1915 - World War I: Second Battle of Artois - German and French forces fight.
• 1926 - Admiral Richard E. Byrd and Floyd Bennett claim to have flown over the North Pole (later discovery of his diary seems to indicate that this did not happen).
• 1927 - The Australian Parliament first convenes in Canberra.
• 1936 - Italy formally annexes Ethiopia after taking the capital Addis Ababa on May 5.
• 1941 - World War II: The German submarine U-110 is captured by United Kingdom's Royal Navy. On board is the latest Enigma cryptography machine which Allied cryptergraphers later use to break coded German messages.
• 1945 - World War II: Hermann Göring is captured by the United States Army; Norway arrests Vidkun Quisling; Soviet Union marks V-E Day.
• 1946 - King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy abdicates and is succeeded by Humbert II.
• 1949 - Rainier III of Monaco becomes Prince of Monaco.
• 1950 - Robert Schuman presents his proposal on the creation of an organized Europe, indispensable to the maintenance of peaceful relations. This proposal, known as the "Schuman declaration", is considered to be the beginning of the creation of what is now the European Union.
• 1955 - Cold War: West Germany joins NATO.
• 1956 - First ascent of Manaslu, 8th highest mountain
• 1960 - Reproductive rights: The Food and Drug Administration approves sale of the birth control pill.
• 1974 - The United States House of Representatives Judiciary Committee opens formal and public impeachment hearings against President Richard M. Nixon.
• 1980 - In Florida, a Liberian freighter named the Summit Venture hits the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay sending 35 people (most of whom were in a bus) to a watery death as a 1,400-foot section of the bridge collapsed.
• 1987 - A Polish Ilyushin 62M crashes after takeoff in Warsaw, Poland killing 183
• 1994 - Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as South Africa's first black president.
• 2002 - The 38-day stand-off in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem comes to an end when the Palestinians inside agreed to have 13 suspected militants among them deported to several different countries. The standoff started on April 2.
• 2002 - In Kaspiysk, Russia, a remote-controlled bomb explodes during a holiday parade killing 43 and injuring at least 130.

Births

• 1439 - Pope Pius III († 1503)
• 1800 - John Brown, American abolitionist († 1859)
• 1837 - Adam Opel, German engineer and industrialist
• 1860 - J. M. Barrie, author († 1937)
• 1873 - Anton Cermak, mayor of Chicago, Illinois († 1933)
• 1873 - Howard Carter, British archaeologist († 1939)
• 1882 - Henry J. Kaiser, industrialist
• 1892 - Zita of Bourbon-Parma, empress of Austria-Hungary († 1989)
• 1895 - Richard Bathelmess, actor († 1963)
• 1907 - Baldur von Schirach, Nazi official († 1974)
• 1912 - Pedro Armendáriz, actor († 1963)
• 1914 - Hank Snow, country musician († 1999)
• 1918 - Mike Wallace, journalist
• 1918 - Orville L. Freeman, American politician († 2003)
• 1920 - Richard Adams, author
• 1921 - Sophie Scholl, resistance fighter with White Rose in Nazi Germany
• 1927 - Wim Thoelke, show master († 1995)
• 1928 - Pancho Gonzalez, tennis player († 1995)
• 1936 - Glenda Jackson, actress and politician
• 1936 - Albert Finney, actor
• 1939 - Ralph Boston, athlete
• 1940 - James L. Brooks, producer, writer
• 1942 - John Ashcroft, United States Attorney General
• 1944 - Richie Furay, musician ("Poco", "Buffalo Springfield")
• 1946 - Candice Bergen, actress
• 1949 - Billy Joel, American musician
• 1965 - Steve Yzerman, ice hockey player
• 1968 - Marie-José Perec, French athlete

Deaths

• 1791 - Francis Hopkinson, American author and signer of the Declaration of Independence
• 1805 - Friedrich Schiller, German poet and historian
• 1905 - Mrs. Jarvis - the model for Mother's Day
• 1949 - Prince Louis II of Monaco
• 1957 - Ezio Pinza, opera singer
• 1970 - Walter Reuther, president of the United Auto Workers
• 1978 - Aldo Moro, former Prime Minister of Italy
• 1985 - Edmond O'Brien, actor
• 1986 - Tenzing Norgay, mountaineer
• 1998 - Alice Faye, actress

Holidays and Observances

• In the Soviet Union, May 9th commemorated the signing in 1945 of the capitulation of Germany, the most important Axis force in World War II, to the Allied forces. In Russia, as before in the Soviet Union, the 9th of May is celebrated as the end of the "Great Patriotic War", the preferred term for the 4-year long German-Russian war. A certain controversy surrounds this holiday: in some other countries (for instance, France and Germany) the 8th of May is considered to be the day of capitulation. This is documented by historic radio announcements of Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin: both said that the capitulation was declared on May 7th and signed on May 8th, in the presence of the highest military officials of the Allied forces, including the Soviet Union. Later, the Soviet Union changed the date to May 9th for somewhat obscure political reasons.
• European Union - Europe Day, commemorating the "Schuman declaration"
• Roman Empire - Feast of the Lemures (See Larvae)

May 8 - May 10 - April 9 - June 9 -- listing of all days

January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

Referenced By