October 9

Events

• 1000 - Leif Ericsson discovers Vinland, becoming the first known European to set foot in North America.
• 1446 - The Hangul alphabet is created in Korea.
• 1635 - Founder of Rhode Island Roger Williams is banished from Massachusetts Bay Colony as a religious dissident after he spoke out against punishments for religious offenses and giving away Native American land.
• 1701 - The Collegiate School of Connecticut (later renamed Yale University) is chartered in Old Saybrook, Connecticut.
• 1776 - Father Francisco Palou founds Mission San Francisco de Asis in what is now San Francisco, California.
• 1812 - War of 1812: In a naval engagement on Lake Erie, American forces capture two British ships; the HMS Detroit and the HMS Caledonia.
• 1820 - Guayaquil declared independence from Ecuador.
• 1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Tom's Brook - Union cavalrymen in the Shenandoah Valley defeat Confederate forces at Tom's Brook, Virginia.
• 1871 - The Great Chicago Fire is brought under control.
• 1888 - The Washington Monument officially opens to the general public.
• 1914 - World War I: Siege of Antwerp - Antwerp, Belgium falls to German troops.
• 1919 - Black Sox scandal: The Cincinnati Reds "win" the World Series.
• 1936 - Generators at Boulder Dam (later renamed to Hoover Dam) begin to transmit electricity from the Colorado River 266 miles to Los Angeles, California.
• 1940 - World War II: Battle of Britain - During a nighttime air raid by the German Luftwaffe, St. Paul's Cathedral is pierced by a bomb.
• 1942 - Statute of Westminster Adoption Act formalizes Australian autonomy.
• 1944 - World War II: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Union Premier Joseph Stalin begin a nine-day conference in Moscow to discuss the future of Europe.
• 1957 - Neil H. McElroy was sworn in as the 6th Secretary of Defense of United States.
• 1963 - Uganda becomes a republic.
• 1963 - In northeast Italy, over 2,000 people are killed when the Vaiont Dam breaks after a large landslide behind the dam causes water to overtop it.
• 1967 - A day after being caught, Che Guevara is executed for attempting to incite a revolution in Bolivia.
• 1969 - In Chicago, Illinois, the United States National Guard is called in for crowd control as demonstrations continue in connection to the trial of the "Chicago Eight" (trial started on September 24).
• 1970 - The Khmer Republic is proclaimed in Cambodia.
• 1986 - United States District Court Judge Harry E. Claiborne becomes the fifth federal official to be removed from office through impeachment.
• 1989 - An official news agency in the Soviet Union reports the landing of a UFO in Voronezh.
• 1989 - In Leipzig, East Germany protesters demand the legalization of opposition groups and democratic reforms.

Births

• 1261 - King Dinis of Portugal
• 1585 - Heinrich Schütz, composer
• 1757 - Charles X of France
• 1813 - Giuseppe Verdi, Italian composer
• 1835 - Camille Saint-Saens, French composer († 1921)
• 1859 - Alfred Dreyfus, French military officer († 1935)
• 1873 - Charles Walgreen, entrepreneur († 1939)
• 1886 - Rube Marquard, baseball star († 1980)
• 1888 - Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin, Russian politician
• 1890 - Aimee Semple McPherson, evangelist († 1944)
• 1892 - Marina Tsvetaeva, Russian poet
• 1892 - Ivo Andrić, writer, († 1975)
• 1900 - Alastair Sim, actor († 1976)
• 1907 - Quintin Hogg, later Lord Hailsham of St Marylebone, British politician († 2001)
• 1909 - Jacques Tati, actor († 1982)
• 1909 - Frederick Coggan, Archbishop of Canterbury († 2000)
• 1911 - Joe Rosenthal, photographer
• 1923 - Fyvush Finkel, actor
• 1928 - Einojuhani Rautavaara, composer
• 1937 - Brian Blessed, actor
• 1938 - Heinz Fischer, Austrian politician
• 1940 - John Lennon, British musician, songwriter († 1980)
• 1941 - Trent Lott, American politician
• 1944 - John Entwistle, British bassist of The Who († 2002)
• 1944 - Peter Tosh, Jamaican reggae musician († 1987)
• 1948 - Jackson Browne, musician
• 1952 - Sharon Arden, Married Ozzy Osbourne On July 04, 1982
• 1953 - Tony Shalhoub, actor
• 1954 - Scott Bakula, American television actor
• 1962 - Tommy Lee, American drummer
• 1969 - P.J. Harvey, musician
• 1970 - Savannah, pornographic movie actress († 1994)
• 1970 - Annika Sörenstam, Swedish golfer
• 1975 - Sean Lennon, musician, son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono

Deaths

• 1253 - Robert Grosseteste, English statesman and bishop
• 1793 - Jean Joseph Marie Amiot, French missionary
• 1806 - Benjamin Banneker, American astronomer
• 1934 - King Alexander of Yugoslavia
• 1941 - Helen Morgan, singer, actress
• 1958 - Pope Pius XII
• 1962 - Milan Vidmar, Slovene electrical engineer and chess player.
• 1967 - Che Guevara, Argentine revolutionary and guerilla leader - executed.
• 1972 - Miriam Hopkins, actress
• 1974 - Oskar Schindler, businessman
• 1978 - Jacques Brel, Belgian musician
• 1987 - Clare Boothe Luce, diplomat
• 1991 - Thalmus Rasulala, actor
• 1995 - Alec Douglas-Home, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
• 1996 - Walter Kerr, movie critic
• 2000 - David Dukes, actor
• 2001 - Dagmar, television personality

Holidays

• Hangul Day - South Korea: celebrating the native and scientific alphabet of Korea, the Hangul

October 8 - October 10 - September 9 - November 9 - more historical anniversaries

Referenced By