What Happened on December 9th in History
30 historical events on this date
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.
World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major...
World War II: China, Cuba, Guatemala, and the Philippine Commonwealth declare war on Germany and Japan.
The Republic of China established its rule over Mainland China on 1 January 1912 following the Xinhai Revolution, which overthrew the Manchu-led Qing dynasty and ended China's imperial history. The...
The subsequent Nuremberg trials begin with the Doctors' Trial, prosecuting physicians and officers alleged to be involved in Nazi human experimentation and mass murder under the guise of euthanasia.
The subsequent Nuremberg trials were twelve trials for war crimes committed by the leaders of Nazi Germany (1933â1945).
The Constituent Assembly of India meets for the first time to write the Constitution of India.
The Constituent Assembly of India was the legislature of the Dominion of India from its independence in August 1947 until 1950, when India became a republic. Best known for its creation of the...
The Genocide Convention is adopted.
The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG), or the Genocide Convention, is an international treaty that criminalizes genocide and obligates state parties to...
Cold War: Harry Gold is sentenced to 30 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.
The Cold War was a period of international geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist...
Red Scare: General Electric announces that all communist employees will be discharged from the company.
McCarthyism is a political practice defined by the political repression and persecution of left-wing individuals and a campaign spreading fear of communist and Soviet influence on American...
Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 810-9, a Canadair North Star, crashes near Hope, British Columbia, Canada, killing all 62 people on board.
Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 810-9 was a Canadair North Star on a scheduled flight from Vancouver to Calgary. The plane crashed into Mount Slesse near Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada, on 9...
An Aeroflot Lisunov Li-2 crashes near Anadyr, killing all 12 people on board.
PJSC Aeroflot â Russian Airlines, commonly known as Aeroflot, is the flag carrier and the largest airline of Russia. Aeroflot is headquartered in the Central Administrative Okrug, Moscow, with its...
The first episode of Coronation Street, the world's longest-running television soap opera, is broadcast in the United Kingdom.
Coronation Street is a British television soap opera created by Granada Television and shown on ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres on a cobbled, terraced street in the fictional town...
Tanganyika becomes independent from Britain.
Tanganyika was a sovereign state, comprising the mainland part of present-day Tanzania, that existed from 1961 until 1964. It first gained independence from the United Kingdom on 9Â December 1961 as...
Kecksburg UFO incident: A fireball is seen from Michigan to Pennsylvania; with witnesses reporting something crashing in the woods near Pittsburgh.
The Kecksburg UFO incident occurred on December 9, 1965, at Kecksburg, Pennsylvania, United States, when a fireball was reported by citizens of six U.S. states and Canada over Detroit, Michigan, and...
Douglas Engelbart gave what became known as "The Mother of All Demos", publicly debuting the computer mouse, hypertext, and the bit-mapped graphical user interface using the oN-Line System (NLS).
Douglas Carl Engelbart was an American engineer, inventor, and a pioneer in many aspects of computer science. He is best known for his work on founding the field of humanâcomputer interaction,...
U.S. Secretary of State William P. Rogers proposes his plan for a ceasefire in the War of Attrition; Egypt and Jordan accept it over the objections of the PLO, which leads to civil war in Jordan in September 1970.
William Pierce Rogers was an American politician, diplomat, and attorney. A member of the Republican Party, he served as Attorney General in the administration of Dwight D. Eisenhower and as U.S....
Indo-Pakistani War: The Indian Air Force executes an airdrop of Indian Army units, bypassing Pakistani defences.
The IndiaâPakistan war of 1971, also known as the third Indo-Pakistani war, was a military confrontation between India and Pakistan that occurred during the Bangladesh Liberation War in East...
British and Irish authorities sign the Sunningdale Agreement in an attempt to establish a power-sharing Northern Ireland Executive and a cross-border Council of Ireland.
The Sunningdale Agreement was an attempt to establish a power-sharing Northern Ireland Executive and a cross-border Council of Ireland. The agreement was signed by the British and Irish government...
The eradication of the smallpox virus is certified, making smallpox the first of only two diseases that have been driven to extinction (with rinderpest in 2011 being the other).
Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by Variola virus, which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health...
IsraeliâPalestinian conflict: The First Intifada begins in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
Israel and the Palestinians are engaged in an ongoing military and political conflict about land and self-determination within the former territory of Mandatory Palestine. Key aspects of the...
American troops land in Somalia for Operation Restore Hope.
Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia, is the easternmost country in continental Africa. Stretching across the Horn of Africa, it borders Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the...
Gwen Jacob is acquitted of committing an indecent act, giving women the right to be topless in Ontario, Canada.
In Canada, topfreedom has primarily been an attempt to combat the interpretation of indecency laws that considered a woman's breasts to be indecent, and therefore their exhibition in public an...
A blast in the center of Moscow kills six people and wounds several more.
The 2003 Red Square bombing was the 9 December 2003 suicide bombing on Mohovaja street in Moscow.
Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on STS-116 carrying the P5 truss segment of the International Space Station.
The Space Shuttle program was the fourth human spaceflight program carried out by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which accomplished routine transportation for...
Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich is arrested by federal officials for crimes including attempting to sell the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.
The governor of Illinois is the head of government of Illinois, and the various agencies and departments over which the officer has jurisdiction, as prescribed in the state constitution. It is a...
A plane crash in Mexico kills seven people including singer Jenni Rivera.
On 9 December 2012, a Learjet 25 business jet carrying five passengers including Mexican singer Jenni Rivera crashed south of Monterrey, Mexico, minutes after taking off from the city's...
At least seven are dead and 63 are injured following a train accident near Bintaro, Indonesia.
The 2013 Bintaro rail crash occurred on 9 December 2013 when a KRL Commuterline train crashed into a Pertamina gasoline tanker at a railroad crossing in Bintaro, Jakarta, Indonesia on a Monday...
President Park Geun-hye of South Korea is impeached by the country's National Assembly in response to a major political scandal.
Park Geun-hye is a South Korean politician who served as the 11th president of South Korea from 2013 until her removal from office in 2017. A member of then Saenuri Party and the eldest daughter of...
At least 57 people are killed and a further 177 injured when two schoolgirl suicide bombers attack a market area in Madagali, Adamawa, Nigeria in the Madagali suicide bombings.
Madagali or Madagli is a town and local government area in Adamawa State, Nigeria, adjacent to the border with Cameroon.
The Marriage Amendment Bill receives royal assent and comes into effect, making Australia the 26th country to legalize same-sex marriage.
The Marriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Act 2017 (Cth) is an act of the Parliament of Australia, which legalises same-sex marriage in Australia by amending the Marriage Act 1961...
A volcano on Whakaari / White Island, New Zealand, kills 22 people after it erupts.
Whakaari / White Island, also known as White Island or Whakaari, is an active andesite stratovolcano situated 48Â km (30Â mi) from the east coast of the North Island of New Zealand, in the Bay of...
Fifty-five people are killed and more than 100 injured when a truck with 160 migrants from Central America overturned in Chiapas, Mexico.
Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to...