What Happened on October 9th in History
30 historical events on this date
World War I: The Siege of Antwerp comes to an end.
World War I, or the First World War, also known as the Great War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Central Powers. Major areas of conflict included Europe and the...
The Finnish Parliament elects Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse as King of Finland, but he never accedes to the throne due to Germany's defeat in World War I.
The Parliament of Finland is the unicameral and supreme legislature of Finland, founded on 9 May 1906. In accordance with the Constitution of Finland, sovereignty belongs to the people, and that...
The Cincinnati Reds win the World Series, resulting in the Black Sox Scandal.
The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. The Reds compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central Division....
An Ustashe assassin kills King Alexander I of Yugoslavia and Louis Barthou, Foreign Minister of France, in Marseille.
The Ustaše, was a Croatian fascist and ultranationalist organization active, as one organization, between 1929 and 1945. It was formally known as the Ustaša – Croatian Revolutionary Movement. From...
Boulder Dam (later Hoover Dam) begins to generate electricity and transmit it to Los Angeles.
The Hoover Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the boundary between the U.S. states of Nevada and Arizona. Constructed between 1931 and 1936, during the...
Murder of 9 Catholic priests in Zhengding, China, who protected the local population from the advancing Japanese army.
The Zhengding Missionary Murder is an incident in which nine Catholic priests were kidnapped and killed in Zhengding, Hebei province, Republic-era China on October 9, 1937.
A coup in Panama declares Ricardo Adolfo de la Guardia Arango the new president.
Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country located at the southern end of Central America in North America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia...
Australia's Statute of Westminster Adoption Act 1942 receives royal assent.
The Statute of Westminster Adoption Act 1942 is an act of the Australian Parliament that formally adopted sections 2–6 of the Statute of Westminster 1931, an Act of the Parliament of the United...
The Goyang Geumjeong Cave massacre in Korea begins.
The Goyang Geumjeong Cave massacre was a war crime of 153 unarmed civilians conducted between 9 October 1950 and 31 October 1950 by police at the site of a former gold mine in Goyang, Gyeonggi-do...
Uganda becomes an independent Commonwealth realm.
Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the...
In Italy, a large landslide causes a giant wave to overtop the Vajont Dam, killing over 2,000.
The Vajont Dam or Vaiont Dam is a disused hydro-electric dam in the valley of the Vajont river under Monte Toc, in the municipality of Erto e Casso, 100 kilometres (60 mi) north of Venice, Italy. It...
Vietnam War: the Republic of Korea Army commits the Binh Tai Massacre.
The Vietnam War was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam and their allies. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union and China, while...
A day after his capture, Ernesto "Che" Guevara is executed for attempting to incite a revolution in Bolivia.
Ernesto "Che" Guevara de la Serna was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, author, guerrilla leader, diplomat, politician, and military theorist. A major figure of the Cuban Revolution, his stylized...
In Chicago, the National Guard is called in as demonstrations continue over the trial of the "Chicago Eight".
Chicago is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the third-most populous city in the United...
The Khmer Republic is proclaimed in Cambodia.
The Khmer Republic was a Cambodian state under the United States-backed military dictatorship of Marshal Lon Nol from 1970 to 1975. Its establishment was formally declared on 9 October 1970,...
Pope John Paul II greets the Dalai Lama during a private audience in Vatican City.
Pope John Paul II was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death in 2005. He was the first non-Italian pope since Adrian VI in the 16th century,...
President François Mitterrand abolishes capital punishment in France.
François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was President of France from 1981 to 1995. He was the longest holder of that position in the history of France and the first left-wing politician to assume...
South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan survives an assassination attempt in Rangoon, Burma, but the blast kills 21 and injures 17 others.
Chun Doo-hwan was a South Korean army general and politician who served as the fifth president of South Korea from 1980 to 1988. A member of the Democratic Justice Party, he ruled the country as a...
The popular children's television show Thomas The Tank Engine & Friends, based on The Railway Series by the Reverend Wilbert Awdry, premieres on ITV.
Thomas & Friends is a British children's television series developed for television by Britt Allcroft. Based on The Railway Series children's books by Wilbert and Christopher Awdry, it centers on...
The Phantom of the Opera, eventually the second longest running musical in London, opens at Her Majesty's Theatre.
The Phantom of the Opera is a musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Charles Hart, additional lyrics by Richard Stilgoe, and a libretto by Lloyd Webber and Stilgoe. Based on the 1910...
Fox Broadcasting Company (FBC) launches as the fourth US television network.
Fox Broadcasting Company, LLC is an American commercial broadcast television network serving as the flagship namesake property of Fox Corporation and operated through Fox Entertainment. The channel...
The Peekskill meteorite, a 27.7 pounds (12.6 kg) meteorite crashed into a parked car in Peekskill, New York
The Peekskill meteorite is the object resulting from a well-documented meteorite event that occurred in October, 1992, in Peekskill, New York, United States. Sixteen separate video recordings...
An Amtrak Sunset Limited train is derailed by saboteurs near Palo Verde, Arizona.
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak, is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in every contiguous U.S....
North Korea conducts its first nuclear test.
On 9 October 2006, North Korea performed its first nuclear test, detonating a plutonium-based device underground. The test made North Korea the tenth country to develop and the eighth to openly test...
The Dow Jones Industrial Average reaches its all-time high of 14,164 points before rapidly declining due to the 2008 financial crisis.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), Dow Jones, or simply the Dow, is a stock market index of 30 prominent companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States.
First lunar impact of NASA's Lunar Precursor Robotic Program.
The Lunar Precursor Robotic Program (LPRP) is a NASA program that uses robotic spacecraft to prepare for future crewed missions to the Moon. The program gathers data such as lunar radiation, surface...
Pakistani Taliban attempt to assassinate outspoken schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai.
Malala Yousafzai is a Pakistani female education activist, and producer of film and television. She is the youngest Nobel Prize laureate in history, receiving the Peace Prize in 2014 at age 17, and...
The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army launches its first attack on Myanmar security forces along the Bangladesh–Myanmar border.
The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, formerly known as Harakah al-Yaqin, is a Rohingya insurgent group originating from northern Rakhine State, Myanmar. According to a December 2016 report by the...
Turkey begins its military offensive in north-eastern Syria.
Operation Peace Spring was a joint operation by the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF) and the Syrian National Army (SNA) against the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), later involving the Syrian Arab Army...
Hurricane Milton makes landfall in Siesta Key, Florida, as a Category 3 hurricane, causing US$34.3 billion in damage only two weeks after Hurricane Helene impacted the state.
Hurricane Milton was an extremely powerful and destructive tropical cyclone which caused major damage and fatalities in Florida in October 2024. It is tied with 2005's Hurricane Rita for the most...