History of 9 May
1901 – In Australia, the Duke of Cornwall and York declared the First Commonwealth Parliament open.
1904 – The Great Western Railway Number 3440 City of Truro became the first railway locomotive to exceed 100 miles per hour.
1915 – German and French forces fought the Battle of Artois.
1926 – Americans Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett became the first men to fly an airplane over the North Pole.
1930 – A starting gate was used to start a Triple Crown race for the first time.
1936 – Fascist Italy took Addis Abba and annexed Ethiopia.
1936 – The first sheet of postage stamps of more than one variety went on sale in New York City.
1940 – Vivien Leigh debuted in America on stage in “Romeo and Juliet” with Lawrence Olivier.
1941 – The German submarine U-110 was captured at sea by Britain’s Royal Navy.
1945 – U.S. officials announced that the midnight entertainment curfew was being lifted immediately.
1946 – King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy abdicated and was replaced by Umberto.
1955 – West Germany joined NATO.
1958 – Richard Burton made his network television debut in the presentation of “Wuthering Heights” on CBS-TV.
1960 – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved for sale an oral birth-control pill for the first time.
1961 – Jim Gentile (Baltimore Orioles) set a major league baseball record when he hit a grand slam home run in two consecutive innings. The game was against the Minnesota Twins.
1962 – A laser beam was successfully bounced off Moon for the first time.
1974 – The House Judiciary Committee began formal hearings on the Nixon impeachment.
1978 – The bullet-riddled body of former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro was found in an automobile in the center of Rome. The Red Brigades had abducted him.
1980 – A Liberian freighter hit the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay in Florida. 35 motorists were killed and a 1,400-foot section of the bridge collapsed.
1987 – Tom Cruise and Mimi Rogers were married.
1994 – Nelson Mandela was chosen to be South Africa’s first black president.
1996 – In video testimony to a courtroom in Little Rock, AR, U.S. President Clinton insisted that he had nothing to do with a $300,000 loan in the criminal case against his former Whitewater partners.
2002 – In Bethlehem, West Bank, a deal was reached that would end the 38-day standoff at the Church of the Nativity. Thirteen suspected militants were to be deported to several different countries. The standoff had begun on April 2, 2002.
2002 – In Kaspiisk, Russia, 39 people were killed and at least 130 were injured when a remote-controlled bomb exploded during a holiday parade.
2002 – In Bahrain, people were allowed to vote for representatives for the first time in nearly 30 years. Women were allowed to vote for the first time in the country’s history.
2012 – A Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft crashes into Mount Salak in West Java, Indonesia, killing 45 people.
2015 – An Airbus A400M Atlas military transport aircraft crashes near the Spanish city of Seville with three people on board killed.
2015 – Russia stages its biggest ever military parade in Moscow’s Red Square to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Victory Day.
2018 – The historic defeat for Barisan Nasional, the governing coalition of Malaysia since the country’s independence in 1957 in Malaysian General Election, 2018.
2018 – At the height of the 2018 East Africa floods, the Patel dam breaks in Solai, Kenya, killing 48 people and displacing another 2000.
Celebrating Birthday Today
- 1981 – Bill Murphy, American baseball player
- 1981 – Evangelos Tsiolis, Greek footballer
- 1983 – Giacomo Brichetto, Italian footballer
- 1983 – Alan Campbell, British sculler
- 1983 – Christos Marangos, Cypriot footballer
- 1983 – Ryuhei Matsuda, Japanese actor
- 1983 – Gilles Müller, a Luxembourgian tennis player
- 1983 – Tyler Lumsden, American baseball player
- 1983 – Leandro Rinaudo, Italian footballer
- 1984 – Prince Fielder, American baseball player
- 1984 – Chase Headley, American baseball player
- 1985 – Jake Long, American football player
- 1985 – Henrique Andrade Silva, Brazilian footballer
- 1987 – Scott Bolton, Australian rugby league player
- 1987 – Kevin Gameiro, French footballer
- 1987 – Vitaliy Pushkar, Ukrainian race car driver
- 1988 – J. R. Fitzpatrick, Canadian race car driver
- 1989 – Ellen White, English footballer
- 1991 – Majlinda Kelmendi, Kosovar judoka
- 1992 – Dan Burn, English footballer
- 1996 – Saron Läänmäe, Estonian footballer