On This Day — 9 December
2000s
2021
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
2019
A volcano on Whakaari / White Island, New Zealand, kills 22 people after it erupts.
Whakaari / White Island
2017
The Marriage Amendment Bill receives royal assent and comes into effect, making Australia the 26th country to legalize same-sex marriage.
Marriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Act 2017
2016
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
2016
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
2013
At least seven are dead and 63 are injured following a train accident near Bintaro, Indonesia.
2013 Bintaro train crash
2012
A plane crash in Mexico kills seven people including singer Jenni Rivera.
2012 Nuevo León Learjet 25 crash
2008
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.
Governor of Illinois
2006
Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on STS-116 carrying the P5 truss segment of the International Space Station.
Space Shuttle program
2003
A blast in the center of Moscow kills six people and wounds several more.
2003 Red Square bombing
1900s
1996
Gwen Jacob is acquitted of committing an indecent act, giving women the right to be topless in Ontario, Canada.
Female toplessness in Canada
1992
American troops land in Somalia for Operation Restore Hope.
Somalia
1987
Israeli–Palestinian conflict: The First Intifada begins in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
Israeli–Palestinian conflict
1979
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
1973
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.
Sunningdale Agreement
1971
Indo-Pakistani War: The Indian Air Force executes an airdrop of Indian Army units, bypassing Pakistani defences.
India–Pakistan war of 1971
1969
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 P. Rogers
1968
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 Engelbart
1965
Kecksburg UFO incident: A fireball is seen from Michigan to Pennsylvania; with witnesses reporting something crashing in the woods near Pittsburgh.
Kecksburg UFO incident
1961
Tanganyika becomes independent from Britain.
Tanganyika (1961–1964)
1960
The first episode of Coronation Street, the world's longest-running television soap opera, is broadcast in the United Kingdom.
Coronation Street
1956
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
1956
An Aeroflot Lisunov Li-2 crashes near Anadyr, killing all 12 people on board.
Aeroflot
1953
Red Scare: General Electric announces that all communist employees will be discharged from the company.
McCarthyism
1950
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.
Cold War
1948
The Genocide Convention is adopted.
Genocide Convention
1946
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.
Subsequent Nuremberg trials
1946
The Constituent Assembly of India meets for the first time to write the Constitution of India.
Constituent Assembly of India
1941
World War II: China, Cuba, Guatemala, and the Philippine Commonwealth declare war on Germany and Japan.
Republic of China (1912–1949)
1940
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
1937
Second Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Nanking: Japanese troops under the command of Lt. Gen. Yasuhiko Asaka launch an assault on the Chinese city of Nanking.
Second Sino-Japanese War
1935
Student protests occur in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, and are subsequently dispersed by government authorities.
December 9th Movement
1935
Walter Liggett, an American newspaper editor and muckraker, is killed in a gangland murder.
Walter Liggett
1931
The Constituent Cortes approves a constitution which establishes the Second Spanish Republic.
Constituent Cortes
1922
Gabriel Narutowicz is elected the first president of Poland.
Gabriel Narutowicz
1917
World War I: Field Marshal Allenby captures Jerusalem from the Ottoman Empire.
World War I
1917
World War I: The Kingdom of Romania signs the Armistice of Focșani with the Central Powers.
Kingdom of Romania
1911
A mine explosion near Briceville, Tennessee, kills 84 miners despite rescue efforts led by the United States Bureau of Mines.
Cross Mountain Mine disaster
1905
In France, a law separating church and state is passed.
1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State
1800s
1893
National Assembly bombing by Auguste Vaillant during the Ère des attentats (1892–1894).
National Assembly bombing
1872
In Louisiana, P. B. S. Pinchback becomes the first African American governor of a U.S. state following the impeachment of Henry C. Warmoth.
Louisiana
1868
The first traffic lights are installed, outside the Palace of Westminster in London. Resembling railway signals, they use semaphore arms and are illuminated at night by red and green gas lamps.
Traffic light
1861
American Civil War: The Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War is established by Congress.
American Civil War
1856
The Iranian city of Bushehr surrenders to occupying British forces.
Iran
1851
The first YMCA in North America is established in Montreal.
YMCA
1835
Texas Revolution: The Texian Army captures San Antonio following the Siege of Béxar.
Texas Revolution
1824
Patriot forces led by General Antonio José de Sucre defeat a Royalist army in the Battle of Ayacucho, putting an end to the Peruvian War of Independence.
Antonio José de Sucre
1822
French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel, in a memoir read to the Academy of Sciences, coins the terms linear polarization, circular polarization, and elliptical polarization, and reports a direct refraction experiment verifying his theory that optical rotation is a form of birefringence.
Augustin-Jean Fresnel
Before 1800
1775
American Revolutionary War: British troops and Loyalists, misinformed about Patriot militia strength, lose the Battle of Great Bridge, ending British rule in Virginia.
American Revolutionary War
1636
The Qing dynasty of China, led by Emperor Hong Taiji, invades Joseon.
Qing dynasty
1531
The Virgin of Guadalupe first appears to Juan Diego at Tepeyac, Mexico City.
Our Lady of Guadalupe
1432
The first battle between the forces of Švitrigaila and Sigismund Kęstutaitis is fought near the town of Oszmiana (Ashmyany), launching the most active phase of the Lithuanian Civil War.
Švitrigaila
730
Battle of Marj Ardabil: The Khazars annihilate an Umayyad army and kill its commander, al-Jarrah ibn Abdallah al-Hakami.
Battle of Marj Ardabil
536
Gothic War: The Byzantine general Belisarius enters Rome unopposed; the Gothic garrison flees the capital.
Gothic War (535–554)