On This Day — 9 November
2000s
2023
U.S. surgeons at NYU Langone Health announce the world's first whole eye transplant.
NYU Langone Health
2020
Second Nagorno-Karabakh War: An armistice agreement is signed by Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia.
Second Nagorno-Karabakh War
2014
A non-binding self-determination consultation is held in Catalonia, asking Catalan citizens their opinion on whether Catalonia should become a state and, if so, whether it should be an independent state.
2014 Catalan self-determination referendum
2012
A train carrying liquid fuel crashes and bursts into flames in northern Myanmar, killing 27 people and injuring 80 others.
List of rail accidents (2010–2019)
2012
At least 27 people are killed and dozens are wounded in conflicts between inmates and guards at Welikada prison in Colombo.
2012 Welikada prison riot
2011
The first national test of the Emergency Alert System is activated in the United States at 2:00 p.m. EST.
Emergency Alert System
2005
The Venus Express mission of the European Space Agency is launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Venus Express
2005
Suicide bombers attack three hotels in Amman, Jordan, killing at least 60 people.
2005 Amman bombings
2004
Firefox 1.0 is released.
Firefox
2000
Uttarakhand officially becomes the 27th state of India, formed from thirteen districts of northwestern Uttar Pradesh.
Uttarakhand
1900s
1999
TAESA Flight 725 crashes after takeoff from Uruapan International Airport in Uruapan, Michoacán, Mexico, killing all 18 people on board.
TAESA Flight 725
1998
A U.S. federal judge, in the largest civil settlement in American history, orders 37 U.S. brokerage houses to pay US$1.03 billion to cheated NASDAQ investors to compensate for price fixing.
Nasdaq
1998
Capital punishment in the United Kingdom, already abolished for murder, is completely abolished for all remaining capital offences.
Capital punishment in the United Kingdom
1994
The chemical element darmstadtium is discovered.
Chemical element
1993
Stari Most, the "old bridge" in the Bosnian city of Mostar, built in 1566, collapses after several days of bombing by Croat forces during the Croat–Bosniak War.
Stari Most
1989
Cold War: Fall of the Berlin Wall: East Germany opens checkpoints in the Berlin Wall, allowing its citizens to travel to West Berlin.
Fall of the Berlin Wall
1985
Garry Kasparov, 22, of the Soviet Union, becomes the youngest World Chess Champion by beating fellow Soviet Anatoly Karpov.
Garry Kasparov
1979
Cold War: Nuclear false alarm: The NORAD computers and the Alternate National Military Command Center in Fort Ritchie, Maryland, detect a purported massive Soviet nuclear strike. After reviewing the raw data from satellites and checking the early-warning radars, the alert is cancelled.
Cold War
1971
American banker John List murdered his wife, mother, and three children with a pair of handguns.
John List (murderer)
1970
Vietnam War: The Supreme Court of the United States votes 6–3 against hearing a case to allow Massachusetts to enforce its law granting residents the right to refuse military service in an undeclared war.
Vietnam War
1967
Apollo program: NASA launches the unmanned Apollo 4 test spacecraft, atop the first Saturn V rocket, from Florida's Cape Kennedy.
Apollo program
1965
Several U.S. states and parts of Canada are hit by a series of blackouts lasting up to 13 hours in the Northeast blackout of 1965.
Power outage
1965
A Catholic Worker Movement member, Roger Allen LaPorte, protesting against the Vietnam War, sets himself on fire in front of the United Nations building.
Catholic Worker Movement
1963
At a coal mine in Miike, Japan, an explosion kills 458 and hospitalises 839 with carbon monoxide poisoning.
Miike coal mine
1963
The Tsurumi rail accident on the Tōkaidō Main Line in Yokohama kills 162 people.
Tsurumi rail accident
1960
Robert McNamara is named president of the Ford Motor Company, becoming the first non-Ford family member to serve in that post. He resigns a month later to join the newly elected John F. Kennedy administration.
Robert McNamara
1953
Cambodia gains independence from France.
Cambodia
1945
Soo Bahk Do and Moo Duk Kwan martial arts are founded in Korea.
Soo Bahk Do
1943
An agreement for the founding of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration is signed by 44 countries in the White House, Washington, D.C.
White House
1942
Battle of Stalingrad: German forces of the 6th Army under general Friedrich Paulus reach the river bank of the Volga, capturing 90% of the ruined city of Stalingrad and splitting the remaining Soviet forces into two narrow pockets.
Battle of Stalingrad
1940
Warsaw is awarded the Virtuti Militari by the Polish government-in-exile.
Warsaw
1938
Kristallnacht occurs, instigated by the Nazis using the killing of German diplomat Ernst vom Rath by Herschel Grynszpan as justification.
Kristallnacht
1937
Second Sino-Japanese War: The Chinese Army withdraws from the Battle of Shanghai.
Second Sino-Japanese War
1936
American fashion designer Ruth Harkness seeks and captures a nine-week-old panda cub in Sichuan; named Su Lin, he becomes the first live giant panda to enter the United States.
Ruth Harkness
1935
The Committee for Industrial Organization, the precursor to the Congress of Industrial Organizations, is founded in Atlantic City, New Jersey, by eight trade unions belonging to the American Federation of Labor.
Congress of Industrial Organizations
1923
In Munich, police and government troops crush the Nazi Beer Hall Putsch.
Munich
1921
The National Fascist Party (Partito Nazionale Fascista or PNF) is founded in Italy.
National Fascist Party
1918
Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany abdicates after the German Revolution, and Germany is proclaimed a Republic.
Kaiser
1917
The Balfour Declaration is published in The Times newspaper.
Balfour Declaration
1914
SMS Emden is sunk by HMAS Sydney in the Battle of Cocos.
SMS Emden
1913
The Great Lakes Storm of 1913, the most destructive natural disaster ever to hit the lakes, reaches its greatest intensity after beginning two days earlier. The storm destroys 19 ships and kills more than 250 people.
Great Lakes Storm of 1913
1907
The Cullinan Diamond is presented to King Edward VII on his birthday.
Cullinan Diamond
1906
Theodore Roosevelt is the first sitting President of the United States to make an official trip outside the country, doing so to inspect progress on the Panama Canal.
Theodore Roosevelt
1905
The Province of Alberta, Canada, holds its first general election.
Alberta
1901
Prince George, Duke of Cornwall (later George V of the United Kingdom), becomes Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester.
Duke of Cornwall
1900
Russian invasion of Manchuria: Russia completes its occupation of Manchuria with 100,000 troops.
Russian invasion of Manchuria
1800s
1888
Jack the Ripper murders Mary Jane Kelly, his final victim in the Whitechapel murders.
Jack the Ripper
1887
The United States receives rights to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
Pearl Harbor
1881
Mapuche rebels attack the fortified Chilean settlement of Temuco.
Mapuche uprising of 1881
1880
A major earthquake strikes Zagreb and destroys many buildings, including Zagreb Cathedral.
1880 Zagreb earthquake
1872
The Great Boston Fire of 1872.
Great Boston Fire of 1872
1870
The Battle of Coulmiers ends in a Pyrrhic victory for the French army during the Franco-German War of 1870.
Battle of Coulmiers
1867
The Tokugawa shogunate hands back power to the Emperor of Japan, starting the Meiji Restoration.
Tokugawa shogunate
1862
American Civil War: Union General Ambrose Burnside assumes command of the Army of the Potomac, after George B. McClellan is removed.
American Civil War
1851
Kentucky marshals abduct abolitionist minister Calvin Fairbank from Jeffersonville, Indiana, and take him to Kentucky to stand trial for helping a slave escape.
Kentucky
Before 1800
1799
Napoleon Bonaparte leads the Coup of 18 Brumaire ending the Directory government, and becoming First Consul of the successor Consulate Government.
Coup of 18 Brumaire
1791
The Dublin Society of United Irishmen is founded.
Society of United Irishmen
1780
American Revolutionary War: In the Battle of Fishdam Ford a force of British and Loyalist troops fail in a surprise attack against the South Carolina Patriot militia under Brigadier General Thomas Sumter.
American Revolutionary War
1729
Spain, France and Great Britain sign the Treaty of Seville.
Treaty of Seville
1720
The synagogue of Judah HeHasid is burned down by Arab creditors, leading to the expulsion of the Ashkenazim from Jerusalem.
Judah HeHasid (Jerusalem)
1719
In a treaty between Sweden and Hanover at the close of the Great Northern War, Sweden cedes the Duchies of Bremen and Verden (in northern Germany) to Hanover.
Treaties of Stockholm (Great Northern War)
1688
Glorious Revolution: William of Orange captures Exeter.
Glorious Revolution
1620
The Bohemian King Frederick I flees Prague to Vratislav one day after the defeat of his troops in the Battle of White Mountain.
Wrocław
1580
Second Desmond Rebellion: The Siege of Smerwick ends with the Catholic garrison surrendering to the English forces under Arthur Grey. The majority of the garrison is massacred the next day.
Second Desmond Rebellion
1520
More than 50 people are sentenced and executed in the Stockholm Bloodbath.
Stockholm Bloodbath
1456
Ulrich II, Count of Celje, last ruler of the County of Cilli, is assassinated in Belgrade.
Ulrich II, Count of Celje
1431
The Battle of Ilava: The Hungarians defeat the Hussite army.
Battle of Ilava
1372
Trần Duệ Tông succeeds his brother Trần Nghệ Tông as King of Vietnam.
Trần Duệ Tông
1330
At the Battle of Posada, Basarab I of Wallachia defeats the Hungarian army of Charles I Robert.
Battle of Posada
1323
Siege of Warangal: Prataparudra surrenders to Muhammad bin Tughlaq, officially marking the end of the Kakatiya dynasty.
Siege of Warangal (1323)
1313
Louis the Bavarian defeats his cousin Frederick I of Austria at the Battle of Gammelsdorf.
Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor
1307
Knights Templar officer Hugues de Pairaud is forced to confess during the Trials of the Knights Templar. He was persecuted on the charges of false idolism and sodomy.
Knights Templar
1277
The Treaty of Aberconwy, a humiliating settlement forced on Llywelyn ap Gruffudd by King Edward I of England, brings a temporary end to the Welsh Wars.
Treaty of Aberconwy
1180
The Battle of Fujigawa: Minamoto forces (30,000 men) under Minamoto no Yoritomo defeat Taira no Koremori during a night attack near the Fuji River but he escapes safely with the routed army.
Battle of Fujigawa
694
At the Seventeenth Council of Toledo, Egica, a king of the Visigoths of Hispania, accuses Jews of aiding Muslims, sentencing all Jews to slavery.
Seventeenth Council of Toledo