Welcome to Today In History for Thursday, July 9, 2009.
On this day in history...
- 0711 - Berbers under Tarik-ibn Ziyad occupies North Spain
- 1371 - Pope Gregory XI names Arnold II of Horne as bishop of Utrecht
- 1386 - Battle at Sempach: Swiss beat duke Leopold III of Austria
- 1401 - Mongol monarch Timur Lenk destroys Baghdad
- 1517 - Gelderse crowd robber murders population of Asperen
- 1536 - French navigator Jacques Cartier returns to Saint-Malo from Canada
- 1540 - England's King Henry VIII 6-mo marriage to Anne of Cleves annulled
- 1553 - Battle at Sievershausen Solingen: van Saksen beats Alcibiades
- 1572 - 19 Catholic priests hanged in Gorcum
- 1595 - Johannes Kepler inscribes geometric solid construction of universe
- 1609 - Emperor Rudolf II grants Bohemian protestants freedom of religion
- 1672 - Prince Willem III inaugurated as viceroy of Holland/Zealand
- 1686 - Germany, Sweden & Spain signs anti-French League of Augsburg
- 1745 - Bonnie Prince Charlies "Elisabeth" battles with HMS Lion
- 1755 - Battle at Duquesne (Pittsburgh): French troops beat British
- 1755 - Brit Gen E Braddock mortally wounded during French & Indian War
- 1766 - English premier Rockingham resigns
- 1776 - Declaration of Independence is read to George Washington's troops (NY)
- 1780 - Denmark declares neutrality
- 1795 - James Swan pays off the $2,024,899 US national debt
- 1800 - Mt Vernon Gardens becomes site of 1st summer theater in US
- 1815 - 1st natural gas well in US is discovered
- 1815 - King Louis XVIII leaves Ghent for France
- 1816 - Argentina declares independence from Spain
- 1835 - St Etienne-Lyons railway opens in France
- 1842 - Notary Stamp Law passes
- 1846 - Capt Montgomery claims Yerba Buena (SF) for US
- 1852 - Fire destroys 1,100 construction sites in Montreal Canada & no one die
- 1853 - Adm Perry & US Navy visit Japan
- 1860 - Temperature hits 115øF in Ft Scott & 112øF in Topeka Kansas
- 1862 - Gen John Hunt Morgan captures Tompkinsville, Ky
- 1863 - R Morgan's: Indiana [->JUL 13]
- 1863 - Union troops enter Port Hudson
- 1864 - Battle of Monocacy, MD US1959 CS400
- 1868 - 1st black cabinet member in SC (Francis L Cardozo-sect of state)
- 1869 - Concord pipe, made from small corn kernels, invented
- 1872 - Doughnut cutter patents by John Blondel, Thomaston, Me
- 1876 - Black landowner murdered in Hamburg SC
- 1877 - 1st Wimbledon tennis championship is held
- 1878 - An improved corncob pipe patents by Henry Tibbe, Washington, Mo
- 1891 - Irene Coit is 1st woman admitted to Yale University
- 1893 - Dr Daniel Hale Williams performs 1st successful open heart surgery without anesthesia
- 1900 - Australia accepts its constitution
- 1904 - 10th US Golf Open: Willie Anderson shoots a 303 at Glen View Club IL
- 1908 - CHU (Christian Historic Union) Dutch political party forms
- 1910 - Walter Brookins becomes 1st to pilot an airplane to 1 mile altitude
- 1914 - 1st US duplicate auction bridge championship held, Lake Placid, NY
- 1915 - Germany surrenders South West Africa to Union of South Africa
- 1916 - 1st cargo submarine to cross Atlantic arrives in US from Germany
- 1917 - British warship "Vanguard" explodes at Scapa Flow killing 804
- 1918 - 101 killed & 171 injured in worst US train wreck, Nashville, Tenn
- 1918 - Congress creates Distinguished Service Medal
- 1922 - Johnny Weissmuller swims 1st 100 m free style under 1 minute
- 1926 - Chiang Kai-shek appointed to national-revolutionary supreme commander
- 1926 - Coup under Gen Sinel de Cordes in Portugal
- 1927 - Atty William T Francis named minister to Liberia
- 1932 - Washington Redskins (then Boston Braves) forms
- 1932 - Yanks' Ben Chapman hits 2 inside-the-park HRs, tying record
- 1933 - Frankford Yellowjackets sold, rechristened Philadelphia Eagles
- 1934 - SS-Reichs Fhrer Himmler takes command of German Concentration Camps
- 1940 - 8th All Star Baseball Game: NL wins 4-0 at Sportsman's Park, St Louis
- 1940 - German Evangelist Church protests against euthanasia pogroms
- 1940 - RAF bombs Germany
- 1942 - Anne Frank, 13, goes into hiding with her family & 4 other Jews
- 1943 - 5th day of battle at Kursk: Germans occupy Verchopenje
- 1943 - British air raid sinks U-435
- 1944 - In World War II, US troops secure Saipan as Japan fell
- 1944 - U-740 sinks
- 1944 - World's largest circus tent catches fire at Ringling Brother's - Barnum & Bailey 2nd performance, 168 die (Hartford Conn)
- 1946 - 13th All Star Baseball Game: AL wins 12-0 at Fenway Park, Boston
- 1947 - Britain's Princess Elizabeth & Lt Philip Mountbatten's engagement
- 1947 - Spain votes for Franco monarchy
- 1948 - Satchel Paige, 42, debuts in majors pitching 2 scoreless inn for Cleve
- 1949 - Benjamin Britten's Jump Symphony, premieres
- 1950 - 13.15" (33.40 cm) of rainfall, York, Nebraska (state 24-hour record)
- 1951 - Pres Truman asked Congress to formally end state of war with Germany
- 1953 - 1st helicopter passenger service (NYC)
- 1953 - Phillies Robin Roberts ends streak of 28 consecutive complete games
- 1955 - "Rock Around Clock" hits #1 on Top 100 chart
- 1955 - 1st black executive on White House staff (E Frederic Morrow)
- 1955 - Bill Haley & Comets' "Rock Around the Clock" tops billboards chart
- 1955 - Strike in Belgium for 5 day work week
- 1956 - Dick Clark's 1st appearance as host of American Bandstand
- 1957 - 24th All Star Baseball Game: AL wins 6-6 at Sportsman's Park, St Louis
- 1957 - Discovery of element 102 (Nobelium) announced
- 1958 - Giant splash caused by fall of 90 million tons of rock & ice into Lituya Bay, Alaska washes 1,800 feet up the mountain
- 1959 - Marlene Hagge wins LPGA Hoosier Golf Open
- 1959 - Mickey Wright wins LPGA Hoosier Celebrity Golf Tournament
- 1962 - US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Johnston Island
- 1963 - 34th All Star Baseball Game: NL wins 5-3 at Municipal Stadium, Cleve
- 1963 - All star MVP: Willie Mays (SF Giants)
- 1963 - Crusher Lisowski beats Verne Gagne in Minneapolis, to become NWA champ
- 1963 - Federation of Malaysia forms
- 1965 - 94th British Golf Open: Peter Thomson shoots a 285 at Royal Birkdale
- 1965 - John Edrich completes 310* v NZ in 532 minutes, 52 fours 5 sixes
- 1965 - Senators Frank Howard ties record with 7 strikeouts in DH
- 1966 - 95th British Golf Open: Jack Nicklaus shoots 282 at Muirfield Gullane
- 1967 - 13th LPGA Championship won by Kathy Whitworth
- 1967 - WRET TV channel 36 in Charlotte, NC (NBC/CBS) begins broadcasting
- 1968 - 15.68" (39.83 cm) of rainfall, Columbus, Miss (state 24-hour record)
- 1968 - 39th All Star Baseball Game: NL wins 1-0 at Astrodome, Houston
- 1968 - All star MVP: Willie Mays (SF Giants)
- 1969 - Tom Seaver's no-hit bid against Cubs ends with 1 out in 9th
- 1970 - In Atlanta, Chief-No-ka-homa is joined by cousin Chief Round-the-Horn
- 1971 - Henry Kissinger visits China PR
- 1972 - 1st tour of Paul McCartney & Wings (France)
- 1972 - 86th Wimbledon Mens Tennis: S Smith beats I Nastase (46 63 63 46 75)
- 1972 - Kathy Ahern wins LPGA George Washington Golf Classic
- 1972 - USSR performs underground nuclear test
- 1973 - 9th Maccabiah games opens in Tel Aviv, Israel
- 1974 - Trudeau's Liberal Party wins Canadian parliamentary election
- 1976 - England all out for 71 v WI at Old Trafford, Holding 14 5-7-17-5
- 1976 - Houston Astro Larry Dierker no-hits Montreal Expos, 6-0
- 1976 - Uganda asks UN to condemn Israeli hostage rescue raid on Entebbe
- 1977 - 106th British Golf Open: Tom Watson shoots a 268 at Turnberry Scotland
- 1978 - "Hello, Dolly!" closes at Lunt-Fontanne Theater NYC after 152 perfs
- 1978 - American Nazi Party, holds a rally at Marquette Park, Chicago
- 1978 - Jane Blalock wins LPGA Wheeling Golf Classic
- 1978 - Nearly 100,000 demonstrators march on Wash DC for ERA
- 1979 - Dr Walter Massey named director of Argonne national Lab
- 1979 - Voyager 2 flies past Jupiter
- 1980 - 7 die in a stampede to see Pope in Brazil
- 1980 - Dutch war criminal Pieter Menten sentenced to 10 years
- 1980 - Walt Disney's "Fox & The Hound," released
- 1981 - Jacksons begin a 36-city tour
- 1982 - Botham scores 208 in 225 balls, England v India at The Oval
- 1982 - Margaret Thatcher begins her 2nd term as British prime minster
- 1982 - Pan Am Boeing 727 crashes in Kenner La, killing 153
- 1984 - 12th minster of York destroyed in lightening storm
- 1984 - Yvonne Ryding, of Sweden, crowned 33rd Miss Universe
- 1985 - South Africa police arrested Dutch ANC'er Klaas de Jong
- 1986 - Atlanta's Dale Murphy doesn't play ending consecutive streak at 740
- 1986 - Att Gen's Com on Pornography links hard-core porn to sex crimes
- 1986 - Padres trade pitcher Tim Stoddard to Yankees for pitcher Ed Whitson
- 1987 - 1 million South Koreans demonstrate against Chun Doo Hwan regime
- 1987 - Col Oliver North admits to shredding Iran-Contra evidence
- 1988 - "Facts of Life," Lisa Whelchel weds Steve Cauble
- 1988 - Chris Speier hits for the cycle & Ernest Riles hits 10,000th Giant HR
- 1988 - Jessye Norman begins recording Bizets "Carmen"
- 1988 - Nolan Ryan is 7th to win 100 game on 2 teams, as Astro beat Mets 6-3
- 1989 - 103rd Wimbledon Mens Tennis: B Becker beats Stefan Edberg (60 76 64)
- 1989 - 96th Wimbledon Womens Tennis: S Graf beats M Navratilova (62 67 61)
- 1989 - Penny Hammel wins LPGA Jamie Farr Toledo Golf Classic
- 1990 - 104th Wimbledon Mens Tennis: S Edberg beats B Becker (62 62 36 36 64)
- 1990 - Richard Hadlee takes 5-53 to end his Test Cricket career with 431 wkts
- 1991 - "Little Night Music" opens at New York State Theater NYC for 7 perfs
- 1991 - 62nd All Star Baseball Game: AL wins 4-2 at SkyDome, Toronto
- 1991 - All star MVP: Cal Ripken Jr (Balt Orioles)
- 1991 - South Africa readmitted to Olympics
- 1992 - Kim Basinger gets 1,959th star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame
- 1992 - Space Shuttle STS 50 (Columbia 13) lands
- 1994 - 11,000th HR in NY Yankees history (Matt Nokes)
- 1994 - Sonia O'Sullivan runs world record 2k (5:25.36)
- 1994 - Soyuz TM-19 lands
- 1995 - "Play's the Thing" opens at Criterion Theater NYC for 75 performances
- 1995 - 109th Wimbledon Mens Tennis: Pete Sampras beats B Becker (67 62 64 62)
- 1995 - Jack Nicklaus wins Golf's British Open (4th to win all 4 majors)
- 1995 - Kathryn Marshall wins LPGA Jamie Farr Toledo Golf Classic
- 1995 - US international postage rates rise to 60 per « ounce
- 1996 - 67th All Star Baseball Game: NL wins 6-0 at Veterans Stadium, Phila
- 1996 - All star MVP: Mike Piazza (LA Dodgers)
- 1996 - US Senate approves 90 raise to $4.25 minimum wage
- 1997 - Baseball's triple A Anerican Assn (formed in 1902) votes to disband
- 1997 - Mike Tyson is banned from boxing, for biting Holyfield's ear