April 9

Events

• 193 - Septimius Severus is proclaimed Roman Emperor by the army in Illyricum (in the Balkans).
• 1241 - Battle of Liegnitz: Mongol forces defeats the Polish and German armies.
• 1682 - Robert Cavelier de La Salle discovers the mouth of the Mississippi River, claims it for France and names it Louisiana.
• 1865 - American Civil War: Robert E. Lee surrenders the Army of Northern Virginia (26,765 troops) to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, effectively ending the war.
• 1867 - Alaska purchase: By a single vote, the United States Senate ratifies a treaty with Russia for the purchase of Alaska.
• 1909 - The U.S. Congress passes the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act.
• 1913 - The Brooklyn Dodgers' Ebbets Field opens.
• 1916 - World War I: Battle of Verdun - German forces launch their third offensive of the battle.
• 1917 - World War I: Battle of Arras - The battle begins with Canadian forces executing a massive assault on the Vimy Ridge.
• 1939 - Marian Anderson sings at the Lincoln Memorial, after having been refused the right to sing at the Daughters of the American Revolution's Constitution Hall.
• 1940 - World War II: Germany invades Denmark and Norway.
• 1942 - World War II: Battle of Bataan/Bataan Death March - United States forces surrender on the Bataan Peninsula.
• 1947 - The Glazier-Higgins-Woodward Tornadoes kill 181 and injure 970 in Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas.
• 1947 - The Journey of Reconciliation, the first interracial Freedom Ride of 16 black and white men traveling through the upper South in violation of Jim Crow laws begins. The riders, sponsored by CORE and the Fellowship of Reconciliation, are seeking to force southern states to enforce the Supreme Court's 1946 Irene Morgan decision that banned segregation in interstate travel.
• 1948 - Jorge Eliécer Gaitán's assassination provokes a violent riot in Bogotá (the Bogotazo), and a further ten years of violence in all of Colombia (La violencia).
• 1948 - Massacre at Deir Yassin.
• 1953 - Warner Brothers premieres the first 3-D film, entitled House of Wax
• 1959 - Mercury program: NASA announces the selection of the United States' first seven astronauts which the news media quickly dub the "Mercury Seven".
• 1967 - The first Boeing 737 (a 100 series) takes its maiden flight.
• 1969 - The "Chicago Eight" plead not guilty on federal charges of conspiracy to incite a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
• 1986 - The government of France rules against the privatization of French automaker Renault.
• 1987 - Dikye Baggett becomes the first person to undergo corrective surgery for Parkinson's disease.
• 1991 - Georgia declares its independence from the Soviet Union.
• 1992 - Manuel Noriega is convicted of eight crimes.
• 1992 - John Major wins the UK general election.
• 1998 - The National Prisoner of War Museum is dedicated in Andersonville, Georgia, on the site of an American Civil War POW camp.
• 1999 - Ismail Omar Guelleh is elected president of Djibouti.
• 1999 - Nigerian President Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara is assassinated.
• 2002 - The funeral of HM Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother of the United Kingdom is held at Westminster Abbey.
• 2003 - 2003 invasion of Iraq: The Ba'ath regime headed by Saddam Hussein in Iraq is deposed.
• 2005 - HRH Charles, Prince of Wales weds Camilla Parker Bowles
  

  Births

• 1336 - Tamerlane, also known as Timur, Turkic conqueror, in Transoxiana (d. 1405)
• 1773 - Étienne Aignan, translator, political writer, librettist, playwright, member of the Académie française (d. 1824)
• 1794 - Theobald Boehm, inventor of the modern flute.
• 1806 - Isambard Kingdom Brunel, engineer (d. 1859)
• 1821 - Charles Baudelaire, French poet (d. 1867)
• 1830 - Eadweard Muybridge, photographer, motion picture pioneer (d. 1904)
• 1835 - King Leopold II of Belgium (d. 1909)
• 1848 - Helene Lange, teacher (d. 1930)
• 1865 - Erich Ludendorff, German general in World War I (d. 1937)
• 1867 - Chris Watson, third Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1941)
• 1888 - Sol Hurok, impresario (d. 1974)
• 1889 - Efrem Zimbalist, Russian violinist (d. 1985)
• 1897 - John B. Gambling, radio talk-show host (d. 1974)
• 1898 - Paul Robeson, singer, political activist (d. 1976)
• 1898 - Curly Lambeau, American football coach, executive (d. 1965)
• 1903 - Ward Bond, actor (d. 1960)
• 1904 - Sharkey Bonano, jazz musician (d. 1972)
• 1905 - J. William Fulbright, former Senator from Arkansas (d. 1995)
• 1906 - Antal Dorati, Hungarian conductor (d. 1988)
• 1908 - Victor Vasarely, painter (d. 1997)
• 1910 - Abraham Ribicoff, American politician (d. 1998)
• 1912 - Lew Kopelew (Lev Kopelev), author (d. 1997)
• 1917 - Brad Dexter, American actor (d. 2002)
• 1918 - Jørn Utzon, Danish architect
• 1919 - J. Presper Eckert, inventor of the ENIAC computer
• 1925 - Heinz Nixdorf, industrialist (d. 1985)
• 1926 - Hugh Hefner, editor, publisher
• 1928 - Tom Lehrer, musician and satirist
• 1932 - Carl Perkins, country and rockabilly musician (d. 1998)
• 1932 - Jim Fowler, American naturalist
• 1933 - Jean-Paul Belmondo, actor
• 1935 - Avery Schreiber, actor (d. 2002)
• 1937 - Marty Krofft, children's television producer
• 1938 - Viktor Chernomyrdin, Russian politician
• 1939 - Michael Learned, American actress
• 1942 - Brandon De Wilde, American actor (d. 1972)
• 1945 - Peter Gammons, baseball sportswriter, journalist
• 1953 - Hal Ketchum, American country musician
• 1954 - Dennis Quaid, actor (The Right Stuff, Any Given Sunday, Traffic)
• 1954 - Iain Duncan Smith, United Kingdom MP
• 1957 - Seve Ballesteros, Spanish golfer
• 1965 - Jeff Zucker, American television executive
• 1966 - Cynthia Nixon, American actress
• 1972 - Emir Delalic Zeko, Bosnian designer
• 1974 - Jenna Jameson, Porn Star
• 1975 - Robbie Fowler, football (soccer) striker
• 1978 - Jorge Andrade, football player
• 1978 - Rachel Stevens, singer
• 1979 - Keshia Knight Pulliam, actress (Rudy Huxtable, The Cosby Show)
  

  Deaths

• 491 - Zeno, Byzantine emperor
• 715 - Pope Constantine
• 1024 - Pope Benedict VIII
• 1137 - William X, Duke of Aquitaine (b. 1099)
• 1483 - Edward IV of England.
• 1484 - Edward of Middleham, Prince of Wales.
• 1553 - François Rabelais, writer (b. c. 1493)
• 1557 - Mikael Agricola, de facto founder of written Finnish (b. 1510)
• 1626 - Sir Francis Bacon, philosopher, statesman, essayist (b. 1561)
• 1804 - Jacques Necker, French statesman, finance minister of Louis XVI (b. 1732)
• 1889 - Michel Eugène Chevreul, French chemist (b. 1786)
• 1940 - Mrs. Patrick Campbell, actress (b. 1865)
• 1944 - Evgeniya Rudneva, Soviet World War II heroine, killed by Nazis
• 1945 - Wilhelm Canaris, chief of the Abwehr (b. 1887)
• 1945 - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, theologian and martyr, hanged at Flossenburg concentration camp (b. 1906)
• 1948 - Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, Colombian politician (b. 1903).
• 1959 - Frank Lloyd Wright, architect (b. 1867)
• 1961 - King Zog of Albania
• 1963 - Eddie Edwards, jazz musician (b. 1891)
• 1976 - Phil Ochs, singer (b. 1940)
• 1988 - Brook Benton, American actor
• 1991 - Martin Hannett, record producer (b. 1948)
• 1996 - James W. Rouse, developer, activist, philanthropist
• 1996 - Richard Condon, American novelist
• 1997 - Laura Nyro, American singer, songwriter
• 1999 - Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara, Niger politician, general
• 2001 - Willie Stargell, American baseball player
• 2002 - Leopold Vietoris, Austrian mathematician (b. 1891)
• 2005 - Andrea Dworkin, American feminist and writer (b. 1946)
  

  Holidays and observances

• Bahá'í Faith - Feast of Jalál (Glory) - First day of the second month of the Bahá'í Calendar
• Good Friday (2004)
• Bataan Day (Day of Valor) in the Philippines

  External links

• BBC: On This Day

April 8 - April 10 - March 9 - May 9 -- listing of all days