July 9

July 9 is the 190th day of the year (191st in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 175 days remaining.

Events

455 - Roman military commander Avitus is proclaimed emperor of the western Roman Empire.

1357 5:31 AM - Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor assisted laying the foundation stone of Charles Bridge in Prague

1540 - Henry VIII of England annulled his marriage to his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves.

1749 - Naval settlement of Halifax, Nova Scotia founded as British answer to Louisbourg.

1755 - French and Indian War: Braddock Expedition - British troops and colonial militiamen are ambushed and suffer a devastating defeat to French and Indian forces. During the battle, British General Edward Braddock is mortally wounded. Colonel George Washington survives.

1789 - In Versailles, the National Assembly reconstitutes itself as the National Constituent Assembly and begins preparations for a French constitution.

1790 - Russo-Swedish War: Second Battle of Svensksund - In the Baltic Sea, the Swedish navy captures one third of the Russian fleet.

1793 - Act Against Slavery passes in Upper Canada and importation of slaves into Lower Canada is prohibited.

1815 - Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, Prince de Benevente becomes Prime Minister of France

1816 - Argentina declares independence from Spain

1846 - By an act of Congress, the Washington, DC area south of the Potomac (39 mi² or about 100 km²) was returned to Virginia.

1850 - President Zachary Taylor dies and Millard Fillmore becomes the 13th President of the United States.

1893 - Dr Daniel Hale Williams performs the first successful open heart surgery at Provident Hospital in Chicago.

1896 - William Jennings Bryan delivers his Cross of gold speech.

1900 - Victoria of the United Kingdom gives royal assent to an act creating the Commonwealth of Australia thus uniting separate colonies on the continent under one federal government.

1918 - Great train wreck of 1918: In Nashville, Tennessee, an inbound local train collides with an outbound express killing 101.

1922 - Johnny Weissmuller swims the 100 meters freestyle in 58.6 seconds breaking a world swimming record and the 'minute barrier'.

1942 - Holocaust: Anne Frank's family goes into hiding in an attic above her father's office in an Amsterdam warehouse.

1943 - World War II: Operation Husky - Allied forces perform an amphibious invasion of Sicily.

1944 - World War II: British and Canadian forces capture Caen.

1945 - A forest fire breaks out in the Tillamook Burn, the third fire in that area since 1933.

1968 - Official opening of Hayward Gallery on London's South Bank.

1982 - A Boeing 727 carrying Pan Am flight 759 crashes in Kenner, Louisiana killing all 146 on board and eight on the ground.

1989 - Two bombs explode in Mecca, killing one pilgrim and wounding 16 others.

1991 - International Human Rights Federation cites human rights violations committed by police and military personnel during Oka crisis in Quebec.

1991 - South Africa is reintroduced into the Olympic movement after 30 years of exclusion.

1992 - Democratic presidential nominee Bill Clinton announces that Tennessee Senator Al Gore will be his running mate.

1997 - Mike Tyson's boxing license is suspended for at least a year and he is fined $3 million for biting Evander Holyfield's ear in a televised match.

1999 - Days of student protests begins after Iranian police and hardliners attack a student dormitory of University of Tehran

2004 - After José Manuel Durão Barroso's appointment to the European Commission, Portuguese President Jorge Sampaio announces that he will invite the second-in-line leader of PSD, Pedro Santana Lopes to form government.