On February 9th...

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1554 Sir Thomas Wyatt was defeated at the Battle of London (England).

155 John Hooper, Bishop of Gloucester, was burned at the stake for heresy.

1621 Alexander Ludovisi was elected Pope Gregory XV.

1674 The English retook New York from the Netherlands.

1773 William Henry Harrison, 9th President of the United States, was born.

1775 The British Parliament declared Massachusetts in rebellion.

1788 Austria declared war on Russia.

1814 American politician Samuel J. Tilden was born.

1822 The American Indian Society was organized.
1822 Haiti invaded the Dominican Republic.

1825 The House of Representatives elected John Quincy Adams as the 6th President of the United States.

1832 The city of Jacksonville, Florida, was chartered.

1840 Rear Admiral William Thomas Sampson was born.

1849 The Roman Republic was declared in Rome, Italy.

1861 Tennessee voted against secession.

1863 Alanson Crane patented the fire extinguisher.

1866 Humorist George Ade was born.

1870 The United States Weather Service was established.

1874 Poet Amy Lowell was born.

1886 Winfield Scott Hancock, Union Army General and presidential candidate, died.

1889 The Umited States Department of Agriculture became a Cabinet-level agency.

1893 Giuseppe Verdi's opera Falstaff premiered in Milan, Italy.

1895 The first intercollegiate basketball game was played; Minnesota Agricultural College defeated Hamline College, 9-3.
1895 W. G. Morgan invented the game of volleyball.

1900 Dwight Davis established the Davis Cup (tennis).

1904 Japan declared war on Russia.

1906 Poet Paul Laurence Dunbar died.

1909 The first federal legislation prohibiting narcotics was passed (a ban on opium).
1909 The first forestry school was incorporated at Kent, Ohio.
1909 Entertainer Carmen Miranda was born.

1911 Entertainer Gypsy Rose Lee was born.

1914 Country musician Ernest Tubb was born.

1918 The U. S. Army Chaplain School was organized at Fort Monroe, Virginia.

1920 An international treaty recognized Norwegian sovereignty over Svalbard.

1922 Snow fell on Mauna Loa, Hawaii.

1923 The Soviet airline Aeroflot was formed.

1926 Atlanta, Georgia, banned the teaching of evolution in public schools.

1928 News broadcaster Roger Mudd was born.

1931 Televangelist Jack Van Impe was born.

1934 Yugoslavia, Greece, Turkey, and Romania formed the Balkan Entente.

1940 Joe Louis defeated Arturo Godfrey in 15 rounds for the heavyweight boxing title.

1942 Singer Carole King was born.

1943 Japanese troops evacuated Guadalcanal.
1943 Actor Joe Pesci was born.

1945 Actress Mia Farrow was born.

1947 Bank robber Willie Sutton escaped from the Philadelphia jail.

1953 "Adventures of Superman" premiered in syndication.

1954 Mario Scelba formed a new government in Italy.

1955 Actor Jim J. Bullock was born.

1957 The Argonaut nuclear reactor at Argonne National Laboratory began operating.

1961 President Joseph Kasavubu of the Republic of the Congo proclaimed the end of military rule.

1964 An explosion in the Shui Kang coal mine, at Keelung, Formosa, killed 17 men.
1964 The Beatles appeared on the "Ed Sullivan Show" for the first time.
1964 The GI Joe character was created.

1966 Singer Sophie Tucker died.

1968 Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands opened the Rotterdam Metro.

1968 The Boeing 747 made its maiden test flight.
1969 Actor Gabby Hayes died.

1971 An earthquake in the San Fernando Valley of California killed 64 persons and caused over $500,000,000 in damage.

1976 Musician Percy Faith died.

1980 Rick Barry, of the Houston Rockets, became the first NBA player to score eight 3-pointers in a single game.

1981 Rock musician Bill Haley died.

1984 Yuri Andropov, General Secretary of the Soviet Union, died.

1986 Haydar Bakr al-Attas was appointed President of South Yemen.
1986 Marvin Johnson won the light heavyweight boxing title for a record third time.

1995 American politician J. William Fulbright died.

1997 The 167th episode of "The Simpsons" aired, making it the longest-running animated series.

2001 The U. S. Navy submarine USS Greeneville accidentally struck and sank the Japanese training ship Ehime-Maru, killing 9 Japanese crewmen.

2002 Princess Margaret of Great Britain died.

2016 Two passenger trains collided near Bad Aibling, Bavaria, Germany, killing 10 persons and injuring 18.
2016 The Denver Broncos defeated the Carolina Panthers 24-10 in Super Bowl L.

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This page was last updated on February 09, 2019.