Today in History - Famous Events

🏰 On this day in History - December 9, 2025

1868 1st British govt of Gladstone forms

1894 Roman Catholics win Parliamentary election in Belgium

1925 AL extends Ban Johnson's contract to 1935 & raise to $40,000

1957 1st Japanese ambassador to Israel

1658 Dutch troops occupy harbor city Quilon (Coilan) India

1913 Heavyweight Jack Johnson-Jim Johnson fight to no decision in Paris

1984 6 day hijack of Kuwaiti jet ends

1922 Gabriel Narutowicz elected Polish president

1933 Romania disallows fascist Iron Guard

1940 South Australia all out for 47 v NSW, O'Reilly 5-11

1994 Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders resigns after masturbation comments

1962 Tanganyika becomes a republic within British Commonwealth

1989 "Les Miserables" opens at Princess Theatre, Melbourne

1992 NJ Devils organization announces that it will change its colors to black, red, & white for the 1992-93 season

1973 "Pajama Game" opens at Lunt Fontanne Theater NYC for 65 performances

1570 Geuzen under Herman de Ruyter occupies Loevestein

1941 Citizen Register reports "Hostile planes reported nearing Westchester"

1949 Dutch 2nd Chamber accept Indonesian sovereignty

1951 Voters approve merger of 3 states to form Baden-WЃrttemberg, W Germ

1978 1st game of Women's Pro Basketball League (WBL), Chicago Hustle vs Milwaukee Does

1963 Zanzibar gains independence from Britain

1985 Phoenix Arizona, gets 3" of snow

1985 74th Australian Mens Tennis: S Edberg beats Mats Wilander (64 63 63)

1924 Dutch & Hungary trade treaty signed

1688 King James II's wife & son flee England for France

1974 Dow Jones index hits 570.01

1905 French Assembly National votes for separation of church & state

1842 St M Glinka's opera "Russlan Ludmilla," premieres in Petersburg

1907 1st Christmas Seals sold (Wilmington Del post office)

1973 St Louis Cardinal Jim Bakken kicks 6 field goals vs Atlanta Falcons

1983 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

1958 Robert H W Welch Jr & 11 other men meet in Indianapolis to form anti-Communist John Birch Society

1968 KRNE TV channel 12 in Merriman, NB (PBS) begins broadcasting

1941 China declares war on Japan, Germany & Italy

1961 "From the Second City" closes at Royale Theater NYC after 87 perfs

1902 AL announces purchase of grounds for a stadium in NY

1987 Larry Bird, ends streak of 59 consecutive free throws

0536 Byzantines Libya occupies Rome on Ostrogoten

1962 "I Can Get It For You Wholesale" closes on Broadway

1992 Cin Red owner Marge Schott apologizes for racist remarks

1931 Benn W Levy's "Springtime for Henry," premieres in NYC

1953 General Electric announces all Communist employees will be fired

1978 Pioneer Venus 2 drops 5 probes into atmosphere of Venus

1984 Vicki Alvarez/Mike McDonald wins LPGA J C Penney Golf Classic

1991 2nd Billboard Music Awards

1941 7th Heisman Trophy Award: Bruce Smith, Minnesota (HB)

1994 5m meteor 1994 XM1 passes within 100,000 km of Earth

1824 Battle of Ayacucho (Candorcangui), Peru defeats Spain

1747 England & Netherlands sign military treaty

1625 Netherlands & England sign military treaty

1971 Lewis F Powell Jr appointed to Supreme Court

1724 Colley Cibber's "Caesar in Aegypt," premieres in London

1793 Noah Webster establishes NY's 1st daily newspaper, American Minerva

1961 Wilt Chamberlain of NBA Phila Warriors scores 67 points vs NY

1965 Frank Robinson is traded from Cincinnati to the Orioles

1869 Noble Order of Knights of Labor founded, Philadelphia

1993 "My Fair Lady" opens at Virginia Theater NYC for 165 performances

1878 Joseph Pulitzer buys St Louis Dispatch for $2,500

1965 Nikolai Podgorny replaces Anastas Mikoyan as president of Presidium

1926 USGA leagalizes steel shaft golf clubs

1883 New Brunswick adopts Eastern Standard Time (until 1902)

1973 Bruno Sammartino beats Stan Stasiak in NY, to become WWF champ

1995 61st Heisman Trophy Award: Eddie George, Ohio State (RB)

1910 French troops occupy Morrocan harbor city Agadir

1931 Japanese army attacks Chinese province of Jehol

1315 Swiss Woudsteden renews Eternal Covenant (Oath Society)

1936 Australia all out 58 v Eng Bradman out for a duck

1984 Great Britain performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

1931 Spain becomes a republic

1939 27th Grey Cup: Winnipeg Blue Bombers defeats Ottawa Rough Riders, 8-7

1905 Richard Strauss' opera "Salome," premiers in Dresden

1940 Illeagal Jewish immigrants to Haifa are deported to Mauritius

1980 61шF in Boston at 1 AM

1983 Att Gen Edwin Meese says people go to soup kitchens "...because food is free & that's easier than paying for it"

1940 British troops 1st major offensive in No Africa (Libya) during WW II

1967 Lyndon Johnson's daughter Lynda marries in White House

1909 1st US monoplane flown (Henry W Walden, Long Island, NY)

1933 21st CFL Grey Cup: Toronto Argonauts defeats Sarnia Imperials, 4-3

1900 Dutch Pres Paul Kruger & Queen Wilhelmina have a triumphant procession

1984 59th Australian Womens Tennis: Chris Evert beats H Sukova (67 61 63)

1918 French troops occupies Mainz

1961 SS Col Adolf Eichmann found guilty of war crimes in Israel

1990 NFL NY Giant Otis Anderson becomes 8th to rush for 10,000th yard

1967 Jim Morrison, arrested on stage for disturbing the peace

1931 Baseball cuts squad from 25 to 23 players & NL continues to prohibit uniform numbers

1924 Michael Hainisch re-elected Austrian president

1783 1st execution at English Newgate-jail

1948 UN General Assembly unanimously approves Convention on Genocide

1907 Gustav Mahler departs Vienna

1990 Gunda Niemann skates ladies world record 3k ladies (4:10.80)

1973 Sunningdale Agreement in Northern Ireland

1992 Operation Restore Hope - US Marines land in Somalia

1762 British parliament accept Treaty of Paris

1984 LA Ram Eric Dickerson rushes 215 yards for season record 2,003 yards

1903 Norwegian parliament vote unanimiously for female suffrage

1738 Jews are expelled from Breslau Silesia

1941 Hitler orders US ships torpedoed

1974 Jack Brisco beats Giant Baba in Tokyo, to become NWA wrestling champ

1925 Pro football a hit in NYC; Grange & Bears beat Giants before 73,000

1961 Tanganyika gains independence from Britain takes name Tanzania

1884 Levant Richardson patents ball-bearing skate

1960 1st broadcast of "Coronation Street" on British ITV

1984 Iranian commandos end capture of Kuwaiti plane

1990 Houston scores most points against Cleveland, Oilers 58, Browns 14

1988 NY Yankees sign 12-year television contract with MSG for $500M

1953 Mont Canadiens (106) & Toronto Maple Leafs (98) get 204 penalty mins

1961 "Let It Ride" closes at Eugene O'Neill Theater NYC after 68 perfs

1934 NY Giants defeat Chicago Bears 30-13 for NFL championship

1940 British assault on Banghazi Libya

1985 Jerry Rice begins NFL streak of 100+ consecutive game receptions

1851 1st Young Men's Christian Association in North America (Montr‚al)

1979 Murle Breer/Dave Eichelberger wins LPGA J C Penney Golf Classic

1975 Pres Gerald Ford signs $2.3 B loan-authorization for NYC

1805 Comet 3D/1805 V1 (Biela) approaches within 0.0366 AUs of Earth

1992 3rd Billboard Music Awards

1954 Dmitri Sjostakovitsj appointed honored guest of Swed Royal Music Acad

1212 Frederik II crowns himself Roman Catholic king

1982 Mary-Beth & William Hurt divorce

1981 Porn star John Holmes charged with Laurel Canyon murders

1987 Palestine uprising begin in Israeli-occupied West Bank

1975 Jelena Bonner receives Andrei Sacharov's Nobel Prize

1917 British forces under General Allenby capture Jerusalem

1425 Pope Martinus V forms University of Leuven

1993 Ivory Coast Premier Ouattara resigns

1990 Betsy King wins Itoman LPGA World Match Play Golf Championship

1640 Settler Hugh Bewitt banished from Mass colony when he declares himself to be free of original sin

1967 Nicolea Ceausescu becomes president (dictator) of Romania

1974 Johnson Grigsby freed after 66 years in jail

1854 Lord Tennyson's poem, "Charge of the Light Brigade," published

1963 Frank Sinatra Jr is kidnapped

1913 John K Tener becomes president of baseball's National League

1965 "A Charlie Brown Christmas," premieres

1939 Russian air raid on Helsinki

1861 Battle of Bird Creek, Indian Terr (High Shoal, Chusto-Talasah)

1992 Sri Lanka's third-ever Test Cricket victory (v NZ by 9 wkts)

1936 AL OKs night baseball for St Louis

1990 Lech Walesa wins presidental election in Poland

1941 300 Montgomery, SF opens as new Bank of America HQ

1941 1st US WW II bombing mission in Far East, Luzon, Philippines

0656 Battle of Kameel: Kalief Al ibn Abu Talib beats rebellion

1889 President Harrison visits opening of Chicago Auditorium

1906 NY American reports Belgian King Leopold II bribed US Senate commission on the Congo

1970 Dutch Antilles: govt of Petronia falls

1949 NFL merges Cleve Browns, SF '49ers & Balt Colts from AAFC

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