May 9

May 9 is the 129th day of the year (130th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 236 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

Up to 1900

• 1092 – Lincoln Cathedral is consecrated.
• 1671 – Thomas Blood attempts to steal England's Crown Jewels.
• 1763 – The Siege of Fort Detroit begins during Pontiac's War against British forces.
• 1864 – Second War of Schleswig: The Danish navy defeats the Austrian and Prussian fleets in the Battle of Heligoland.
• 1868 – Reno, Nevada, is founded.
• 1873 – The Long Depression begins with the Vienna stock market crash.
• 1877 – Mihai Kogalniceanu reads out the Declaration of Romania's independence.
• 1877 – A magnitude 8.8 earthquake off Peru kills 2,541 people.
• 1887 – Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show begins in London.

1901 – 2000

• 1901 – Australia's first parliament opens in Melbourne.
• 1904 – The steam locomotive City of Truro becomes the first steam engine in Europe to exceed 100 miles per hour (160.9 kilometers per hour) in speed.
• 1911 – The works of Gabriele D'Annunzio are placed by the Vatican in the Index of Forbidden Books.
• 1915 – World War I: The Second Battle of Artois takes place between French and German forces.
• 1918 – World War I: German troops repel the second British attempt to blockade the port of Ostend, Belgium.
• 1926 – Richard E. Byrd and Floyd Bennett claim to have flown over the North Pole, though this claim is later doubted.
• 1927 – Australia's parliament moves from Melbourne to the new capital city, Canberra.
• 1934 – In the United States, one of the worst Dust Bowl storms occurs, reaching Chicago on the same day and the East Coast the next day, completely destroying many livelihoods, especially in rural areas.
• 1936 – Italy formally annexes Ethiopia.
• 1940 – World War II: A German submarine U-9 sinks the French coastal submarine Doris in Den Helder, Netherlands.
• 1941 – World War II: The German submarine U-110 is captured by the Royal Navy. The Enigma cryptography machine is on board, and is later used to break coded German messages.
• 1942 – World War II: Officers of the SS murder 588 people in the town of Zinkiv in western Ukraine.
• 1945 – World War II: The Channel Islands are liberated from German occupation by the British.
• 1946 – Vittorio Emanuele III of Italy abdicates the throne. Umberto II of Italy succeeds him. His reign only lasts a few weeks, as a majority in a June 2 referendum chooses to make Italy a republic.
• 1948 – Czechoslovakia's 9th May Constitution enters effect.
• 1949 – Rainier III becomes Prince of Monaco.
• 1950 – Robert Schuman proposes the creation of an organised Europe.
• 1950 – L. Ron Hubbard's Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, is published.
• 1955 – West Germany joins NATO.
• 1956 – Yuko Maki climbs Manaslu in Nepal, the 8th highest mountain in the world.
• 1970 – 70,000 to 100,000 people protest against the Vietnam War in front of the White House.
• 1974 – Impeachment hearings begin against Richard Nixon.
• 1977 – The Hotel Polem in Amsterdam burns down, killing 33 and injuring 21.
• 1978 – Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro is murdered by the Red Brigades.
• 1980 – In Florida, a Liberian freighter, MV Summit Venture collides with the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Tampa Bay, making a section of it collapse, killing 35 people.
• 1987 – A plane crash in Warsaw kills 183 people.
• 1988 – Canberra's Parliament House opens.
• 1992 – Armenia's army captures Shushi, marking a major turning point in the Karabakh War.

From 2001

• 2001 – Ghana: The Accra Stadium Disaster occurs. 129 people are killed.
• 2002 – A 38–day stand–off at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem ends when the Palestinians inside agree to have 13 suspected terrorists among them deported to different countries.
• 2002 – In Kaspiysk, Russia, a remote–controlled bomb explodes during a parade, killing 43 people.
• 2004 – Chechnya's President Akhmad Kadyrov is killed in an attack.
• 2006 – German cannibal Armin Meiwes is sentenced to life in prison.
• 2011 – Belgian cyclist Wouter Weylandt suffers a serious accident during the Giro d'Italia race, dying of his injuries.
• 2012 – A Sukhoi Superjet 100 crashes into Mount Salak in West Java, Indonesia, killing 45 people.
• 2015 – Russia holds its biggest–ever Victory Day parade in Moscow.
• 2016 – Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann announces his resignation.
• 2017 – Moon Jae-in is elected President of South Korea.
• 2017 – US President Donald Trump fires FBI director James Comey.
• 2018 – Mahathir Mohamad's opposition coalition wins Malaysia's general election. Mahathir previously served as the country's prime minister from 1981 to 2003.
• 2018 – The Patel Dam in Kenya's Nakaru County bursts in heavy rains, killing at least 48 people.

Births

Up to 1900

• 1147 – Minamoto no Yoritomo Japanese shogun (d. 1199)
• 1439 – Pope Pius III (d. 1503)
• 1540 – Maharana Pratap, Indian ruler (d. 1597)
• 1635 – Augustus, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Plön-Norburg (d. 1699)
• 1712 – William Pitcairn, Scottish physician and botanist (d. 1791)
• 1740 – Giovanni Paisiello, Italian composer (d. 1816)
• 1746 – Theodore Sedgwick, American politician (d. 1813)
• 1800 – John Brown, American abolitionist (d. 1859)
• 1810 – Princess Marianne of the Netherlands (d. 1883)
• 1814 – Adolf von Henselt, German pianist (d. 1889)
• 1823 – Frederick Weld, British colonial governor and 6th Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1891)
• 1830 – Harriet Lane, niece of James Buchanan, acting First Lady of the United States (d. 1903)
• 1831 – William Watson Goodwin, American classical scholar (d. 1912)
• 1837 – Adam Opel, German engineer and industrialist (d. 1895)
• 1837 – Ben Hall, Australian bushranger (d. 1865)
• 1843 – Anton von Werner, Prussian painter (d. 1915)
• 1845 – Gustaf de Laval, Swedish engineer and inventor (d. 1913)
• 1860 – J. M. Barrie, Scottish writer (d. 1937)
• 1866 – Leon Bakst, Russian painter (d. 1924)
• 1870 – Hans Baluschek, German artist (d. 1935)
• 1873 – Anton Cermak, Mayor of Chicago (d. 1933)
• 1874 – Howard Carter, British archaeologist (d. 1939)
• 1882 – Henry J. Kaiser, industrialist (d. 1967)
• 1882 – George Barker, United States painter (d. 1965)
• 1882 – Edward Aloysius Mooney, American cardinal (d. 1958)
• 1883 – José Ortega y Gasset, Spanish philosopher (d. 1955)
• 1886 – Francis Biddle, 58th United States Attorney General (d. 1968)
• 1892 – Zita of Bourbon-Parma, empress of Austria-Hungary (d. 1989)
• 1895 – Richard Barthelmess, American actor (d. 1963)
• 1895 – Lucian Blaga, Romanian poet, playwright, and philosopher (d. 1961)
• 1895 – Frank Foss, American pole vaulter (d. 1989)
• 1896 – Richard Day, Canadian movie art director (d. 1972)

1901 – 1925

• 1904 – Gregory Bateson, English–American anthropologist, biologist and philosopher (d. 1980)
• 1906 – Eleanor Estes, American writer (d. 1988)
• 1907 – Baldur von Schirach, Nazi official (d. 1974)
• 1910 – Barbara Woodhouse, Irish–born animal trainer (d. 1988)
• 1912 – Pedro Armendáriz, Mexican actor (d. 1963)
• 1914 – Hank Snow, Canadian–born country musician (d. 1999)
• 1914 – Carlo Maria Giulini, Italian musician and conductor (d. 2005)
• 1918 – Mike Wallace, American journalist (d. 2012)
• 1918 – Orville Freeman, American politician, 29th Governor of Minnesota (d. 2003)
• 1920 – Richard Adams, British writer (d. 2016)
• 1920 – William Tenn, writer (d. 2010)
• 1921 – Daniel Berrigan, American Jesuit priest, activist and poet (d. 2016)
• 1921 – Sophie Scholl, resistance fighter with White Rose in Nazi Germany (d. 1943)
• 1924 – Bulat Okudzhava, Russian poet, writer, novelist and musician (d. 1997)

1926 – 1950

• 1927 – Wim Thoelke, show master (d. 1995)
• 1927 – Manfred Eigen, German biophysicist (d. 2019)
• 1928 – Colin Chapman, engineer, founder of Lotus Cars (d. 1982)
• 1928 – Pancho Gonzalez, American tennis player (d. 1995)
• 1928 – Barbara Ann Scott, Canadian figure skater (d. 2012)
• 1928 – Ralph Goings, American artist (d. 2016)
• 1929 – Kay Dotrice, English actress (d. 2007)
• 1930 – Joan Sims, English actress (d. 2001)
• 1932 – Geraldine McEwan, English actress (d. 2015)
• 1932 – Javier Ambrois, Uruguayan footballer (d. 1975)
• 1934 – Alan Bennett, English writer and playwright
• 1935 – Roger Hargreaves, English writer (The Mr. Men) (d. 1988)
• 1935 – Nokie Edwards, American guitarist and actor (d. 2018)
• 1936 – Glenda Jackson, English actress and politician
• 1936 – Albert Finney, English actor (d. 2019)
• 1937 – Rafael Moneo, Spanish architect
• 1938 – Charles Simic, Yugoslavian–born poet
• 1939 – Ralph Boston, American athlete
• 1940 – James L. Brooks, American producer and writer
• 1942 – John Ashcroft, former United States Attorney General
• 1943 – Vince Cable, British politician
• 1943 – Colin Pillinger, British planetary scientist (d. 2014)
• 1943 – Anders Isaksson, Swedish journalist and historian (d. 2009)
• 1944 – Richie Furay, American musician ("Poco", "Buffalo Springfield")
• 1944 – Petra Roth, former Mayor of Frankfurt am Main
• 1945 – Jupp Heynckes, German footballer
• 1945 – Gamal El-Ghitani, Egyptian writer and journalist (d. 2015)
• 1945 – Steve Katz, American guitarist, songwriter and producer
• 1946 – Candice Bergen, American actress
• 1946 – Drafi Deutscher, German musician (d. 2006)
• 1947 – Michael Levitt, South African–born biophysicist, Nobel Prize in Chemistry winner
• 1948 – Hans Georg Bock, German mathematician
• 1949 – Billy Joel, American musician
• 1949 – Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara, President of Niger (d. 1999)
• 1950 – Tom Petersson, American bass guitar player (Cheap Trick)
• 1950 – Marcheline Bertrand, American actress (d. 2007)
• 1950 – Luciano Spinosi, Italian footballer
• 1950 – Matthew Kelly, British actor and television presenter

1951 – 1975

• 1951 – Alley Mills, American actress
• 1954 – Nicholas Crane, English geographer and journalist
• 1954 – Marc Sinden, English actor, director and producer
• 1955 – Anne-Sofie von Otter, Swedish mezzo–soprano
• 1955 – Kevin Peter Hall, American actor (d. 1991)
• 1957 – Fulvio Cullovati, Italian footballer
• 1959 – Janos Ader, President of Hungary
• 1960 – Tony Gwynn, American baseball player (d. 2014)
• 1962 – John Corbett, American actor
• 1962 – Gary Hume, English artist
• 1962 – Dave Gahan, English singer-songwriter and musician
• 1962 – Paul Heaton, English singer-songwriter and musician
• 1964 – Kevin Saunderson, American music producer and DJ
• 1964 – David Gahan, Singer for Depeche Mode
• 1965 – Steve Yzerman, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1968 – Marie-José Perec, French athlete
• 1968 – Masahiko Harada, Japanese ski jumper
• 1968 – Ruth Kelly, British politician
• 1969 – Amber, Dutch–German singer, songwriter and producer
• 1969 – Hudson Leick, American actress
• 1970 – David Cawthorne Haines, Scottish aid worker (d. 2014)
• 1970 – Ghostface Killah, American rapper
• 1970 – Doug Christie, American basketball player
• 1971 – Paul McGuigan, British musician (Oasis)
• 1971 – Don Hutchison, English–Scottish footballer
• 1972 – Dana Perino, American journalist and politician, 27th White House Press Secretary
• 1975 – Tamia, Canadian singer-songwriter, producer and actress
• 1975 – Clint Diamantopoulos, Canadian actor

From 1976

• 1977 – Marek Jankulovski, Czech footballer
• 1978 – Leandro Cufré, Argentine footballer
• 1979 – Rosario Dawson, American actress
• 1979 – Pierre Bouvier, Canadian musician (Simple Plan)
• 1980 – Grant Hackett, Australian swimmer
• 1980 – Sara Widén, Swedish opera singer (d. 2014)
• 1981 – Evangelos Tsiolis, Greek footballer
• 1982 – Kim Jung-woo, South Korean footballer
• 1982 – Rachel Boston, American actress
• 1983 – Ryuhei Matsuda, Japanese actor
• 1983 – Alan Campbell, Northern Irish rower
• 1983 – Gilles Müller, Luxembourgish tennis player
• 1983 – Leandro Rinaudo, Italian footballer
• 1984 – Prince Fielder, American baseball player
• 1985 – Audrina Patridge, American actress and television personality
• 1986 – Grace Gummer, American actress
• 1989 – Ellen White, English footballer
• 1991 – Stasia Rage, Latvian figure skater
• 1992 – Chris Gutierrez, American–Filipino actor
• 1993 – Ryosuke Yamada, Japanese actor, singer and dancer
• 1993 – Laura Muir, Scottish athlete
• 1997 – Zane Huett, American actor
• 2016 – Alfie Evans, British infant in parental rights case (d. 2018)

Deaths

Up to 1900

• 1280 – King Magnus VI of Norway (b. 1238)
• 1315 – Hugh V, Duke of Burgundy (b. 1282)
• 1707 – Dietrich Buxtehude, German composer (b. 1637)
• 1745 – Tomaso Antonio Vitali, Italian violinist and composer (b. 1663)
• 1760 – Nicolaus Ludwig Zinzendorf, German religious and social reformer (b. 1700)
• 1791 – Francis Hopkinson, American judge and politician (b. 1737)
• 1805 – Friedrich Schiller, German writer (b. 1759)
• 1836 – Caleb P. Bennett, Governor of Delaware (b. 1758)
• 1850 – Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac, French chemist and physicist (b. 1778)
• 1850 – Garlieb Merkel, Baltic German writer and activist (b. 1769)
• 1861 – Peter Ernst von Lasaulx, German philosopher and writer (b. 1805)
• 1864 – John Sedgwick, American general (b. 1813)
• 1889 – William S. Harney, American general (b. 1800)

1901 – 2000

• 1909 – Margarete Steiff, German founder of the Steiff toy company (b. 1847)
• 1915 – Tony Wilding, New Zealand tennis player (b. 1883)
• 1915 – Francois Faber, Luxembourg–French cyclist (b. 1887)
• 1931 – Albert Abraham Michelson, German–born physicist (b. 1852)
• 1942 – Jozef Cebula, Polish priest (b. 1902)
• 1949 – Prince Louis II of Monaco (b. 1870)
• 1950 – Esteban Terradas i Illa, Catalan mathematician, scientist and engineer (b. 1883)
• 1955 – Kate Booth, English Salvation Army officer (b. 1858)
• 1957 – Enzo Pinza, Italian opera singer (b. 1892)
• 1959 – Bhaurao Patil, Indian educator and social activist (b. 1887)
• 1964 – Rico Lebrun, Italian–American painter and sculptor (b. 1900)
• 1965 – Leopold Figl, Austrian politician (b. 1902)
• 1968 – Mercedes de Acosta, American poet, playwright and costume designer (b. 1893)
• 1968 – Harold Gray, American cartoonist (b. 1894)
• 1970 – Walter Reuther, American labor leader (b. 1907)
• 1976 – Ulrike Meinhof, member of the Red Army Faction (b. 1934)
• 1978 – Giuseppe Impastato, Italian political activist (b. 1948)
• 1978 – Aldo Moro, Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1916)
• 1986 – Tenzing Norgay, Nepalese mountain climber (b. 1914)
• 1987 – Obafemi Awolowo, Nigerian politician (b. 1909)
• 1989 – Keith Whitley, American singer, guitarist and producer (b. 1955)
• 1997 – Marco Ferreri, Italian movie director (b. 1928)
• 1997 – Rawya Ateya, Egyptian politician (b. 1926)
• 1998 – Alice Faye, American actress (b. 1915)

From 2001

• 2001 – Nikos Sampson, 2nd President of Cyprus (b. 1935)
• 2001 – James E. Myers, American songwriter and producer (b. 1919)
• 2003 – Russell B. Long, American politician (b. 1918)
• 2004 – Akhmad Kadyrov, President of Chechnya (b. 1951)
• 2009 – Chuck Daly, American basketball coach (b. 1930)
• 2010 – Acharya Mahapragya, Indian religious leader (Jainism) (b. 1920)
• 2010 – Lena Horne, American singer and actress (b. 1917)
• 2011 – Wouter Weylandt, Belgian cyclist (b. 1984)
• 2011 – Lidia Gueiler Tejada, former acting President of Bolivia (b. 1921)
• 2012 – Vidal Sassoon, British hairdresser (b. 1928)
• 2012 – Geoffrey Henry, former Prime Minister of the Cook Islands (b. 1940)
• 2013 – George M. Leader, 36th Governor of Pennsylvania (b. 1918)
• 2013 – Andrew Simpson, British sailor (b. 1976)
• 2013 – Ottavio Missoni, Italian fashion designer and hurdler (b. 1921)
• 2013 – Alfredo Landa, Spanish actor (b. 1933)
• 2014 – Harlan Mathews, American politician (b. 1926)
• 2014 – Joe Wilder, American jazz trumpeter, bandleader and composer (b. 1922)
• 2014 – Jules Mutebusi, Congolese militant (b. 1960)
• 2014 – Jorge Zavala, Ecuadorean politician (b. 1921)
• 2014 – Mel Patton, American sprinter (b. 1924)
• 2015 – Michael MacKellar, Australian politician (b. 1938)
• 2015 – Lo Wing-lok, Hong Kong politician (b. 1954)
• 2015 – Igor Gorynin, Russian metallurgist (b. 1926)
• 2015 – Kenan Evren, 7th President of Turkey (b. 1917)
• 2015 – Johnny Gimble, American country musician (b. 1926)
• 2015 – Odo Marquard, German philosopher (b. 1928)
• 2015 – Ragne Tangen, Norwegian television presenter (b. 1927)
• 2015 – Elizabeth Wilson, American actress (b. 1921)
• 2016 – Gareth Gwenlan, British television producer (b. 1937)
• 2016 – Walther Leisler Kiep, German politician (b. 1926)
• 2016 – Karl Maramorosch, American virologist and plant pathologist (b. 1915)
• 2016 – John Warr, English cricketer (b. 1927)
• 2017 – Christopher Boykin, American entertainer and musician (b. 1972)
• 2017 – Robert Miles, Italian musician and record producer (b. 1969)
• 2017 – Arthur Moulin, French politician (b. 1924)
• 2017 – Michael Parks, American actor (b. 1940)
• 2017 – Qian Qichen, Chinese diplomat (b. 1928)
• 2017 – Wilburn K. Ross, American World War II veteran (b. 1922)
• 2017 – Edward Lunn Young, American politician (b. 1920)
• 2018 – Poldine Carlo, American writer (b. 1920)
• 2018 – Delphine Gibson, American supercentenarian (b. 1903)
• 2018 – Mustafa Nurul Islam, Bangladeshi academic (b. 1927)
• 2018 – Per Kirkeby, Danish artist (b. 1938)
• 2018 – Scott Hutchison, Scottish singer and musician (Frightened Rabbit) (b. 1981)
• 2019 – Abul Khayr Alonto, Filipino politician, lawyer and businessman (b. 1945)
• 2019 – Sergey Dorenko, Russian journalist and news presenter (b. 1959)
• 2019 – Jim Hawkes, Canadian politician (b. 1934)
• 2019 – Arif Malikov, Soviet–Azerbaijani composer (b. 1933)
• 2019 – Alvin Sargent, American screenwriter (b. 1927)
• 2019 – Freddie Starr, English comedian (b. 1943)
• 2019 – Yuan Boahua, Chinese politician (b. 1916)

Holidays

• Victory and Peace Day in Armenia, the capture of Shushi in the Karabakh War and the end of Great Patriotic War.
• Victory Day observances, celebration of the Soviet Union victory over Nazi Germany (former Soviet Union, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Serbia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan)
• Independence Day (Romania)
• Liberation Day (Channel Islands)