February 9

2023 Calendar

February 9 is the 40th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 325 days remaining until the end of the year (326 in leap years).

Events[change | change source]

Up to 1900[change | change source]

474 - Zeno crowned as co-Emperor of the Byzantine Empire.
1555 - Bishop of Gloucester John Hooper is burned at the stake.
1621 – Gregory XV becomes Pope.
1775 - American Revolutionary War: The British Parliament declares Massachusetts to be in rebellion.
1788 - The Habsburg Empire joins the Russo-Turkish War on the Russian side.
1796 – Jiaqing takes over from Qianlong as Emperor of China.
1825 – After an indecisive election, the United States House of Representatives declares John Quincy Adams as President of the United States.
1839 - In the Southern Ocean, British whaling captain John Balleny discovers Sturge Island, part of the group of islands now known as the Balleny Islands. His companion Thomas Freeman sets foot on the island.
1849 - The New Roman Republic is created.
1861 – Jefferson Davis is chosen to become President of the Confederate States of America.
1870 - US President Ulysses S. Grant signs a joint resolution of Congress, creating the US Weather Bureau.
1889 - US President Grover Cleveland signs a bill elevating the United States Department of Agriculture to a cabinet-level agency.
1895 - William G. Morgan creates a game called Mintonette, which later becomes better known as Volleyball.
1900 – Dwight Filley Davis founds the Davis Cup tennis tournament, which has been named after him.

1901 – 2000[change | change source]

1904 - Russo-Japanese War: The Battle of Port Arthur ends.
1913 - A group of meteors can be seen in the Eastern parts of North America and South America.
1920 - Under the Svalbard Treaty, Norway's governing of the Svalbard archipelago is recognized.
1922 – Brazil joins the Berne Convention Copyright Treaty.
1934 - The Balkan Entente is formed.
1942 – Year-round Daylight Saving Time is re-introduced in the United States.
1943 – World War II: The Allies declare the island of Guadalcanal secure after Imperial Japan evacuates its remaining forces.
1945 - World War II: Battle of the Atlantic - HMS Venturer sinks U-864 off the coast of Fedie, Norway in a rare instance of submarine-to-submarine combat.
1945 - World War II: A force of Allied aircraft unsuccessfully attack a German destroyer in Fordefjorden, Norway.
1950 – Joseph McCarthy accuses the United States State Department of being filled with Communists.
1951 - Korean War: Geochang massacre.
1959 - R-7 Semyorka, the first intercontinental ballistic missile, becomes operational in Plesetsk, northern Russia, Soviet Union.
1964 – The Beatles appear on the US TV show, the Ed Sullivan Show.
1964 – The Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria, end.
1965 – The first US combat troops are sent to Vietnam.
1969 – First test flight of a Boeing 747
1971 – Apollo 14 returns to Earth after the third human Moon landing.
1971 – A magnitude 6.6 earthquake strikes the San Fernando Valley in California, killing 65 people.
1975 – The Soviet Soyuz 17 spacecraft returns to Earth.
1983 – Prize-winning racehorse Shergar is kidnapped in Ireland and is never seen again.
1986 – Comet Halley passes through Perihelion. It will not do so again until 2061.
1991 – Lithuania votes for independence.
1995 – On the Space Shuttle, Bernard A. Harris, Jr. and Michael Foale become the first African American and first Briton respectively to perform a space walk.
1996 – The Irish Republican Army declares an end to its 18-month ceasefire and explodes a bomb in London's docklands.

From 2001[change | change source]

2001 - American submarine US Greenville accidentally strikes and sinks the Ehime-Maru, a Japanese training vessel operated by the Uwajima Fishery High School, killing 9 crew members.
2006 - The discovery of a tomb in the Valley of the Kings, Egypt, is announced.
2014 - In a referendum, slightly over half of voters in Switzerland support limiting immigration from the European Union.
2016 - Two trains collide near Bad Aibling, Bavaria, southern Germany, killing 12 people and injuring up to 100.
2018 - 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang of Republic of Korea (South Korea) begin.