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.

Births

• 1249 - Emperor Kameyama of Japan (d. 1305)
• 1578 - Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor
• 1764 - Ann Radcliffe, English writer (d. 1823)
• 1775 - Matthew Lewis, English novelist (d. 1818)
• 1808 - Alexander William Doniphan, American lawyer and soldier (d. 1887)
• 1819 - Elias Howe, American inventor of the sewing machine (d. 1867)
• 1836 - Henry Campbell-Bannerman, British Prime Minister & politician
• 1858 - Franz Boas, German cultural anthropologist (d. 1942)
• 1900 - Ida Ehre , actress (d. 1989)
• 1901 - Dame Barbara Cartland, romance novelist, step-grandmother of Diana, Princess of Wales (d. 2000)
• 1908 - Paul Brown
• 1911 - Mervyn Peake, British writer and illustrator (d. 1968)
• 1916 - Edward Heath, politician
• 1925 - Peter Ludwig , entrepreneur and art collector (d. 1996)
• 1927 - Susan Cabot, actress
• 1927 - Ed Ames, actor
• 1929 - King Hassan II of Morocco, (d. 1999)
• 1932 - Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense of the United States, (2001 - present)
• 1936 - June Jordan, American writer and teacher (d. 2002)
• 1937 - David Hockney, artist (Pop art)
• 1938 - Brian Dennehy, actor
• 1942 - Richard Roundtree, actor
• 1943 - John Casper, US astronaut
• 1945 - Dean R. Koontz, fiction author
• 1946 - Bon Scott, singer: AC/DC (d. 1980)
• 1947 - O. J. Simpson, football player, actor
• 1952 - John Tesh, composer
• 1955 - Jimmy Smits, actor
• 1980 - Leighton O'Connor , inventor author/poet
• 1956 - Tom Hanks, actor
• 1956 - Marc Almond, singer
• 1957 - Kelly McGillis, actress
• 1958 - Ursula Gupton, mother
• 1965 - Frank Bello, bassist in the Anthrax rock band
• 1965 - Courtney Love, musician
• 1965 - Marc Mero, professional wrestler
• 1971 - Marc Andreessen, software developer - co-author of Mosaic and cofounder of Netscape
• 1973 - Kelly Holcomb, American football quarterback
• 1975 - Jack White, musician with The White Stripes
• 1976 - Fred Savage, actor
• 1976 - Shelton Benjamin, professional wrestler
• 1978 - Linda Park, actress

Deaths

• 518 - Anastasius I, Byzantine emperor
• 1228 - Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury
• 1386 - Duke Leopold III of Austria in the Battle of Sempach
• 1737 - Gian Gastone de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1671)
• 1797 - Edmund Burke, British philosopher and statesman
• 1850 - Siyyid Mírzá 'Alí-Muhammad, also known as the Báb, founder of the Bábi Faith
• 1850 - Zachary Taylor, 12th US president (b. 1784)
• 1856 - Amedeo Avogadro, chemist
• 1856 - James Strang, Mormon splinter group leader (assassinated)
• 1937 - Oliver Law, first African American commander of US troops, killed in battle during the Spanish Civil War
• 1938 - Benjamin Cardozo, US jurist
• 1949 - Fritz Bennicke Hart, English-born Australian composer (b. 1874)
• 1951 - Harry Heilmann, Baseball Hall of Famer (b. 1894)
• 1974 - Earl Warren, former governor of California, former Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court
• 1979 - Cornelia Otis Skinner, actress, author
• 1985 - Jimmy Kinnon ('Jimmy K.'), founder of Narcotics Anonymous
• 1992 - Eric Sevareid, reporter
• 1996 - Melvin Belli, attorney
• 2002 - Laurence Janifer, science fiction writer
• 2002 - Rod Steiger, actor
• 2003 - Winston Graham, author
• 2004 - Paula Danziger, author
• 2004 - Paul Klebnikov, journalist
• 2004 - Isabel Sanford, actress (b. 1917)

Holidays and observances

• Roman festival - Caprotinia, or feasts of Juno Caprotina .
• Argentina - Independence Day
• Palau - Constitution Day
• Bahá'í Faith - Holy Day: Martyrdom of the Báb
• Roman Catholic Church - Feast of Our Lady of Peace

External links

• BBC: On This Day

July 8 - July 10 - June 9 - August 9 -- listing of all days