May 9: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

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

Events

• 328 - Athanasius is elected Patriarch bishop of Alexandria.
• 1092 - Lincoln Cathedral is consecrated.
• 1429 - Joan of Arc defeats the English troops besieging Orléans.
• 1450 - 'Abd al-Latif Mirza (Timurid monarch) assassinated.
• 1502 - Christopher Columbus leaves Spain for his fourth and final journey to the "New World".
• 1671 - Thomas Blood, disguised as a clergyman, attempts to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London. He is immediately caught because he is too drunk to run with the loot. He is later condemned to death and then mysteriously pardoned and exiled by King Charles II.
• 1726 - Five men arrested during a raid on Mother Clap's molly house in London are executed at Tyburn.
• 1868 - The city of Reno, Nevada, is founded.
• 1874 - The first horse drawn carriage made its début in the city of Mumbai, plying on two routes.
• 1887 - Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show opens in London.
• 1901 - Australia opens its first parliament in Melbourne.
• 1914 - J.T. Hearne becomes the first bowler to take 3000 first-class wickets.
• 1915 - World War I: Second Battle of Artois between German and French forces.
• 1926 - Admiral Richard E. Byrd and Floyd Bennett claim to have flown over the North Pole (later discovery of his diary seems to indicate that this did not happen).
• 1927 - The Australian Parliament first convenes in Canberra.
• 1936 - Italy formally annexes Ethiopia after taking the capital Addis Ababa on May 5.
• 1940 - World War II: The German submarine U-9 sinks French coastal submarine Doris near Den Helder.
• 1941 - World War II: The German submarine U-110 is captured by the Royal Navy. On board is the latest Enigma cryptography machine which Allied cryptographers later use to break coded German messages.
• 1942 - Second World War: On the night of 8/9 May 1942, gunners of the Ceylon Garrison Artillery on Horsburgh Island in the Cocos Islands rebelled. Their mutiny was crushed and three of them were executed, the only British Commonwealth soldiers to be executed for mutiny during the Second World War. Belgrade becomes the first Axis-conquered city to murder or eliminate its Jewish Population, largely with the help of Serbian collaborators.
• 1945 - World War II: The final German surrender to Marshal Georgy Zhukov at Berlin-Karlshorst is signed by Colonel-General Hans-Jürgen Stumpff as the representative of the Luftwaffe, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel as the Chief of Staff of OKW, and Admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg as Commander-in-Chief of the Kriegsmarine.
• 1945 - World War II: Hermann Göring is captured by the United States Army.
• 1945 - World War II: Norway arrests Vidkun Quisling.
• 1945 - World War II: Red Army enters Prague (capitulation of Nazi occupation troops)
• 1945 - World War II: The Soviet Union marks Victory Day.
• 1945 - World War II: The Channel Islands are formally liberated by the British.
• 1946 - King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy abdicates and is succeeded by Humbert II.
• 1949 - Rainier III of Monaco becomes Prince of Monaco.
• 1950 - Robert Schuman presents his proposal on the creation of an organized Europe, indispensable to the maintenance of peaceful relations. This proposal, known as the "Schuman declaration", is considered to be the beginning of the creation of what is now the European Union.
• 1955 - Cold War: West Germany joins NATO.
• 1955 - Sam and Friends debuts on a local US television channel, marking the first television appearance of both Jim Henson and what would become Kermit the Frog and the Muppets.
• 1956 - First ascent of Manaslu, the world's eighth-highest mountain.
• 1960 - Reproductive rights: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves sale of the birth control pill.
• 1970 - Vietnam War: In Washington, D.C., 75,000 to 100,000 war protestors peacefully demonstrate behind a barricaded White House.
• 1974 - Watergate Scandal: The United States House of Representatives Judiciary Committee opens formal and public impeachment hearings against President Richard M. Nixon.
• 1980 - In Florida, Liberian freighter SS Summit Venture hits the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay sending 35 people (most in a bus) to a watery death as a 1,400-foot section of the bridge collapses.
• 1980 - The first meeting of Pope John Paul II and the Archbishop of Canterbury takes place in Ghana.
• 1987 - A Polish LOT Ilyushin IŁ 62M "Tadeusz Kościuszko" (SP-LBG). crashes after takeoff in Warsaw, Poland, killing 183 people.
• 1987 - In Brussels, Belgium, Johnny Logan wins the thirty-second Eurovision Song Contest for Ireland singing "Hold Me Now".
• 1992 - In Malmö, Sweden, Linda Martin wins the thirty-seventh Eurovision Song Contest for Ireland singing "Why Me".
• 1992 - At 5:18 a.m. ADT The Westray Mine in Plymouth, Nova Scotia experiences a methane explosion killing all 26 miners who were working.
• 1994 - Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as South Africa's first black president.
• 1998 - In Birmingham, United Kingdom, Dana International wins the forty-third Eurovision Song Contest for Israel singing "Diva".
• 2002 - The 38-day stand-off in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem comes to an end when the Palestinians inside agree to have 13 suspected militants among them deported to several different countries.
• 2002 - In Kaspiysk, Russia, a remote-controlled bomb explodes during a holiday parade killing 43 and injuring at least 130.
• 2004 - Chechen president Akhmad Kadyrov is killed in a landmine bomb blast under a VIP stage during a World War II memorial victory parade in Grozny, Chechnya.
• 2004 - Team of Canada won the World Ice Hockey Championship in Prague.
• 2006 - More information on the Nintendo Revolution will be released to the public.

• 1147 - Minamoto no Yoritomo, Japanese shogun (d. 1199)
• 1439 - Pope Pius III (d. 1503)
• 1741 - Giovanni Paisiello, Italian composer (d. 1816)
• 1800 - John Brown, American abolitionist (d. 1859)
• 1837 - Adam Opel, German engineer and industrialist (b. 1895)
• 1860 - J. M. Barrie, Scottish author (d. 1937)
• 1873 - Anton Cermak, Mayor of Chicago (d. 1933)
• 1874 - Howard Carter, British archaeologist (d. 1939)
• 1882 - George Barker, American painter (d. 1965)
• 1882 - Henry J. Kaiser, American ship-builder (d. 1967)
• 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 (b. 1895)
• 1907 - Baldur von Schirach, Nazi official (d. 1974)
• 1912 - Pedro Armendáriz, Mexican actor (d. 1963)
• 1912 - Per Imerslund, "The aryan idol" (d. 1943)
• 1914 - Hank Snow, Canadian-born musician (d. 1999)
• 1918 - Mike Wallace, American journalist
• 1918 - Orville L. Freeman, American politician (d. 2003)
• 1920 - Richard Adams, English author
• 1920 - William Tenn, American author
• 1921 - Sophie Scholl, resistance fighter in Nazi Germany (d. 1943)
• 1921 - Mona Van Duyn, American poet (d. 2004)
• 1924 - Bulat Okudzhava, Russian writer and musician (d. 1997)
• 1927 - Manfred Eigen, German biophysicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
• 1928 - Colin Chapman, English engineer and automobile manufacturer (d. 1982)
• 1928 - Pancho Gonzalez, American tennis player (d. 1995)
• 1928 - Barbara Ann Scott, Canadian figure skater
• 1930 - Joan Sims, British actress (d. 2001)
• 1934 - Alan Bennett, British author
• 1936 - Albert Finney, British actor
• 1936 - Glenda Jackson, English actress and politician
• 1937 - José Rafael Moneo, Spanish architect
• 1939 - Ralph Boston, American athlete
• 1940 - James L. Brooks, American film producer and writer
• 1942 - John Ashcroft, United States Attorney General
• 1944 - Richie Furay, American musician (Poco and Buffalo Springfield)
• 1946 - Candice Bergen, American actress
• 1949 - Billy Joel, American musician
• 1955 - Anne-Sofie von Otter, Swedish mezzo-soprano
• 1964 - David Gahan, English singer (Depeche Mode)
• 1964 - Kevin Saunderson, American music producer and disc jockey
• 1965 - Steve Yzerman, Canadian hockey player
• 1968 - Marie-José Perec, French athlete
• 1970 - Ghostface Killah, American rapper
• 1972 - Megumi Odaka, Japanese actress and artist
• 1979 - Pierre Bouvier, Canadian musician (Simple Plan)
• 1982 - Rachel Boston, American actress

• 1315 - Hugh V, Duke of Burgundy (b. 1282)
• 1446 - Mary of Enghien, Queen of Naples (b. 1368)
• 1657 - William Bradford, Governor of Plymouth Colony (b. 1590)
• 1707 - Dietrich Buxtehude, German composer
• 1747 - John Dalrymple, 2nd Earl of Stair, Scottish soldier and diplomat (b. 1673)
• 1760 - Nicolaus Ludwig Zinzendorf, German religious and social reformer (b. 1700)
• 1789 - Jean Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval, French artillery specialist (b. 1715)
• 1790 - William Clingan, American delegate to the Continental Congress
• 1791 - Francis Hopkinson, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1737)
• 1805 - Friedrich Schiller, German poet and historian (b. 1759)
• 1861 - Peter Ernst von Lasaulx, German philosopher and writer (b. 1805)
• 1889 - William S. Harney, U.S. general (b. 1800)
• 1903 - Paul Gauguin, French painter (b. 1848)
• 1931 - Albert Abraham Michelson, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1852)
• 1938 - Thomas B. Thrige, Danish industrialist (b. 1866)
• 1949 - Prince Louis II of Monaco (b. 1870)
• 1950 - Esteban Terradas i Illa, Catalan mathematician, scientist, and engineer (b. 1883)
• 1957 - Ezio Pinza, Italian bass (b. 1892)
• 1968 - Mercedes de Acosta, American poet, playwright, costume designer, and socialite (b. 1893)
• 1970 - Andrew Watson Myles, Canadian politician (b. 1884)
• 1970 - Walter Reuther, American labor leader (b. 1907)
• 1976 - Jens Bjørneboe, Norwegian author (b. 1920)
• 1978 - Aldo Moro, Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1916)
• 1985 - Edmond O'Brien, American actor (b. 1915)
• 1986 - Tenzing Norgay, Nepalese sherpa (b. 1914)
• 1989 - Keith Whitley, American country music singer (b. 1955)
• 1994 - Elias Motsoaledi, South African freedom fighter (b. 1924)
• 1998 - Alice Faye, American actress (b. 1915)
• 2003 - Russell B. Long, U.S. Senator from Louisiana (b. 1918)
• 2004 - Akhmad Kadyrov, Chechen president (b. 1951)
• 2004 - Alan King, American comedian (b. 1927)
• 2005 - Nasrat Parsa, Afghani singer (b. 1969)

• Russia and some other parts of the former Soviet Union – Victory Day as the end of the "Great Patriotic War"
• European Union – Europe day, commemorating the "Schuman declaration"
• Jersey, Guernsey – Liberation Day
• Roman Empire – Feast of the Lemures (See Larvae)
• Mother's Day (some countries) – 1999, 2004, 2010

May 8 - May 10 - April 9 - June 9 – listing of all days