On This Day … 09 February

Events

  • 1003 – Boleslaus III is restored to authority with armed support from Bolesław I the Brave of Poland.
  • 1654 – The Capture of Fort Rocher takes place during the Anglo-Spanish War.
  • 1775 – American Revolutionary War: The British Parliament declares Massachusetts in rebellion.
  • 1788 – The Habsburg Empire joins the Russo-Turkish War in the Russian camp.
  • 1822 – Haiti attacks the newly established Dominican Republic on the other side of the island of Hispaniola.
  • 1861 – American Civil War: Jefferson Davis is elected the Provisional President of the Confederate States of America by the Provisional Confederate Congress at Montgomery, Alabama.
  • 1895 – William G. Morgan creates a game called Mintonette, which soon comes to be referred to as volleyball.
  • 1904 – Russo-Japanese War: Battle of Port Arthur concludes.
  • 1920 – Under the terms of the Svalbard Treaty, international diplomacy recognises Norwegian sovereignty over Arctic archipelago Svalbard, and designates it as demilitarised.
  • 1934 – The Balkan Entente is formed between Greece, Romania, Yugoslavia, and Turkey.
  • 1941 – World War II: Bombing of Genoa: The Cathedral of San Lorenzo in Genoa, Italy, is struck by a bomb which fails to detonate.
  • 1942 – Year-round Daylight saving time (aka War Time) is reinstated in the United States as a wartime measure to help conserve energy resources.
  • 1943 – World War II: Pacific War: Allied authorities declare Guadalcanal secure after Imperial Japan evacuates its remaining forces from the island, ending the Battle of Guadalcanal.
  • 1945 – World War II: Battle of the Atlantic: HMS Venturer sinks U-864 off the coast of Fedje, 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 Førdefjorden, Norway.
  • 1950 – Second Red Scare: US Senator Joseph McCarthy accuses the United States Department of State of being filled with Communists.
  • 1951 – Korean War: The two-day Geochang massacre begins as a battalion of the 11th Division of the South Korean Army kills 719 unarmed citizens in Geochang, in the South Gyeongsang district of South Korea.
  • 1959 – The R-7 Semyorka, the first intercontinental ballistic missile, becomes operational at Plesetsk, USSR.
  • 1965 – Vietnam War: The United States Marine Corps sends a MIM-23 Hawk missile battalion to South Vietnam, the first American troops in-country without an official advisory or training mission.
  • 1991 – Dissolution of the Soviet Union: Voters in Lithuania vote for independence from the Soviet Union.
  • 1996 – The Troubles: The Provisional Irish Republican Army declares the end to its 18-month ceasefire and explodes a large bomb in London’s Canary Wharf, killing two people.
  • 2001 – The Ehime Maru and USS Greeneville collision takes place, killing nine of the thirty-five people on board the Japanese fishery high-school training ship Ehime Maru, leaving the USS Greeneville (SSN-772) with US$2 million in repairs, at Pearl Harbour.
  • 2020 – Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele has 1,400 army soldiers enter the Legislative Assembly building, causing a brief political crisis.

People (Births)

  • 1533 – Shimazu Yoshihisa, Japanese daimyō (d. 1611).
  • 1666 – George Hamilton, 1st Earl of Orkney, Scottish field marshal (d. 1737).
  • 1711 – Luis Vicente de Velasco e Isla, Spanish sailor and commander (d. 1762).
  • 1748 – Sir John Duckworth, 1st Baronet, English admiral and politician, Commodore Governor of Newfoundland (d. 1817).
  • 1773 – William Henry Harrison, American general and politician, 9th President of the United States (d. 1841).
  • 1859 – Akiyama Yoshifuru, Japanese general (d. 1930).
  • 1897 – Charles Kingsford Smith, Australian captain and pilot (d. 1935).
  • 1905 – David Cecil, 6th Marquess of Exeter, English hurdler and politician (d. 1981).
  • 1909 – Dean Rusk, American colonel and politician, 54th United States Secretary of State (d. 1994).
  • 1911 – William Orlando Darby, American general (d. 1945).
  • 1946 – Jim Webb, American captain and politician, 18th United States Secretary of the Navy.
  • 1965 – Dieter Baumann, German runner.
  • 1975 – Kurt Asle Arvesen, Norwegian cyclist and coach.
  • 1987 – Magdalena Neuner, German biathlete.

People (Deaths)

  • 1014 – Yang Yanzhao, Chinese general.
  • 1588 – Álvaro de Bazán, 1st Marquis of Santa Cruz, Spanish admiral (b. 1526).
  • 1777 – Seth Pomeroy, American general and gunsmith (b. 1706).
  • 1803 – Jean François de Saint-Lambert, French soldier, poet, and philosopher (b. 1716).
  • 1932 – A.K. Golam Jilani, Bangladeshi soldier and activist (b. 1904).
  • 1957 – Miklós Horthy, Hungarian admiral and politician, Regent of Hungary (b. 1868).
  • 1978 – Costante Girardengo, Italian cyclist and coach (b. 1893).
  • 2005 – Robert Kearns, American engineer, invented the windscreen wiper (b. 1927).
  • 2010 – Walter Frederick Morrison, American businessman, invented the Frisbee (b. 1920).
  • 2013 – Keiko Fukuda, Japanese-American martial artist and trainer (b. 1913).
  • 2014 – Logan Scott-Bowden, English general (b. 1920).
  • 2016 – Zdravko Tolimir, Bosnian Serb military commander (b. 1948).

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