On this day: December 9

Events on December 9

• 1636 The Qing dynasty of China, led by Emperor Hong Taiji, invades Joseon. Wikipedia
• 1775 American Revolutionary War: British troops and Loyalists, misinformed about Patriot militia strength, lose the Battle of Great Bridge, ending British rule in Virginia. Wikipedia
• 1835 Texas Revolution: The Texian Army captures San Antonio following the Siege of Béxar. Wikipedia
• 1851 The first YMCA in North America is established in Montreal. Wikipedia
• 1856 The Iranian city of Bushehr surrenders to occupying British forces. Wikipedia
• 1861 American Civil War: The Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War is established by Congress. Wikipedia
• 1872 In Louisiana, P. B. S. Pinchback becomes the first African American governor of a U.S. state following the impeachment of Henry C. Warmoth. Wikipedia
• 1892 The English association football club Newcastle United was founded by the merger of Newcastle East End and West End. Wikipedia
• 1917 First World War: Hussein al-Husayni, the Ottoman mayor of Jerusalem, surrendered the city to British forces. Wikipedia
• 1917 World War I: Field Marshal Allenby captures Jerusalem from the Ottoman Empire. Wikipedia
• 1935 Student protests occur in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, and are subsequently dispersed by government authorities. Wikipedia
• 1940 World War II: Operation Compass: British and Indian troops under the command of Major-General Richard O'Connor attack Italian forces near Sidi Barrani in Egypt. Wikipedia
• 1940 Second World War: British and Commonwealth forces began Operation Compass, the first major Allied military operation of the Western Desert campaign. Wikipedia
• 1941 World War II: China, Cuba, Guatemala, and the Philippine Commonwealth declare war on Germany and Japan. Wikipedia
• 1950 Cold War: Harry Gold is sentenced to 30 years in jail for helping Klaus Fuchs pass information about the Manhattan Project to the Soviet Union. His testimony is later instrumental in the prosecution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Wikipedia
• 1953 Red Scare: General Electric announces that all communist employees will be discharged from the company. Wikipedia
• 1961 Tanganyika Territory gained independence from Britain before becoming part of Tanzania three years later. Wikipedia
• 1979 A World Health Organization commission of scientists certified the global eradication of smallpox (virus pictured), making it the only human infectious disease to date to have been completely eradicated. Wikipedia
• 1979 The eradication of the smallpox virus is certified, making smallpox the first of only two diseases that have been driven to extinction (with rinderpest in 2011 being the other). Wikipedia
• 1987 Israeli–Palestinian conflict: The First Intifada begins in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Wikipedia
• 1992 American troops land in Somalia for Operation Restore Hope. Wikipedia
• 2008 Rod Blagojevich, the governor of Illinois, was arrested on corruption charges, including for attempting to sell the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by president-elect Barack Obama. Wikipedia
• 2008 Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich is arrested by federal officials for crimes including attempting to sell the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by President-elect Barack Obama. Wikipedia
• 2013 At least seven are dead and 63 are injured following a train accident near Bintaro, Indonesia. Wikipedia
• 2017 The Marriage Amendment Bill receives royal assent and comes into effect, making Australia the 26th country to legalize same-sex marriage. Wikipedia
• 2021 Fifty-five people are killed and more than 100 injured when a truck with 160 migrants from Central America overturned in Chiapas, Mexico. Wikipedia

Born on December 9

• 1594 Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden (died 1632) Wikipedia
• 1608 John Milton, English poet and philosopher (died 1674) Wikipedia
• 1717 Johann Joachim Winckelmann, German archaeologist and historian (died 1768) Wikipedia
• 1742 Carl Wilhelm Scheele, Swedish Pomeranian and German pharmaceutical chemist (died 1786) Wikipedia
• 1842 Peter Kropotkin, Russian zoologist, economist, geographer, and philosopher (died 1921) Wikipedia
• 1868 Fritz Haber, Polish-German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1934) Wikipedia
• 1895 Dolores Ibárruri, Spanish activist, journalist and politician (died 1989) Wikipedia
• 1906 Grace Hopper, American admiral and computer scientist, designed COBOL (died 1992) Wikipedia
• 1916 Kirk Douglas, American actor, singer, and producer (died 2020) Wikipedia
• 1917 James Jesus Angleton, American CIA agent (died 1987) Wikipedia
• 1917 James Rainwater, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1986) Wikipedia
• 1919 William Lipscomb, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2011) Wikipedia
• 1920 Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, Italian economist and politician, 10th President of Italy (died 2016) Wikipedia
• 1926 Henry Way Kendall, American physicist, photographer, and mountaineer, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1999) Wikipedia
• 1929 Bob Hawke, Australian union leader and politician, 23rd Prime Minister of Australia (died 2019) Wikipedia
• 1934 Judi Dench, English actress Wikipedia
• 1946 Sonia Gandhi, Italian-Indian politician Wikipedia
• 1953 John Malkovich, American actor and producer Wikipedia
• 1954 Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourger lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of Luxembourg Wikipedia
• 1962 Felicity Huffman, American actress and producer Wikipedia
• 1963 Empress Masako, Japanese consort of Emperor Naruhito Wikipedia
• 1987 Hikaru Nakamura, Japanese-American chess player Wikipedia

Died on December 9

• 1117 Gertrude of Brunswick, Markgräfin of Meißen Wikipedia
• 1437 Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (born 1368) Wikipedia
• 1565 Pope Pius IV (born 1499) Wikipedia
• 1641 Anthony van Dyck, Belgian-English painter and illustrator (born 1599) Wikipedia
• 1669 Pope Clement IX (born 1600) Wikipedia
• 1916 Natsume Sōseki, Japanese author and poet (born 1867) Wikipedia
• 1937 Gustaf Dalén, Swedish physicist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1869) Wikipedia
• 1945 Yun Chi-ho, South Korean activist and politician (born 1864) Wikipedia
• 1970 Artem Mikoyan, Armenian-Russian engineer and businessman, co-founded the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau (born 1905) Wikipedia
• 1971 Rev. Aeneas Francon Williams, Church of Scotland Minister, Missionary in India and China, writer and poet (born 1886) Wikipedia
• 1971 Ralph Bunche, American political scientist, academic, and diplomat, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1904) Wikipedia
• 1996 Mary Leakey, English archaeologist and anthropologist (born 1913) Wikipedia
• 2012 Norman Joseph Woodland, American inventor, co-created the bar code (born 1921) Wikipedia
• 2013 Eleanor Parker, American actress (born 1922) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Anna's Day, marks the day to start the preparation process of the lutefisk to be consumed on Christmas Eve, as well as a Swedish name day, celebrating all people named Anna. (Sweden and Finland) Wikipedia
• Armed Forces Day (Peru) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Feast of the Conception of the Most Holy Theotokos by St. Anne (Eastern Orthodox Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Hannah (biblical figure) (Eastern Orthodox Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Juan Diego Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Leocadia Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Nectarius of Auvergne Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Peter Fourier Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: December 9 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Fatherland's Heroes Day (Russia) Wikipedia
• Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Tanganyika from Britain in 1961. (Tanzania) Wikipedia
• International Anti-Corruption Day (United Nations) Wikipedia
• National Heroes Day, formerly V.C. Bird Day. (Antigua and Barbuda) Wikipedia
• Navy Day (Sri Lanka) Wikipedia

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “December 9” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-09 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. We picked the 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths with the widest coverage across Wikipedia's language editions (counted from Wikidata) and sorted them by year; the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures.