Skip to content
whathappen.today

On this day: February 9

February 9 is the 40th day of the year (40th in leap years), with 325 days left until the end of the year (326 in a leap year).

 

February 9 in one line

Headline entries for February 9, from Wikipedia: in 1825, After no candidate received a majority of electoral votes in the previous year's presidential election, the United States House of Representatives chose John Quincy Adams as president in a contingent election; born 1773: William Henry Harrison, American general and politician, 9th President of the United States (died 1841); died 1881: Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist, and philosopher (born 1821). In 2026 it is a Monday, in 2027 a Tuesday.

Events on February 9

  • 1234 Caizhou, the capital of the Jin dynasty, was captured by the Mongol Empire and their Song allies, bringing an end to Jurchen rule. Wikipedia
  • 1621 Gregory XV becomes Pope, the last Pope elected by acclamation. Wikipedia
  • 1799 Quasi-War: USS Constellation captured the French frigate Insurgente in a single-ship action in the Caribbean Sea. Wikipedia
  • 1825 After no candidate received a majority of electoral votes in the previous year's presidential election, the United States House of Representatives chose John Quincy Adams as president in a contingent election. Wikipedia
  • 1855 A series of hoof-like marks in the snow continuing through the countryside for some 40 to 100 miles (60 to 160 km) were discovered in Devon, England. Wikipedia
  • 1861 Jefferson Davis was named the provisional president of the Confederate States of America. Wikipedia
  • 1893 Verdi's last opera, Falstaff, premieres at La Scala, Milan. Wikipedia
  • 1895 William G. Morgan creates a game called Mintonette, which soon comes to be referred to as volleyball. Wikipedia
  • 1907 More than 3,000 women in London participated in the Mud March, the first large procession organised by the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies. Wikipedia
  • 1913 A meteor procession was observed along a great circle arc from Canada to Brazil, leading astronomers to conclude that its source was a small, short-lived natural satellite of the Earth. Wikipedia
  • 1920 The Svalbard Treaty was signed in Paris, recognizing Norwegian sovereignty over the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard. Wikipedia
  • 1923 Stanley Bruce became prime minister of Australia as leader of the country's first Coalition government. Wikipedia
  • 1942 The Imperial Japanese Army began the Battle of Kranji as part of their campaign to capture Singapore. Wikipedia
  • 1942 Year-round Daylight saving time (aka War Time) is reinstated in the United States as a wartime measure to help conserve energy resources. Wikipedia
  • 1943 World War II: Allied forces declared Guadalcanal secure, ending the Guadalcanal campaign as a significant strategic victory for Allied forces fighting Japan in the Pacific War. Wikipedia
  • 1945 World War II: Allied aircraft unsuccessfully attacked a German destroyer in Førde Fjord, Norway. Wikipedia
  • 1964 As Beatlemania swept the United States, the Beatles made their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show before a record-breaking audience, beginning a musical phenomenon known as the British Invasion. Wikipedia
  • 1971 An earthquake registering 6.6 Mw struck the northern San Fernando Valley near the Los Angeles district of Sylmar, killing 65 people. Wikipedia
  • 1975 The spacecraft and crew of the Soviet Soyuz 17 mission returned to earth after 29 days in orbit at the Salyut 4 station. Wikipedia
  • 1976 The Australian Defence Force was formed by the integration of the Australian Army, the Royal Australian Navy, and the Royal Australian Air Force. Wikipedia
  • 1986 Halley's Comet last appeared in the inner Solar System. Wikipedia
  • 1996 Researchers at the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt, Germany, first created the chemical element copernicium. Wikipedia
  • 1996 Breaking a seventeen-month ceasefire, the Provisional Irish Republican Army detonated a powerful truck bomb in the London Docklands, killing two people and injuring more than a hundred others. Wikipedia
  • 2001 The American submarine USS Greeneville collided with the Ehime Maru, a Japanese training vessel operated by a high school, sinking the latter ship and killing nine people on board. Wikipedia
  • 2016 Two commuter trains collided head-on at Bad Aibling in southeastern Germany, killing 12 people and injuring 85. Wikipedia
  • 2020 Japanese figure skater Yuzuru Hanyu won the Four Continents Championships to become the only man to complete a Super Slam. Wikipedia

Born on February 9

  • 1060 Honorius II, pope of the Catholic Church (died 1130) Wikipedia
  • 1441 Ali-Shir Nava'i, Turkic poet, linguist, and painter (died 1501) Wikipedia
  • 1737 Thomas Paine, English-American philosopher, author, and activist (died 1809) Wikipedia
  • 1773 William Henry Harrison, American general and politician, 9th President of the United States (died 1841) Wikipedia
  • 1783 Vasily Zhukovsky, Russian poet and translator (died 1852) Wikipedia
  • 1830 Abdülaziz, Ottoman Sultan and Caliph (died 1876) Wikipedia
  • 1867 Natsume Sōseki, Japanese author and poet (died 1916) Wikipedia
  • 1885 Alban Berg, Austrian composer and educator (died 1935) Wikipedia
  • 1909 Carmen Miranda, Portuguese-Brazilian actress, singer, and dancer (died 1955) Wikipedia
  • 1910 Jacques Monod, French biochemist and geneticist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1976) Wikipedia
  • 1931 Thomas Bernhard, Austrian author, poet, and playwright (died 1989) Wikipedia
  • 1940 J. M. Coetzee, South African-Australian novelist, essayist, and linguist, Nobel Prize laureate Wikipedia
  • 1942 Carole King, American singer-songwriter and pianist Wikipedia
  • 1943 Joseph Stiglitz, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate Wikipedia
  • 1943 Joe Pesci, American actor Wikipedia
  • 1944 Alice Walker, American novelist, short story writer, and poet Wikipedia
  • 1945 Yoshinori Ohsumi, Japanese biologist, 2016 Nobel Prize Laureate in Physiology or Medicine Wikipedia
  • 1945 Mia Farrow, American actress, activist, and model Wikipedia
  • 1979 Zhang Ziyi, Chinese actress and model Wikipedia
  • 1981 Tom Hiddleston, English actor Wikipedia
  • 1987 Michael B. Jordan, American actor Wikipedia
  • 1993 Wataru Endo, Japanese footballer Wikipedia

Died on February 9

  • 1199 Minamoto no Yoritomo, Japanese shōgun (born 1147) Wikipedia
  • 1670 Frederick III of Denmark (born 1609) Wikipedia
  • 1874 Jules Michelet, French historian, philosopher, and academic (born 1798) Wikipedia
  • 1881 Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist, and philosopher (born 1821) Wikipedia
  • 1942 Lauri Kristian Relander, Finnish politician, 2nd President of Finland (born 1883) Wikipedia
  • 1957 Miklós Horthy, Hungarian admiral and politician, Regent of Hungary (born 1868) Wikipedia
  • 1977 Sergey Ilyushin, Russian engineer and businessman, founded the Ilyushin Design Bureau (born 1894) Wikipedia
  • 1981 Bill Haley, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1925) Wikipedia
  • 1984 Yuri Andropov, Russian lawyer and politician (born 1914) Wikipedia
  • 1989 Osamu Tezuka, Japanese illustrator, animator, and producer (born 1928) Wikipedia
  • 1994 Howard Martin Temin, American geneticist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1934) Wikipedia
  • 2001 Herbert A. Simon, American political scientist, economist, and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1916) Wikipedia
  • 2002 Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon (born 1930) Wikipedia
  • 2021 Chick Corea, American jazz composer (born 1941) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

Sources

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “February 9” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-15 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. Every anniversary that Wikipedia's editors selected for February 9 stays on the list; the remaining places, up to 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths, go to the entries whose own article — about the event itself, or else the person or thing it is about — appears in the most language editions (counted from Wikidata); an article about a person or thing, which covers far more than one day, counts half. An entry with no article of its own counts, also at half, by the least covered article it links, and one that links only places counts for nothing. Each list runs by year, and the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures, audio and video.

Last updated: