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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).

 

Events on February 9

  • 1621 Gregory XV becomes Pope, the last Pope elected by acclamation. Wikipedia
  • 1775 American Revolutionary War: The British Parliament declares Massachusetts in rebellion. Wikipedia
  • 1778 Rhode Island becomes the fourth US state to ratify the Articles of Confederation. Wikipedia
  • 1822 Haiti attacks the newly established Dominican Republic on the other side of the island of Hispaniola. Wikipedia
  • 1893 Verdi's last opera, Falstaff, premieres at La Scala, Milan. Wikipedia
  • 1913 A group of meteors is visible across much of the eastern seaboard of the Americas, leading astronomers to conclude the source had been a small, short-lived natural satellite of the Earth. Wikipedia
  • 1922 Brazil becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty. Wikipedia
  • 1932 Prohibition law is abolished in Finland after a national referendum, where 70% voted for a repeal of the law. Wikipedia
  • 1934 The Balkan Entente is formed between Greece, Romania, Yugoslavia, and Turkey. Wikipedia
  • 1941 World War II: Bombing of Genoa: The Cathedral of San Lorenzo in Genoa, Italy, is struck by a bomb which fails to detonate. 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
  • 1950 Second Red Scare: US Senator Joseph McCarthy accuses the United States Department of State of being filled with Communists. Wikipedia
  • 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. Wikipedia
  • 1959 The R-7 Semyorka, the first intercontinental ballistic missile, becomes operational at Plesetsk, USSR. Wikipedia
  • 1961 The Beatles at the Cavern Club: Lunchtime – The Beatles perform under this name at The Cavern Club for the first time following their return to Liverpool from Hamburg. 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
  • 1964 The Beatles make their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, performing before a record-setting audience of 73 million viewers across the United States. 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 Soyuz 17 Soviet spacecraft returns to Earth. Wikipedia
  • 1978 The Budd Company unveils its first SPV-2000 self-propelled railcar in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Wikipedia
  • 1986 Halley's Comet last appeared in the inner Solar System. Wikipedia
  • 1987 Civil unrest broke out across Palestine. Wikipedia
  • 1991 Dissolution of the Soviet Union: Voters in Lithuania vote for independence from the Soviet Union. Wikipedia
  • 2016 Two passenger trains collide in the German town of Bad Aibling in the state of Bavaria. Twelve people die and 85 others are injured. Wikipedia
  • 2018 Winter Olympics: Opening ceremony is performed in Pyeongchang County in South Korea. 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
  • 1856 Hara Takashi, Japanese politician, 10th Prime Minister of Japan (died 1921) Wikipedia
  • 1867 Natsume Sōseki, Japanese author and poet (died 1916) Wikipedia
  • 1909 Dean Rusk, American colonel and politician, 54th United States Secretary of State (died 1994) Wikipedia
  • 1910 Jacques Monod, French biochemist and geneticist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1976) Wikipedia
  • 1926 Garret FitzGerald, Irish lawyer and politician, 7th Taoiseach of Ireland (died 2011) Wikipedia
  • 1940 J. M. Coetzee, South African-Australian novelist, essayist, and linguist, Nobel Prize laureate 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 John Walker Lindh, American Taliban member Wikipedia
  • 1981 Tom Hiddleston, English actor Wikipedia
  • 1987 Michael B. Jordan, American actor Wikipedia
  • 1993 Wataru Endo, Japanese footballer Wikipedia

Died on February 9

  • 1450 Agnès Sorel, French mistress of Charles VII of France (born 1421) 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
  • 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
  • 2010 Walter Frederick Morrison, American businessman, invented the Frisbee (born 1920) Wikipedia
  • 2021 Chick Corea, American jazz composer (born 1941) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

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 2026-10-09 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.