On this day: May 9

Events on May 9

• 328 Athanasius is elected Patriarch of Alexandria. Wikipedia
• 1761 The inaugural exhibition of the Society of Artists of Great Britain opened at Spring Gardens in London. Wikipedia
• 1864 Second Schleswig War: The Battle of Heligoland, the last naval engagement fought by squadrons of wooden ships, took place between the Danish and Austro-Prussian fleets. Wikipedia
• 1877 An earthquake struck northern Chile, leading to the deaths of 2,385 people, mostly victims of the ensuing tsunami, as far away as Hawaii and Fiji. Wikipedia
• 1915 World War I: British forces launched the Battle of Aubers, an offensive on the Western Front, as part of the larger Second Battle of Artois. Wikipedia
• 1918 First World War: Germany repelled Britain's second attempt to blockade the Belgian port of Ostend. Wikipedia
• 1936 Italy formally annexes Ethiopia after taking the capital Addis Ababa on May 5. Wikipedia
• 1944 World War II: The Japanese Take Ichi convoy arrived at Halmahera in the Dutch East Indies after losing many ships and thousands of troops to Allied attacks while attempting to carry two divisions of troops from China to New Guinea. Wikipedia
• 1946 King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy abdicates and is succeeded by Umberto II. Wikipedia
• 1949 Rainier III became Prince of Monaco, beginning a 56-year reign, which would make him one of the longest ruling monarchs of the 20th century. Wikipedia
• 1950 Robert Schuman presents the "Schuman Declaration", considered by some to be the beginning of the creation of what is now the European Union. Wikipedia
• 1955 Cold War: West Germany joins NATO. Wikipedia
• 1960 The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that it would approve the use of Searle's Enovid, the first combined oral contraceptive pill. Wikipedia
• 1961 In a speech to U.S. broadcasters, Newton Minow, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, described commercial television programming as "a vast wasteland". Wikipedia
• 1964 Ngô Đình Cẩn, a younger brother and the confidant of South Vietnam's first president, Ngô Đình Diệm, was executed by Nguyễn Khánh's military junta. Wikipedia
• 1968 About 200 students at Bucks County Community College held a protest after the college canceled a planned speech by gay rights activist Dick Leitsch. Wikipedia
• 1977 The Hotel Polen in Amsterdam was destroyed by fire, leaving 33 people dead. Wikipedia
• 1979 Prominent Iranian Jew Habib Elghanian was executed after having been convicted by a revolutionary tribunal of various charges, triggering a mass exodus of Jews from Iran. Wikipedia
• 1980 Part of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Florida collapsed after a pier was struck by MV Summit Venture, killing 35 people. Wikipedia
• 1992 An underground methane explosion occurred at the Westray Mine in Plymouth, Nova Scotia, killing all 26 Canadian coal miners who were working at the time. Wikipedia
• 1992 Armenian forces capture Shusha, marking a major turning point in the First Nagorno-Karabakh War. Wikipedia
• 2001 Police at the Ohene Djan Stadium in Accra, Ghana, fired tear gas to quell unrest at a football match, leading to a stampede that killed 126 people. Wikipedia
• 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 terrorists among them deported to several different countries. Wikipedia
• 2005 Pope Benedict XVI began the beatification process for his predecessor Pope John Paul II, waiving the standard five years required after the nominee's death. Wikipedia
• 2012 The pilots of a Sukhoi Superjet, ignoring alerts from the terrain warning system, crashed the aircraft into Mount Salak in Indonesia, resulting in the deaths of all 45 people on board. Wikipedia
• 2023 Pakistani protests: Riots broke out following the arrest of former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan. Wikipedia

Born on May 9

• 1147 Minamoto no Yoritomo, Japanese shōgun (died 1199) Wikipedia
• 1740 Giovanni Paisiello, Italian composer and educator (probable; (died 1816) Wikipedia
• 1746 Gaspard Monge, French mathematician and engineer (died 1818) Wikipedia
• 1800 John Brown, American abolitionist (died 1859) Wikipedia
• 1860 J. M. Barrie, Scottish novelist and playwright (died 1937) Wikipedia
• 1874 Howard Carter, English archaeologist and historian (died 1939) Wikipedia
• 1883 José Ortega y Gasset, Spanish philosopher, author, and critic (died 1955) Wikipedia
• 1892 Zita of Bourbon-Parma, last Empress of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (died 1989) Wikipedia
• 1907 Baldur von Schirach, German politician (died 1974) Wikipedia
• 1921 Sophie Scholl, German activist (died 1943) Wikipedia
• 1924 Bulat Okudzhava, Russian singer, poet, and author (died 1997) Wikipedia
• 1927 Manfred Eigen, German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2019) Wikipedia
• 1936 Glenda Jackson, English actress and politician (died 2023) Wikipedia
• 1936 Albert Finney, English actor (died 2019) Wikipedia
• 1940 James L. Brooks, American director, producer, and screenwriter Wikipedia
• 1945 Jupp Heynckes, German footballer and manager Wikipedia
• 1946 Candice Bergen, American actress and producer Wikipedia
• 1949 Billy Joel, American singer-songwriter and pianist Wikipedia
• 1955 Meles Zenawi, Prime Minister of Ethiopia (died 2012) Wikipedia
• 1977 Marek Jankulovski, Czech footballer Wikipedia
• 1979 Rosario Dawson, American actress Wikipedia
• 1991 Majlinda Kelmendi, Kosovar judoka Wikipedia

Died on May 9

• 480 Julius Nepos, Western Roman Emperor Wikipedia
• 1707 Dieterich Buxtehude, German-Danish organist and composer (born 1637) Wikipedia
• 1805 Friedrich Schiller, German poet, playwright, and historian (born 1759) Wikipedia
• 1850 Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac, French chemist and physicist (born 1778) Wikipedia
• 1931 Albert Abraham Michelson, German-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1852) Wikipedia
• 1976 Ulrike Meinhof, German militant, co-founded the Red Army Faction (born 1934) Wikipedia
• 1978 Aldo Moro, Italian lawyer and politician, 38th Prime Minister of Italy (born 1916) Wikipedia
• 1985 Edmond O'Brien, American actor and director (born 1915) Wikipedia
• 1986 Tenzing Norgay, Nepalese mountaineer (born 1914) Wikipedia
• 2004 Akhmad Kadyrov, Chechen cleric and politician, 1st President of the Chechen Republic (born 1951) Wikipedia
• 2010 Lena Horne, American singer, actress, and activist (born 1917) Wikipedia
• 2015 Kenan Evren, Turkish general and politician, 7th President of Turkey (born 1917) Wikipedia
• 2020 Little Richard, American singer, songwriter, and pianist (born 1932) Wikipedia
• 2024 Roger Corman, American film director, producer, and actor (born 1926) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Beatus of Vendome Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Christopher (Eastern Orthodox Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: George Preca Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Gerontius of Cervia Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Gregory of Nazianzen (The Episcopal Church (US) and traditional Roman Catholic calendar) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Karolina Gerhardinger Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Nicolaus Zinzendorf (Lutheran) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Pachomius the Great Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Thomas Pickering Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Tudy of Landevennec Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: May 9 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Commemoration of the end of the German occupation of the Channel Islands related observances: Liberation Day, commemorating the end of the German occupation of the Channel Islands during World War II. (Guernsey and Jersey) Wikipedia
• Commemoration of the end of the German occupation of the Channel Islands related observances: National Day (Alderney) Wikipedia
• Europe Day, commemorating the Schuman Declaration. (European Union, Kosovo, Moldova, Ukraine) Wikipedia
• Victory Day observances, celebration of the Soviet Union victory over Nazi Germany (Soviet Union, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Serbia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan) Victory and Peace Day, marks the capture of Shusha (1992) in the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, and the end of World War II. (Armenia) Wikipedia
• Home Front Heroes Day in the United States (proposed; locally observed in Dallas, Texas) Wikipedia
• Goku Day (Japan), commemorating the fictional character Goku. Wikipedia

Sources

• Wikipedia — “May 9” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/May 9” — the anniversaries editors chose for the date and the article each one is about (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikidata — in how many language editions each entry's own article exists, used to fill the lists (CC0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• vacanza/holidays (open-source holiday rules, MIT licence) — holiday rules used to build the lists (checked 2026-10-15)

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “May 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 May 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.