May 9


May 9 is the 129th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (130th in leap
years). There are 236 days remaining.

Events

   * 328 - Athanasius elected bishop of Alexandria
   * 1092 - Lincoln Cathedral is consecrated.
   * 1429 - Joan of Arc defeats the English troops besieging Orleans.
   * 1502 - Christopher Columbus leaves Spain for his fourth and final trip
     to the "New World".
   * 1671 - Thomas Blood, disguised as a clergyman, attempts to steal the
     Crown Jewels from the Tower of London. He is immediately caught because
     he is too drunk to run with the loot. He would later be condemned to
     death and then mysteriously pardoned and exiled by King Charles II.
   * 1887 - Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show opens in London.
   * 1901 - Australia opens its first parliament in Melbourne.
   * 1915 - World War I: Second Battle of Artois - German and French forces
     fight.
   * 1926 - Admiral Richard E. Byrd and Floyd Bennett claim to have flown
     over the North Pole (later discovery of his diary seems to indicate
     that this did not happen).
   * 1927 - The Australian Parliament first convenes in Canberra.
   * 1936 - Italy formally annexes Ethiopia after taking the capital Addis
     Abba on May 5.
   * 1941 - World War II: The German submarine U-110 is captured by United
     Kingdom's Royal Navy. On board is the latest Enigma cryptography
     machine which Allied cryptergraphers later use to break coded German
     messages.
   * 1945 - World War II: Hermann Gšring is captured by the United States
     Army; Norway arrests Vidkun Quisling.
   * 1946 - King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy abdicates and is succeeded by
     Humbert II.
   * 1949 - Rainier III of Monaco becomes Prince of Monaco.
   * 1950 - Robert Schuman presents his proposal on the creation of an
     organized Europe, indispensable to the maintenance of peaceful
     relations. This proposal, known as the "Schuman declaration", is
     considered to be the beginning of the creation of what is now the
     European Union.
   * 1955 - Cold War: West Germany joins NATO.
   * 1960 - Reproductive rights: The Food and Drug Administration approves
     sale of the birth control pill.
   * 1974 - The United States House of Representatives Judiciary Committee
     opens formal and public impeachment hearings against President Richard
     M. Nixon.
   * 1980 - In Florida, a Liberian freighter named the Summit Venture hits
     the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay sending 35 people (most of
     whom were in a bus) to a watery death as a 1,400-foot section of the
     bridge collapsed.
   * 1994 - Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as South Africa's first black
     president.
   * 2002 - The 38-day stand-off in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem
     comes to an end when the Palestinians inside agreed to have 13
     suspected militants among them deported to several different countries.
     The standoff started on April 2.
   * 2002 - In Kaspiysk, Russia, a remote-controlled bomb explodes during a
     holiday parade killing 43 and injuring at least 130.

Births

   * 1439 - Pope Pius III (+ 1503)
   * 1800 - John Brown, American abolitionist (+ 1859)
   * 1837 - Adam Opel, German engineer and industrialist
   * 1860 - J. M. Barrie, author (+ 1937)
   * 1873 - Anton Cermak, mayor of Chicago, Illinois (+ 1933)
   * 1873 - Howard Carter, British archaeologist (+ 1939)
   * 1882 - Henry J. Kaiser, industrialist
   * 1892 - Zita of Bourbon-Parma, empress of Austria-Hungary (+ 1989)
   * 1895 - Richard Bathelmess, actor (+ 1963)
   * 1907 - Baldur von Schirach, Nazi official (+ 1974)
   * 1912 - Pedro Armend‡riz, actor (+ 1963)
   * 1914 - Hank Snow, country musician (+ 1999)
   * 1918 - Mike Wallace, journalist
   * 1918 - Orville L. Freeman, American politician (+ 2003)
   * 1920 - Richard Adams, author
   * 1921 - Sophie Scholl, resistance fighter with White Rose in Nazi
     Germany
   * 1927 - Wim Thoelke, show master (+ 1995)
   * 1928 - Pancho Gonzalez, tennis player (+ 1995)
   * 1936 - Glenda Jackson, actress and politician
   * 1936 - Albert Finney, actor
   * 1939 - Ralph Boston, athlete
   * 1940 - James L. Brooks, producer, writer
   * 1942 - John Ashcroft, United States Attorney General
   * 1944 - Richie Furay, musician ("Poco", "Buffalo Springfield")
   * 1946 - Candice Bergen, actress
   * 1949 - Billy Joel, American musician
   * 1965 - Steve Yzerman, ice hockey player
   * 1968 - Marie-JosŽ Perec, French athlete

Deaths

   * 1791 - Francis Hopkinson, American author and signer of the Declaration
     of Independence
   * 1805 - Friedrich Schiller, German poet and historian
   * 1905 - Mrs. Jarvis - the model for Mother's Day
   * 1949 - Prince Louis II of Monaco
   * 1957 - Ezio Pinza, opera singer
   * 1970 - Walter Reuther, president of the United Auto Workers
   * 1978 - Aldo Moro, former Prime Minister of Italy
   * 1985 - Edmond O'Brien, actor
   * 1986 - Tenzing Norgay, mountaineer
   * 1998 - Alice Faye, actress

Holidays and Observances

   * In the Soviet Union, May 9th commemorated the signing in 1945 of the
     capitulation of Germany, the most important Axis force in World War II,
     to the Allied forces. In Russia, as before in the Soviet Union, the 9th
     of May is celebrated as the end of the "Great Patriotic War", the
     preferred term for the 4-year long German-Russian war. A certain
     controversy surrounds this holiday: in some other countries (for
     instance, France and Germany) the 8th of May is considered to be the
     day of capitulation. This is documented by historic radio announcements
     of Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin: both said that the capitulation
     was declared on May 7th and signed on May 8th, in the presence of the
     highest military officials of the Allied forces, including the Soviet
     Union. Later, the Soviet Union changed the date to May 9th for somewhat
     obscure political reasons.
   * European Union - Europe Day, commemorating the "Schuman declaration"
   * Roman Empire - Feast of the Lemures (See Larvae)