Historical EventsToday: 09 October

Events

• 768 - Carloman I and Charlemagne are crowned Kings of The Franks.


• 1003 - Leif Erikson landed in L'Anse aux Meadows, Canada. Became the first European to reach America.


• 1238 - James I of Aragon conquers Valencia and founds the Kingdom of Valencia.


• 1446 - The hangul alphabet is published in Korea.


• 1514 - Marriage of Louis XII of France and Mary Tudor.


• 1558 - Mérida is founded in Venezuela.


• 1582 - Because of the implementation of the Gregorian calendar this day does not exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.


• 1595 - The Spanish army captures Cambrai.


• 1604 - Supernova 1604, the most recent supernova to be observed in the Milky Way.


• 1635 - Founder of Rhode Island Roger Williams is banished from Massachusetts Bay Colony as a religious dissident after he speaks out against punishments for religious offenses and giving away Native American land.


• 1701 - The Collegiate School of Connecticut (later renamed Yale University) is chartered in Old Saybrook, Connecticut.


• 1760 - 7 Year's War: Russian forces occupy Berlin.


• 1771 - The Dutch merchant ship Vrouw Maria sinks near the coast of Finland.


• 1776 - Father Francisco Palou founds Mission San Francisco de Asis in what is now San Francisco, California.


• 1799 - Sinking of HMS Lutine, with the loss of 240 men and a cargo worth £1,200,000.


• 1804 - Hobart, capital of Tasmania, is founded.


• 1806 - Prussia declares war on France.


• 1812 - War of 1812: In a naval engagement on Lake Erie, American forces capture two British ships: HMS Detroit and HMS Caledonia.


• 1820 - Guayaquil declares independence from Spain.


• 1824 - Slavery is abolished in Costa Rica.


• 1831 - Capo d'Istria is assassinated.


• 1835 - Royal College, Colombo established with the name Hillstreet Academy in Sri Lanka.


• 1837 - Meeting at the U.S. Naval Academy establishes the U.S. Naval Institute.


• 1845 - The eminent and controversial Anglican, John Henry Newman, is received into the Roman Catholic Church.


• 1854 - Beginning of the siege of Sebastopol.


• 1861 - American Civil War: Battle of Santa Rosa Island - Union troops repel Confederate attempt to capture Fort Pickens.


• 1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Tom's Brook - Union cavalrymen in the Shenandoah Valley defeat Confederate forces at Tom's Brook, Virginia.


• 1871 - The Great Chicago Fire is brought under control.


• 1874 - General Postal Union is created as a result of the Treaty of Berne.


• 1888 - The Washington Monument officially opens to the general public.


• 1914 - World War I: Siege of Antwerp - Antwerp, Belgium falls to German troops.


• 1919 - Black Sox scandal: The Cincinnati Reds "win" the World Series.


• 1934 - Regicide at Marseille: The assassination of King Alexander I of Yugoslavia and Louis Barthou, Foreign Minister of France.


• 1936 - Generators at Boulder Dam (later renamed to Hoover Dam) begin to generate electricity from the Colorado River and transmit it 266 miles to Los Angeles, California.


• 1940 - World War II: Battle of Britain - During a nighttime air raid by the German Luftwaffe, St. Paul's Cathedral in the City of London, England is hit by a bomb.


• 1941 - A coup in Panama declares Ricardo Adolfo de la Guardia Arango the new president.


• 1942 - Statute of Westminster 1931 formalises Australian autonomy.


• 1942 - The last day of the October Matanikau action on Guadalcanal as United States Marine Corps forces withdraw back across the Matanikau River after destroying most of the Imperial Japanese Army's 4th Infantry Regiment.


• 1945 - Parade in NYC for Fleet Admiral Nimitz and 13 USN/USMC Medal of Honor recipients


• 1962 - Uganda becomes an independent Commonwealth realm.


• 1963 - In northeast Italy, over 2,000 people are killed when a large landslide behind the Vajont Dam causes a giant wave of water to overtop it.


• 1967 - A day after being caught, Che Guevara is executed for attempting to incite a revolution in Bolivia.


• 1969 - In Chicago, the United States National Guard is called in for crowd control as demonstrations continue in connection with the trial of the "Chicago Eight" (trial started on September 24).


• 1970 - The Khmer Republic is proclaimed in Cambodia.


• 1981 - Abolition of capital punishment in France.


• 1983 - Rangoon bombing: attempted assassination of South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan during an official visit to Rangoon, Burma. Chun survives but the blast kills 17 of his entourage, including four cabinet ministers, and 17 others were injured. Four Burmese officials also die in the blast.


• 1986 - The musical The Phantom of the Opera has its first performance at Her Majesty's Theatre in London.


• 1989 - An official news agency in the Soviet Union reports the landing of a UFO in Voronezh.


• 1989 - In Leipzig, East Germany, 70,000 protesters demand the legalisation of opposition groups and democratic reforms.


• 1991 - Ecuador becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.


• 1992 - A 13 kilogram (est.) meteorite lands in the driveway of the Knapp residence in Peekskill, New York, destroying the family's 1980 Chevrolet Malibu


• 1995 - An Amtrak Sunset Limited train is derailed by saboteurs near Palo Verde, Arizona.


• 1999 - The last flight of the SR-71.


• 2001 - Second mailing of anthrax letters from Trenton, New Jersey in the 2001 anthrax attack.


• 2006 - North Korea allegedly tests its first nuclear device.