December 9th in History

Michael Dobson | December 9

 

The Hollerith computing device

Today in History

  • The Virgin of Guadalupe allegedly appears to Juan Diego near Mexico City (1531)
  • Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s “The Charge of the Light Brigade” is published (1854)
  • P. B. S. Pinchback becomes the first African-American governor of a US state (Louisiana) (1872)
  • Herman Hollerith installs his computing device at the US War Department (1888)
  • France passes a law separating church and state (1905)
  • The “Doctors’ Trial” of accused Nazis begins at Nuremberg (1946)
  • The John Birch Society is founded (1958)
  • The world’s longest-running soap opera, Coronation Street, premiers in the UK (1960)
  • The Petrified Forest National Park is established (1962)
  • The Kecksburg UFO incident takes place (1965)
  • The eradication of the smallpox virus is certified (1979)
  • The First Intifada begins (1987)
  • Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich is arrested (2008)

Birthdays

  • Metius, mathematician (1571)
  • John Milton, poet (1608)
  • Peter Kropotkin (Пётр Кропо́ткин), scientist and anarchist (1842)
  • Joel Chandler Harris, folklorist (1845)
  • Joe Kelley, baseball player (1871)
  • Joseph Pilates, physical fitness guru (1883)
  • Clarence Birdseye, food manufacturer (1886)
  • Hermione Gingold, actress (1897)
  • Emmett Kelly, clown (1898)
  • Jean de Brunhoff, Babar the Elephant creator (1899)
  • Margaret Hamilton, actress (1902)
  • Dalton Trumbo, author and blacklist victim (1905)
  • Grace Hopper, computer scientist (1906)
  • Douglas Fairbanks Jr., actor (1909)
  • Lee J. Cobb, actor (1911)
  • Broderick Crawford (1911)
  • Tip O’Neill, US Speaker of the House (1912)
  • Eloise Jarvis McGraw, children’s book author (1915)
  • Kirk Douglas, actor (1916)
  • James Jesus Angleton, CIA counterintelligence chief (1917)
  • Redd Foxx, comedian (1922)
  • Dina Merrill, actress (1925)
  • Humayun Mirza, historian, son of the first president of Pakistan, and last heir to the throne of Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa (1928)*
  • Dick Van Patten, actor (1928)
  • John Cassavetes, actor (1929)
  • Buck Henry, actor and screenwriter (1930)
  • Ashleigh Brilliant, author (1933)
  • Morton Downey, Jr., talk show host (1933)
  • Orville Moody, golfer (1933)
  • Judi Dench, actress (1934)
  • Deacon Jones, football player (1938)
  • Beau Bridges, actor (1941)
  • Dick Butkus, football player (1942)
  • Michael Nouri, actor (1945)
  • Sonia Gandhi, Indian politician (1946)
  • Tom Daschle, US Senator (1947)
  • Michael Dorn, actor (1952)
  • John Malkovich, actor (1953)
  • Otis Birdsong, basketball player (1955)
  • Donny Osmond, singer (1957)
  • Felicity Huffman, actress (1962)
  • Kirsten Gillibrand, US Senator (1966)
  • Jakob Dylan, singer-songwriter (1969)
  • McKayla Maroney, gymnast (1995)

* Timespinner Press is proud to be the publisher of Humayun Mirza’s From Plassey to Pakistan, a magisterial history of the British Raj and the foundation of Pakistan as told from the perspective of the royal family of Bengal.

Deaths

  • Rube Foster, baseball player (1930)
  • Edith Sitwell, poet (1964)
  • Branch Rickey, baseball player and executive (1965)
  • Feroz Khan Noon, Pakistani prime minister (1970)
  • Ralph Bunche, diplomat and Nobel laureate (1971)
  • Louella Parsons, gossip columnist (1972)
  • Fulton J. Sheen, Catholic bishop and televangelist (1979)
  • Leon Jaworski, Watergate special prosecutor (1982)
  • Vincent Gardenia, actor (1992)
  • Douglas “Wrong Way” Corrigan, pilot (1995)
  • Patty Donahue, singer-songwriter (1996)
  • Archie Moore, boxer (1998)
  • Paul Simon, US Senator (2003)
  • Robert Sheckley, science fiction writer (2005)
  • Gene Barry, actor (2009)

Holidays and Celebrations

  • Anna’s Day (Sweden and Finland)
  • Christmas Card Day (honoring Sir Henry Cole, creator of the first commercial Christmas card)
  • Independence Day (Tanganyika)
  • International Anti-Corruption Day (United Nations)
  • National Heroes Day / V. C. Bird Day (Antigua and Barbuda)
  • National Pastry Day (US food holidays)
  • Weary Willie Day (celebrating the birth of clown Emmett Kelly)
  • Yuri’s Day in the Autumn (Russian Orthodox Church)

December 9 is the 343rd day of the year (344th in leap years). There are 22 days remaining until the end of the year.