Events

Pre-1600

• 328 Athanasius is elected Patriarch of Alexandria.

• 1009 Lombard Revolt: Lombard forces led by Melus revolt in Bari against the Byzantine Catepanate of Italy.

• 1310 Nephon, Bishop of Cyzicus, is consecrated as Patriarch of Constantinople.

• 1386 England and Portugal formally ratify their alliance with the signing of the Treaty of Windsor, making it the oldest diplomatic alliance in the world which is still in force.

• 1450 Timurid monarch 'Abd al-Latif is assassinated.

• 1502 Christopher Columbus sets off from Cádiz for his fourth voyage.

• 1540 Hernando de Alarcón sets sail on an expedition to the Gulf of California.

1601–1900

• 1645 Scottish Royalist forces under Lord Montrose defeat Covenanter forces under John Urry.

• 1662 The figure who later became Mr. Punch makes his first recorded appearance in England.

• 1671 Thomas Blood, disguised as a clergyman, attempts to steal England's Crown Jewels from the Tower of London.

• 1726 Five men arrested during a raid on Mother Clap's molly house in London are executed at Tyburn.

• 1761 Exhibition of 1761, the inaugural exhibition of the Society of Artists of Great Britain, opens at Spring Gardens in London.

• 1864 Second Schleswig War: The Danish navy defeats the Austrian and Prussian fleets in the Battle of Heligoland.

• 1865 American Civil War: Nathan Bedford Forrest surrenders his forces at Gainesville, Alabama.

• 1865 American Civil War: President Andrew Johnson issues a proclamation ending belligerent rights of the rebels and enjoining foreign nations to intern or expel Confederate ships.

• 1873 Der Krach: The Vienna stock exchange crash begins the Panic of 1873 and heralds the Long Depression.

• 1877 Mihail Kogălniceanu reads, in the Chamber of Deputies, the Declaration of Independence of Romania. The date will become recognised as the Independence Day of Romania.

1901–present

• 1901 Australia opens its first national parliament in Melbourne.

• 1915 World War I: Second Battle of Artois between German and French forces.

• 1918 World War I: Germany repels Britain's second attempt to blockade the port of Ostend, Belgium.

• 1920 Polish–Soviet War: The Polish army under General Edward Rydz-Śmigły celebrates its capture of Kiev with a victory parade on Khreshchatyk.

• 1926 Admiral Richard E. Byrd and Floyd Bennett claim to have flown over the North Pole (later discovery of Byrd's diary appears to cast some doubt on the claim).

• 1927 The Old Parliament House, Canberra, Australia, officially opens.

• 1936 Italy formally annexes Ethiopia after taking the capital Addis Ababa on May 5.

• 1941 World War II: The German submarine U-110 is captured by the Royal Navy. On board is the latest Enigma machine which Allied cryptographers later use to break coded German messages.

• 1942 The Holocaust in Ukraine: The SS executes 588 Jewish residents of the Podolian town of Zinkiv (Khmelnytska oblast). The Zoludek Ghetto (in Belarus) is destroyed and all its inhabitants executed or deported.

• 1945 World War II: The Channel Islands are liberated from Nazi occupation.

• 1946 King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy abdicates and is succeeded by Umberto II.

• 1948 Czechoslovakia's Ninth-of-May Constitution comes into effect.

• 1950 Robert Schuman presents the "Schuman Declaration", considered by some to be the beginning of the creation of what is now the European Union.

• 1955 Cold War: West Germany joins NATO.

• 1960 The Food and Drug Administration announces it will approve birth control as an additional indication for Searle's Enovid, making Enovid the world's first approved oral contraceptive pill.

• 1969 Carlos Lamarca leads the first urban guerrilla action against the military dictatorship of Brazil in São Paulo, by robbing two banks.

• 1974 Watergate scandal: The United States House Committee on the Judiciary opens formal and public impeachment hearings against President Richard Nixon.

• 1979 Iranian Jewish businessman Habib Elghanian is executed by firing squad in Tehran, prompting the mass exodus of the once 100,000-strong Jewish community of Iran.

• 1980 In Florida, United States, Liberian freighter collides with the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay, making a section of the southbound span collapse. Thirty-five people in six cars and a Greyhound bus fall into the water and die.

• 1980 In Norco, California, United States, five masked gunmen hold up a Security Pacific bank, leading to a violent shoot-out and one of the largest pursuits in California history. Two of the gunmen and one police officer are killed and thirty-three police and civilian vehicles are destroyed in the chase.

• 1987 LOT Flight 5055 Tadeusz Kościuszko crashes after takeoff in Warsaw, Poland, killing all 183 people on board.

• 1988 New Parliament House, Canberra officially opens.

• 1992 Armenian forces capture Shusha, marking a major turning point in the First Nagorno-Karabakh War.

• 1992 Westray Mine disaster kills 26 workers in Nova Scotia, Canada.

• 1999 Mother's Day bus crash kills 22 passengers and injures another 22, including the driver in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States.

• 2001 In Ghana, 129 football fans die in what became known as the Accra Sports Stadium disaster. The deaths are caused by a stampede (caused by the firing of tear gas by police personnel at the stadium) that followed a controversial decision by the referee.

• 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.

• 2018 Barisan Nasional, the coalition that had governed Malaysia since the country's independence in 1957, suffer a historic defeat in the 2018 Malaysian general election.

• 2020 The COVID-19 recession causes the U.S. unemployment rate to hit 14.9 percent, its worst rate since the Great Depression.

• 2022 Russo-Ukrainian war: United States President Joe Biden signs the 2022 Lend-Lease Act into law, a rebooted World War II-era policy attempting to expedite American equipment to Ukraine and other Eastern European countries.

• 2023 The May 9 riots following the arrest of Imran Khan in Pakistan.

Births

Pre-1600

• 1147 Minamoto no Yoritomo, Japanese shōgun (died 1199)

• 1151 al-Adid, last Fatimid caliph (died 1171)

• 1540 Maharana Pratap, Indian ruler (died 1597)

• 1555 Jerónima de la Asunción, Spanish Catholic nun and founder of the first monastery in Manila (died 1630)

• 1594 Louis Henry, Prince of Nassau-Dillenburg, military leader in the Thirty Years' War (died 1662)

1601–1900

• 1617 Frederick, Landgrave of Hesse-Eschwege (died 1655)

• 1740 Giovanni Paisiello, Italian composer and educator (probable; (died 1816)

• 1746 Gaspard Monge, French mathematician and engineer (died 1818)

• 1763 János Batsányi, Hungarian-Austrian poet and author (died 1845)

• 1800 John Brown, American abolitionist (died 1859)

• 1801 Peter Hesketh-Fleetwood, English politician, founded the town of Fleetwood (died 1866)

• 1814 John Brougham, Irish-American actor and playwright (died 1880)

• 1823 Frederick Weld, English-New Zealand politician, 6th Prime Minister of New Zealand (died 1891)

• 1824 Jacob ben Moses Bachrach, Polish apologist and author (died 1896)

• 1825 James Collinson, Victorian painter (died 1881)

• 1836 Ferdinand Monoyer, French ophthalmologist, invented the Monoyer chart (died 1912)

• 1837 Adam Opel, German engineer, founded the Opel Company (died 1895)

• 1845 Gustaf de Laval, Swedish engineer and businessman (died 1913)

• 1850 Edward Weston, English-American chemist (died 1936)

• 1855 Julius Röntgen, German-Dutch composer (died 1932)

• 1860 J. M. Barrie, Scottish novelist and playwright (died 1937)

• 1866 Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Indian economist and politician (died 1915)

• 1870 Harry Vardon, British golfer (died 1937)

• 1873 Anton Cermak, Czech-American captain and politician, 44th Mayor of Chicago (died 1933)

• 1874 Howard Carter, English archaeologist and historian (died 1939)

• 1882 George Barker, American painter (died 1965)

• 1882 Henry J. Kaiser, American shipbuilder and businessman, founded Kaiser Shipyards (died 1967)

• 1883 José Ortega y Gasset, Spanish philosopher, author, and critic (died 1955)

• 1884 Valdemar Psilander, Danish actor (died 1917)

• 1885 Gianni Vella, Maltese artist (died 1977)

• 1888 Francesco Baracca, Italian fighter pilot (died 1918)

• 1888 Rolf de Maré, Swedish art collector (died 1964)

• 1892 Zita of Bourbon-Parma, last Empress of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (died 1989)

• 1893 William Moulton Marston, American psychologist and author (died 1947)

• 1894 Benjamin Graham, British-American economist, professor, and investor (died 1976)

• 1895 Richard Barthelmess, American actor (died 1963)

• 1895 Lucian Blaga, Romanian poet, playwright, and philosopher (died 1961)

• 1895 Frank Foss, American pole vaulter (died 1989)

• 1896 Richard Day, Canadian-American art director and set decorator (died 1972)

• 1900 Maria Malicka, Polish stage and film actress (died 1992)

1901–present

• 1907 Jackie Grant, Trinidadian cricketer (died 1978)

• 1907 Baldur von Schirach, German politician (died 1974)

• 1908 Billy Jurges, American baseball player and manager (died 1997)

• 1909 Gordon Bunshaft, American architect, designed the Solow Building (died 1990)

• 1912 Pedro Armendáriz, Mexican-American actor (died 1963)

• 1914 Carlo Maria Giulini, Italian conductor and director (died 2005)

• 1914 J. Merrill Knapp, American musicologist (died 1993)

• 1914 Hank Snow, Canadian-American country music singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 1999)

• 1918 Mike Wallace, American journalist (died 2012)

• 1921 Daniel Berrigan, American priest, poet, and activist (died 2016)

• 1921 Sophie Scholl, German activist (died 1943)

• 1924 Bulat Okudzhava, Russian singer, poet, and author (died 1997)

• 1927 Manfred Eigen, German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2019)

• 1928 Pancho Gonzales, American tennis player (died 1995)

• 1928 Barbara Ann Scott, Canadian figure skater (died 2012)

• 1930 Joan Sims, English actress (died 2001)

• 1931 Vance D. Brand, American pilot, engineer, and astronaut

• 1932 Geraldine McEwan, English actress (died 2015)

• 1934 Alan Bennett, English screenwriter, playwright, and novelist

• 1935 Nokie Edwards, American guitarist (died 2018)

• 1936 Albert Finney, English actor (died 2019)

• 1936 Glenda Jackson, English actress and politician (died 2023)

• 1938 Carroll Cole, American serial killer (died 1985)

• 1938 Charles Simić, Serbian-American poet and editor (died 2023)

• 1939 Ion Țiriac, Romanian tennis player and manager

• 1940 James L. Brooks, American director, producer, and screenwriter

• 1941 Dorothy Hyman, English sprinter

• 1942 John Ashcroft, American lawyer and politician, 79th United States Attorney General

• 1942 David Gergen, American political consultant (died 2025)

• 1943 Vince Cable, English economist and politician, former Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills

• 1943 Colin Pillinger, English astronomer, chemist, and academic (died 2014)

• 1945 Jupp Heynckes, German footballer and manager

• 1946 Candice Bergen, American actress and producer

• 1947 Yukiya Amano, Japanese diplomat (died 2019)

• 1948 Calvin Murphy, American basketball player and radio host

• 1949 Billy Joel, American singer-songwriter and pianist

• 1951 Alley Mills, American actress

• 1951 Joy Harjo, American poet, musician, playwright and author, 23rd United States Poet Laureate

• 1955 Meles Zenawi, Prime Minister of Ethiopia (died 2012)

• 1955 Anne Sofie von Otter, Swedish soprano and actress

• 1956 Wendy Crewson, Canadian actress and producer

• 1956 Jana Wendt, Australian television host

• 1958 Chuck Russell, American film director and producer (died 2026)

• 1960 Tony Gwynn, American baseball player and coach (died 2014)

• 1961 John Corbett, American actor

• 1965 Steve Yzerman, Canadian ice hockey player and manager

• 1968 Ruth Kelly, British economist and politician, Secretary of State for Transport

• 1968 Marie-José Pérec, French sprinter

• 1970 Doug Christie, American basketball player and coach

• 1970 Hao Haidong, Chinese footballer

• 1970 Ghostface Killah, American rapper and actor

• 1973 Tegla Loroupe, Kenyan runner

• 1975 Tamia, Canadian singer-songwriter, producer, and actress

• 1977 Averno, Mexican wrestler

• 1977 Marek Jankulovski, Czech footballer

• 1977 Svein Tuft, Canadian cyclist

• 1979 Rosario Dawson, American actress

• 1979 Brandon Webb, American baseball player

• 1980 Grant Hackett, Australian swimmer

• 1983 Gilles Müller, Luxembourgian tennis player

• 1984 Prince Fielder, American baseball player

• 1987 Scott Bolton, Australian rugby league player

• 1987 Kevin Gameiro, French footballer

• 1988 J. R. Fitzpatrick, Canadian racing driver

• 1989 Ellen White, English footballer

• 1989 Daniel Rosenfeld, German musician

• 1991 Majlinda Kelmendi, Kosovar judoka

• 1992 Dan Burn, English footballer

• 1995 Tommy Edman, American baseball player

• 1995 Beth Mead, English footballer

• 1995 Shaboozey, American rapper and singer-songwriter

• 1996 Noah Centineo, American actor

• 2000 Trey Lance, American football player

Deaths

Pre-1600

• 480 Julius Nepos, Western Roman Emperor

• 729 Osric, king of Northumbria

• 893 Shi Pu, warlord of the Tang Dynasty

• 909 Adalgar, archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen

• 934 Wang Sitong, Chinese general and governor (born 892)

• 1280 Magnus VI of Norway

• 1315 Hugh V, Duke of Burgundy (born 1282)

• 1329 John Drokensford, Bishop of Bath and Wells

• 1443 Niccolò Albergati, Italian Cardinal and diplomat (born 1373)

• 1446 Mary of Enghien (born 1368)

• 1590 Charles de Bourbon French cardinal and pretender to the throne (born 1523)

1601–1900

• 1657 William Bradford, English-American politician, 2nd Governor of Plymouth Colony (born 1590)

• 1707 Dieterich Buxtehude, German-Danish organist and composer (born 1637)

• 1736 Diogo de Mendonça Corte-Real, Portuguese judge and politician (born 1658)

• 1745 Tomaso Antonio Vitali, Italian violinist and composer (born 1663)

• 1747 John Dalrymple, 2nd Earl of Stair, Scottish field marshal and diplomat, British Ambassador to France (born 1673)

• 1760 Nicolaus Zinzendorf, German bishop and saint (born 1700)

• 1789 Jean-Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval, French general and engineer (born 1715)

• 1790 William Clingan, American politician (born 1721)

• 1791 Francis Hopkinson, American judge and politician (born 1737)

• 1805 Friedrich Schiller, German poet, playwright, and historian (born 1759)

• 1850 Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac, French chemist and physicist (born 1778)

• 1850 Garlieb Merkel, Baltic German author and activist (born 1769)

• 1861 Ernst von Lasaulx, German philologist and politician (born 1805)

• 1864 John Sedgwick, American general and educator (born 1813)

• 1889 William S. Harney, American general (born 1800)

1901–present

• 1906 Oscar von Gebhardt, German theologian and academic (born 1844)

• 1911 Thomas Wentworth Higginson, American abolitionist (born 1823)

• 1914 C. W. Post, American businessman, founded Post Foods (born 1854)

• 1915 François Faber, Luxembourgian-French cyclist and soldier (born 1887)

• 1915 Anthony Wilding, New Zealand tennis player and cricketer (born 1883)

• 1918 George Coșbuc, Romanian journalist and poet (born 1866)

• 1931 Albert Abraham Michelson, German-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1852)

• 1933 John Arthur Jarvis, English swimmer (born 1872)

• 1935 Ernst Bresslau, German zoologist (born 1877)

• 1938 Thomas B. Thrige, Danish businessman (born 1866)

• 1942 Józef Cebula, Polish priest and saint (born 1902)

• 1944 Han Yong-un, Korean poet and social reformer (born 1879)

• 1949 Louis II, Prince of Monaco (born 1870)

• 1950 Esteban Terradas i Illa, Spanish mathematician and engineer (born 1883)

• 1957 Ernest de Silva, Sri Lankan banker and businessman (born 1887)

• 1957 Ezio Pinza, Italian actor and singer (born 1892)

• 1959 Bhaurao Patil, Indian activist and educator (born 1887)

• 1965 Leopold Figl, Austrian engineer and politician, 18th Chancellor of Austria (born 1902)

• 1968 Mercedes de Acosta, American author, poet, and playwright (born 1893)

• 1968 Harold Gray, American cartoonist, created Little Orphan Annie (born 1894)

• 1968 Marion Lorne, American actress (born 1883)

• 1968 Finlay Currie, British actor (born 1878)

• 1970 Walter Reuther, American union leader (born 1907)

• 1976 Jens Bjørneboe, Norwegian author, poet, and playwright (born 1920)

• 1976 Ulrike Meinhof, German militant, co-founded the Red Army Faction (born 1934)

• 1977 James Jones, American novelist (born 1921)

• 1978 Giuseppe Impastato, Italian journalist and activist (born 1948)

• 1978 Aldo Moro, Italian lawyer and politician, 38th Prime Minister of Italy (born 1916)

• 1979 Cyrus S. Eaton, Canadian-American banker, businessman, and philanthropist (born 1883)

• 1979 Eddie Jefferson, American singer and lyricist (born 1918)

• 1980 Kate Molale, South African activist (born 1928)

• 1981 Nelson Algren, American novelist and short story writer (born 1909)

• 1981 Rolf Just Nilsen, Norwegian singer and actor (born 1931)

• 1983 Henry Bachtold, Australian soldier and railway engineer (born 1891)

• 1985 Edmond O'Brien, American actor and director (born 1915)

• 1986 Tenzing Norgay, Nepalese mountaineer (born 1914)

• 1987 Obafemi Awolowo, Nigerian lawyer and politician (born 1909)

• 1989 Keith Whitley, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1954)

• 1993 Penelope Gilliatt, English novelist, short story writer, and critic (born 1932)

• 1994 Elias Motsoaledi, South African activist (born 1924)

• 1997 Rawya Ateya, Egyptian captain and politician (born 1926)

• 1997 Marco Ferreri, Italian actor, director, and screenwriter (born 1928)

• 1998 Alice Faye, American actress and singer (born 1915)

• 1998 Talat Mahmood, Indian singer and actor (born 1924)

• 2003 Russell B. Long, American lieutenant, lawyer, and politician (born 1918)

• 2004 Akhmad Kadyrov, Chechen cleric and politician, 1st President of the Chechen Republic (born 1951)

• 2004 Alan King, American actor, producer, and screenwriter (born 1927)

• 2004 Brenda Fassie, South African singer (born 1964)

• 2007 Dwight Wilson, Canadian soldier (born 1901)

• 2008 Jack Gibson, Australian rugby league player, coach, and sportscaster (born 1929)

• 2008 Baptiste Manzini, American football player (born 1920)

• 2008 Nuala O'Faolain, Irish journalist and producer (born 1942)

• 2008 Pascal Sevran, French singer, television host, and author (born 1945)

• 2009 Chuck Daly, American basketball player and coach (born 1930)

• 2010 Lena Horne, American singer, actress, and activist (born 1917)

• 2010 Otakar Motejl, Czech lawyer and politician (born 1932)

• 2011 Wouter Weylandt, Belgian cyclist (born 1984)

• 2012 Bertram Cohler, American psychologist, psychoanalyst, and academic (born 1938)

• 2012 Geoffrey Henry, Cook Islander lawyer and politician, 3rd Prime Minister of the Cook Islands (born 1940)

• 2012 Vidal Sassoon, English-American hairdresser and businessman (born 1928)

• 2013 Ramón Blanco Rodríguez, Spanish footballer and manager (born 1952)

• 2013 George M. Leader, American soldier and politician, 36th Governor of Pennsylvania (born 1918)

• 2013 Humberto Lugo Gil, Mexican lawyer and politician, 23rd Governor of Hidalgo (born 1933)

• 2013 Ottavio Missoni, Italian hurdler and fashion designer, founded Missoni (born 1921)

• 2014 Giacomo Bini, Italian priest and missionary (born 1938)

• 2014 Harlan Mathews, American lawyer and politician (born 1927)

• 2014 Nedurumalli Janardhana Reddy, Indian politician, 12th Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh (born 1935)

• 2014 Mary Stewart, British author and poet (born 1916)

• 2015 Edward W. Estlow, American football player and journalist (born 1920)

• 2015 Kenan Evren, Turkish general and politician, 7th President of Turkey (born 1917)

• 2015 Elizabeth Wilson, American actress (born 1921)

• 2017 Robert Miles, a Swiss-born Italian record producer, composer, musician and DJ (born 1969)

• 2018 Per Kirkeby, Danish painter, poet, film maker and sculptor (born 1938)

• 2019 Freddie Starr, English comedian, impressionist, singer and actor (born 1943)

• 2020 Little Richard, American singer, songwriter, and pianist (born 1932)

• 2022 John Leo, American a writer and journalist (born 1935)

• 2022 Rieko Kodama, Japanese game developer (born 1963)

• 2024 Sean Burroughs, American baseball player (born 1980)

• 2024 Roger Corman, American film director, producer, and actor (born 1926)

• 2024 Rex Murphy, Canadian political commentator (born 1947)

Holidays and observances

Christian feast day:

• Beatus of Vendome

• Christopher (Eastern Orthodox Church)

• George Preca

• Gerontius of Cervia

• Gregory of Nazianzen (The Episcopal Church (US) and traditional Roman Catholic calendar)

• Blessed Karolina Gerhardinger

• Nicolaus Zinzendorf (Lutheran)

• Pachomius the Great

• Blessed Thomas Pickering

• Tudy of Landevennec

• May 9 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

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)

• National Day (Alderney)

• Europe Day, commemorating the Schuman Declaration. (European Union, Kosovo, Moldova, Ukraine)

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)

• Home Front Heroes Day in the United States (proposed; locally observed in Dallas, Texas)

• Goku Day (Japan), commemorating the fictional character Goku.

References

External links

• BBC: On This Day

• Historical Events on May 9