Major Events
- 1401 Turko-Mongol ruler Tamerlane (Timur) destroys Baghdad, killing 20,000
- 1790 King Gustav III leads Swedish Naval forces to victory over the Russian Baltic fleet during the Second Battle of Svensksund, destroying or capturing one-third of the Russian ships and bringing an end to the Russo-Swedish War
- 1868 Louisiana and South Carolina are the last states to ratify the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution, guaranteeing civil rights
- 1893 Surgeon Daniel Hale Williams performs the first successful open-heart surgery when he repairs the torn pericardium of knife wound patient James Cornish, without the use of penicillin or blood transfusion [1]
- 1917 British battleship HMS Vanguard explodes at Scapa Flow due to an internal explosion caused by faulty cordite, killing 804 crew members
- 1971 National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger secretly visits the People’s Republic of China to negotiate a detente between the US and China
- 2002 The African Union is established in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The first chairman is Thabo Mbeki, President of South Africa.
- 2017 Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi proclaims victory over Islamic State forces in Mosul
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- 1955 Bill Haley & His Comets’ “Rock Around the Clock” tops the Billboard chart as one of the best-selling singles ever
Jul 9 in Sport
Fun Fact About July 9
Bright pink is the world’s oldest biological color according to scientists, produced by tiny cyanobacteria in 1.1 bn-year-old marine shale rock from Taoudeni Basin, Mauritania
Famous Weddings
- 1735 Author, poet, critic and lexicographer and writer of the first English dictionary Dr. Samuel Johnson (25) marries the widow Elizabeth “Tetty” Porter, 21 years his senior
- 1842 American “The Scarlett Letter” writer Nathaniel Hawthorne (38) marries American painter and illustrator Sophia Peabody (33) in the Peabody’s home, Boston, until his death in 1864
- 1894 Scottish “Peter Pan” creator J. M. Barrie (34) weds British actress Mary Ansell (33) in Kirriemuir, Scotland; divorce in 1909,
Famous Divorces
- 1540 English King Henry VIII annuls his 6 month marriage to his 4th wife Anne of Cleves, on the grounds of non-consummation and her pre-contract to Francis of Lorraine
- 2007 Former contestant on “The Apprentice” and beauty queen Jennifer Murphy (28) divorces “Extreme Makeover” Bill Dorfman (48) due to irreconcilable differences after 1 year of marriage
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