August 9
day of the year
August 9 is the 221st day of the year (222nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 144 days remaining until the end of the year.
Events change
Up to 1900 change
- 48 BC – Caesar's Civil War: Battle of Pharsalus - Julius Caesar decisively defeats Pompey at Pharsalus. Pompey flees to Egypt.
- 378 – Gothic War: Battle of Adrianople - A large Roman army led by Emperor Valens is defeated by the Visigoths. Valens is killed, along with over half of his army.
- 681 – Bulgaria is founded on the south bank of the Danube after defeating the Byzantine armies of Emperor Constantine IV south of the Danube delta.
- 1173 – Construction of the Leaning Tower of Pisa begins.
- 1329 – Quilon, the first Indian Christian Diocese, is created by Pope John XXII. French-born Jordanus becomes its first bishop.
- 1483 – The Sistine Chapel opens.
- 1810 – Napoleon Bonaparte annexes the departments of the kingdom of Westphalia into the French Empire.
- 1842 – The Webster-Ashburton Treaty is signed. It confirms where the US-Canada border runs to the east of the Rocky Mountains.
- 1854 – Henry David Thoreau publishes his work Walden.
- 1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Cedar Mountain - Confederate general Stonewall Jackson narrowly defeats Union general John Pope.
- 1890 – The United Kingdom gives the North Sea island of Heligoland over to German control.
- 1892 – Thomas Edison receives a patent for the two-way telegraph.
- 1896 – German aviator Otto Lilienthal crashes during a flying attempt, dying the next day.
From 1901 change
- 1902 – Edward VII of the United Kingdom is crowned king, while his consort, Alexandra of Denmark is crowned queen of the United Kingdom.
- 1907 – The first Boy Scout camp ends on Brownsea Island, Dorset, England, UK, having been led by Robert Baden-Powell.
- 1910 – Roald Amundsen's South Pole expedition leaves Kristiania, present-day Oslo. The public does not know that it is destined for the South Pole.
- 1912 – An earthquake of magnitude 7.3 in Persia kills around 5,500 people.
- 1914 – World War I: Start of the Battle of Mulhouse, part of an eventually unsuccessful French attempt to retake Alsace from Germany.
- 1925 – A train robbery occurs in Lucknow, India.
- 1936 – Jesse Owens wins his fourth gold medal of the 1936 Summer Olympics.
- 1942 – Mahatma Gandhi is arrested by British colonial police in Bombay, starting the Quit India Movement for Indian independence.
- 1942 – World War II: Battle of Savo Island - Allied forces are surprised and defeated by the Japanese Imperial Navy cruise force in initial stages of the Battle of Guadalcanal.
- 1944 – The US Forest Service and Wartime Advertising Council release posters featuring Smokey the Bear for the first time.
- 1945 – World War II: The United States drops an atomic bomb, "Fat Man" on the city of Nagasaki.
- 1965 – Singapore gains independence from Malaysia.
- 1965 – A fire at a Titan missile base near Searcy, Arkansas kills 53 construction workers.
- 1968 – British Eagle Flight 802 crashes near Langenbruck, north of Munich, Bavaria, Germany, killing all 48 people on board.
- 1969 – Members of Charles Manson's gang murder Sharon Tate, her unborn son, Abigail Folger, Wojciech Frykowski, Jay Sebring, and Steven Parent.
- 1970 – A Lockheed L-188 Electra plane crashes near Cuzco, Peru, killing 99 of the 100 people on board, as well as 2 people on the ground.
- 1971 – The Troubles: British security forces in Northern Ireland begin Operation Demetrius. In the violence that followed, hundreds are arrested or interred, thousands are made homeless, and 20 people are killed.
- 1974 – Gerald Ford becomes President of the United States after the resignation of Richard Nixon over the Watergate scandal.
- 1974 – The oil tanker Metula runs aground off Tierra del Fuego.
- 1988 – Wayne Gretzky, star of ice hockey, is transferred from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings in one of the most controversial transactions in ice hockey history.
- 1990 – The United Nations Security Council declares Iraq's occupation of Kuwait null and void.
- 1992 – The 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona end.
- 1993 – Albert II of Belgium is proclaimed King.
- 1993 – The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan loses a 38-year hold on national leadership.
- 1999 – Boris Yeltsin names Vladimir Putin as Prime Minister of Russia.
- 1999 – Charles Kennedy is elected leader of the British Liberal Democrats.
- 2001 – 15 people are killed and 132 are injured in a suicide bombing in Downtown Jerusalem.
- 2005 – Space Shuttle Discovery lands safely back on Earth, after a two-week space mission, following spacewalks to carry out repairs on the Shuttle.
- 2012 – 2012 Summer Olympics: Nicola Adams becomes the first Olympic gold medalist in women's boxing. On the same day, Kenya's David Rudisha sets a new record in the men's 800 meters.
- 2018 – A Saudi airstrike in Dahyan, Yemen, kills at least 51 people, including 29 children.
Births change
Up to 1800 change
- 1201 – Arnold Fitz Thedmar, English chronicler (d. 1274)
- 1537 – Francesco Barozzi, Italian mathematician, astronomer and humanist (d. 1604)
- 1544 – Bogislaw III, Duke of Pomerania (d. 1606)
- 1594 – Izaak Walton, English writer (d. 1683)
- 1603 – Johannes Cocceius, German Protestant theologian (d. 1669)
- 1648 – Johann Michael Bach, German composer (d. 1694)
- 1653 – John Oldham, English poet and translator (d. 1683)
- 1663 – Ferdinando de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (d. 1713)
- 1669 – Eudoxia Lopukhina, Tsarina of Russia (d. 1731)
- 1696 – Joseph Wenzel I, Prince of Liechtenstein (d. 1772)
- 1722 – Prince Augustus William of Prussia (d. 1758)
- 1726 – Francesco Cetti, Italian Jesuit scientist (d. 1778)
- 1736 – Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé, French statesman (d. 1818)
- 1754 – Pierre Charles L'Enfant, French architect (d. 1825)
- 1757 – Thomas Telford, Scottish civil engineer (d. 1834)
- 1757 – Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, American political figure (d. 1854)
- 1759 – Johann Christoph Friedrich GutsMuths, German scholar (d. 1839)
- 1776 – Amedeo Avogadro, Italian chemist (d. 1856)
- 1783 – Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna of Russia (d. 1801)
- 1794 – Achille Valenciennes, French zoologist (d. 1865)
- 1797 – Charles Robert Malden, British naval officer who discovered Malden Island (d. 1855)
1801 – 1900 change
- 1805 – Joseph Locke, British railway and civil engineer (d. 1860)
- 1817 – Justo Arosemena, Panamanian statesman (d. 1896)
- 1819 – William T. G. Morton, American dentist and anesthesia pioneer (d. 1868)
- 1834 – Manuel Pardo, 20th President of Peru (d. 1878)
- 1845 – André Bessette, Canadian saint (d. 1937)
- 1847 – Maria Vittoria dal Pozzo, Queen of Spain (d. 1876)
- 1863 – Alvaro Figueroa, 1st Count of Romanones, Prime Minister of Spain (d. 1950)
- 1867 – Evelina Haverfield, Scottish nurse and activist (d. 1920)
- 1871 – Leonid Andreyev, Russian writer (d. 1919)
- 1872 – Archduke Joseph August of Austria, Austrian field marshal (d. 1962)
- 1874 – Reynaldo Hahn, Venezuelan-born composer (d. 1947)
- 1875 – Albert Ketèlbey, English composer (d. 1959)
- 1884 – John S. McCain, Sr., American admiral (d. 1945)
- 1887 – Hans Oster, German general and Resistance activist (d. 1945)
- 1892 – S. R. Ranganathan, Indian mathematician (d. 1972)
- 1894 – Mikhail Zoshchenko, Russian writer (d. 1958)
- 1896 – Jean Piaget, Swiss child psychologist (d. 1980)
- 1899 – P. L. Travers, Australian writer, writer of Mary Poppins (d. 1996)
1901 – 1950 change
- 1901 – Charles Farrell, American actor (d. 1990)
- 1902 – Zino Francescatti, French violinist (d. 1991)
- 1903 – Tom Tyler, American actor (d. 1954)
- 1904 – Hasso von Boehmer, German military and Resistance activist (d. 1945)
- 1908 – Tommaso Landolfi, Italian writer (d. 1979)
- 1909 – Adam von Trott zu Solz, German jurist, diplomat and Resistance activist (d. 1944)
- 1910 – Robert van Gulik, Dutch sinologist, diplomat, writer and musician (d. 1967)
- 1911 – William Alfred Fowler, American physicist (d. 1996)
- 1912 – Anne Brown, American soprano (d. 2009)
- 1914 – Tove Jansson, Finnish writer of the Moomin books (d. 2001)
- 1914 – Ferenc Fricsay, Hungarian conductor (d. 1963)
- 1914 – Joe Mercer, English footballer (d. 1990)
- 1914 – Alastair Windsor, 2nd Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, British aristocrat (d. 1943)
- 1916 – Manea Manescu, Romanian politician (d. 2009)
- 1918 – Robert Aldrich, American director (d. 1983)
- 1919 – Joop den Uyl, Prime Minister of the Netherlands (d. 1987)
- 1920 – Enzo Biagi, Italian journalist and writer (d. 2007)
- 1921 – J. James Exon, American politician, 33rd Governor of Nebraska (d. 2005)
- 1922 – Philip Larkin, English poet (d. 1985)
- 1923 – Gerrit Kouwenaar, Dutch poet (d. 2014)
- 1924 – Marta Becket, American actress, dancer, choreographer and painter (d. 2017)
- 1927 – Marvin Minsky, American scientist (d. 2016)
- 1927 – Daniel Keyes, American writer (d. 2014)
- 1927 – Robert Shaw, English actor (d. 1978)
- 1928 – Bob Cousy, American professional basketball player (NBA)
- 1930 – Jacques Parizeau, Quebec politician and economist (d. 2015)
- 1931 – Mário Zagallo, Brazilian footballer
- 1931 – James Freeman Gilbert, American geophysicist (d. 2014)
- 1932 – Anand Panyarachun, former Prime Minister of Thailand
- 1932 – Tam Dalyell, Scottish politician (d. 2017)
- 1933 – Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, Japanese television personality, children's writer
- 1934 – Graeme Gibson, Canadian novelist and union leader (d. 2019)
- 1936 – Patrick Tse, Hong Kong-Chinese actor, director, producer and screenwriter
- 1937 – Hans Nowak, German footballer (d. 2012)
- 1938 – Leonid Kuchma, former President of Ukraine
- 1938 – Rod Laver, Australian tennis player
- 1938 – Otto Rehhagel, German football manager
- 1939 – Romano Prodi, former Prime Minister of Italy
- 1939 – The Mighty Hannibal, American singer-songwriter and record producer (d. 2014)
- 1939 – Hércules Brito Ruas, Brazilian footballer
- 1939 – Bulle Ogier, French actress
- 1942 – Tommie Agee, American baseball player (d. 2001)
- 1943 – Ken Norton, American boxer (d. 2013)
- 1943 – Lorenzo Sanz, Spanish businessman
- 1943 – Lubomir Kavalek, Czech-American chess player
- 1944 – John Simpson, English journalist and correspondent
- 1944 – Sam Elliott, American actor
- 1944 – Patrick Depailler, French racing driver (d. 1980)
- 1945 – Posy Simmonds, cartoonist
- 1947 – Roy Hodgson, English football manager
- 1947 – Barbara Mason, American soul singer
- 1948 – William M. Daley, 24th White House Chief of Staff
- 1949 – Jonathan Kellerman, American mystery writer
1951 – 1975 change
- 1951 – James Naughtie, Scottish broadcaster
- 1951 – Michaele Schreyer, German politician
- 1952 – Prateep Ungsongtham Hata, Thai politician and activist
- 1953 – Michael Russell, Scottish politician
- 1953 – Kay Stenshjemmet, Norwegian speed skater
- 1953 – Jean Tirole, French economist
- 1955 – Maud Olofsson, Swedish politician
- 1955 – Charlie Morgan, English drummer
- 1957 – Melanie Griffith, American actress (Working Girl, The Bonfire of the Vanities)
- 1958 – Amanda Bearse, American actress
- 1959 – Stuart Hughes, Canadian actor
- 1959 – Kurtis Blow, American rapper
- 1959 – Michael Kors, American fashion designer
- 1959 – Idrissa Seck, former Prime Minister of Senegal
- 1961 – John Key, 38th Prime Minister of New Zealand
- 1961 – Brad Gilbert, American tennis player
- 1961 – Amy Stiller, American actress
- 1962 – Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, German politician, former Prime Minister of Saarland
- 1962 – Kevin Mack, American football player
- 1962 – John "Hot Rod" Williams, American basketball player
- 1963 – Maria Manuela Machado, Portuguese long-distance runner
- 1963 – Petra Pau, German politician
- 1963 – Whitney Houston, American singer and actress (d. 2012)
- 1963 – Jay Leggett, American actor (d. 2013)
- 1964 – Brett Hull, Canadian-American professional hockey player (NHL)
- 1966 – Vinny Del Negro, American basketball player and coach
- 1967 – Dana Vávrová, Czech actress (d. 2009)
- 1967 – Ralph Hasenhüttl, Austrian footballer and manager
- 1967 – Deion Sanders, American football player
- 1968 – Gillian Anderson, American actress
- 1968 – Eric Bana, Australian actor
- 1968 – McG, American director and producer
- 1969 – Troy Percival, Major League Baseball All-Star
- 1970 – Chris Cuomo, American journalist
- 1970 – Thomas Lennon, American actor, director, producer and screenwriter
- 1972 – Juan Esteban Aristizábal Vásquez, Colombian singer and songwriter
- 1972 – Liz Vassey, American actress
- 1973 – Kevin McKidd, Scottish actor
- 1973 – Filippo Inzaghi, Italian footballer
- 1974 – Derek Fisher, American basketball player
From 1976 change
- 1976 – Jessica Capshaw, American actress (The Practice)
- 1976 – Rhona Mitra, American actress (The Practice)
- 1976 – Audrey Tautou, French actress
- 1976 – Nawaf al-Hazmi, Saudi Arabian terrorist (d. 2001)
- 1977 – Chamique Holdsclaw, professional basketball player (WNBA)
- 1977 – Adewale Ogunleye, American football player
- 1977 – Mikael Silvestre, French footballer
- 1978 – Daniela Denby-Ashe, British actress
- 1978 – Wesley Sonck, Belgian footballer
- 1979 – Lisa Nandy, English politician
- 1979 – Tony Stewart, American football player
- 1980 – Ryoo Seung-bum, South Korean actor
- 1981 – Jarvis Hayes, American basketball player
- 1981 – Li Jiawei, Singaporean table tennis player
- 1981 – Roland Linz, Austrian footballer
- 1982 – Tyson Gay, American runner
- 1982 – Joel Anthony, American basketball player
- 1982 – Yekaterina Samutsevich, Russian singer and activist (Pussy Riot)
- 1983 – Ashley Johnson, American actress
- 1985 – Luca Filippi, Italian racing driver
- 1985 – Anna Kendrick, American actress
- 1985 – Dennis Marshall, Costa Rican footballer (d. 2011)
- 1985 – Hayley Peirsol, American swimmer
- 1986 – Rafaela Zanella, Brazilian model
- 1987 – Marco Carmona, Mexican artist
- 1988 – Vasilios Koutsianikoulis, Greek footballer
- 1989 – Stefano Okaka, Italian footballer
- 1989 – Jason Heyward, American baseball player
- 1990 – Adelaide Kane, Australian actress
- 1991 – Alexa Bliss, American professional wrestler
- 1991 – Candela Vetrano, Argentine actress and singer
- 1993 – Rydel Lynch, American actress, singer, dancer and musician
- 1994 – Jonathan Espericueta, Mexican footballer
- 1994 – Forrest Landis, American actor
- 1996 – Deborah Burke, Canadian ice hockey player
Deaths change
Up to 1900 change
- 117 – Trajan, Roman emperor (b. 53)
- 378 – Valens, Roman emperor (killed in battle) (b. 328)
- 378 – Traianus, Roman general
- 803 – Byzantine Empress Irene (b. 752)
- 1048 – Pope Damasus II
- 1107 – Emperor Horikawa of Japan (b. 1079)
- 1250 – King Eric IV of Denmark (b. 1216)
- 1472 – Janos Vitez, Croatian humanist (b. 1408)
- 1534 – Thomas Cajetan, Italian theologian (b. 1470)
- 1580 – Metrophanes III, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople (b. 1520)
- 1601 – Michael the Brave, Prince of Wallachia (b. 1558)
- 1816 – Johann August Apel, German jurist and writer (b. 1771)
- 1837 – Xavier Sigalon, French painter (b. 1787)
- 1854 – Frederick Augustus II of Saxony (b. 1797)
- 1864 – John Brown Francis, Governor of Rhode Island (b. 1791)
- 1880 – William Bigler, 12th Governor of Pennsylvania (b. 1814)
1901 – 2000 change
- 1909 – Jemima Blackburn, Scottish painter (b. 1823)
- 1910 – Hua Yuan Jia, Chinese martial artist (b. 1868)
- 1914 – Roque Sáenz Peña, President of Argentina (b. 1851)
- 1919 – Ernst Haeckel, German zoologist and philosopher (b. 1834)
- 1919 – Ruggero Leoncavallo, Italian composer (b. 1857)
- 1927 – Stephan G. Stephansson, Western Icelander poet and farmer (b. 1853)
- 1932 – John Charles Fields, Canadian mathematician (b. 1863)
- 1942 – Edith Stein, (St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross) at Auschwitz (b. 1891)
- 1945 – Harry Hillman, American athlete (b. 1881)
- 1948 – Hugo Boss, German fashion designer (b. 1885)
- 1949 – Harry Davenport, American actor (b. 1866)
- 1956 – Tobias Danzig, Russian-American mathematician (b. 1884)
- 1962 – Hermann Hesse, German writer (b. 1877)
- 1967 – Joe Orton, English writer (d. 1933)
- 1969 – Cecil Frank Powell, British physicist (b. 1903)
- 1969 – Murdered by Charles Manson's gang:
- Sharon Tate, American actress (murdered) (b. 1943)
- Jay Sebring, Hollywood hair stylist (b. 1933)
- Abigail Folger, Coffee heiress (b. 1943)
- Wojciech Frykowski, Polish writer (b. 1936)
- Steven Parent, American student (b. 1951)
- 1974 – Bill Chase, American trumpeter and bandleader (b. 1934)
- 1975 – Dmitri Shostakovich, Russian composer (b. 1906)
- 1976 – José Lezama Lima, Cuban writer (b. 1910)
- 1979 – Walter O'Malley, American baseball executive (b. 1903)
- 1980 – Jacqueline Cochran, American pilot (b. 1906)
- 1988 – Giacinto Scelsi, Italian composer (b. 1905)
- 1988 – Ramon Valdés, Mexican actor (b. 1923)
- 1990 – Wladislaw Orlicz, Polish mathematician (b. 1903)
- 1990 – Joe Mercer, English footballer (b. 1914)
- 1992 – Fereydoun Farrokhzad, Iranian singer and actor (b. 1938)
- 1995 – Jerry Garcia, American guitarist (Grateful Dead) (b. 1942)
- 1996 – Frank Whittle, British engineer and inventor (b. 1907)
- 1998 – Frankie Ruiz, American singer (b. 1958)
- 1999 – Fouad Serageddin, Egyptian politician (b. 1910)
- 2000 – John Harsanyi, Hungarian-born economist (b. 1920)
From 2001 change
- 2003 – Ray Harford, English football manager (b. 1945)
- 2003 – Gregory Hines, American actor and dancer (b. 1946)
- 2004 – Robert Lecourt, French politician (b. 1908)
- 2005 – Colette Besson, French athlete (b. 1946)
- 2006 – Rafael Ruiz, Spanish hockey player (b. 1916)
- 2006 – James Van Allen, American physicist (b. 1914)
- 2008 – Mahmoud Darwish, Palestinian poet (b. 1941)
- 2008 – Bernie Mac, American comedian and actor (b. 1957)
- 2010 – Ted Stevens, American politician (b. 1923)
- 2012 – Mel Stuart, American director and producer (b. 1928)
- 2012 – Al Freeman, Jr., American actor (b. 1934)
- 2013 – Regina Resnik, American mezzo-soprano (b. 1923)
- 2014 – Andriy Bal, Ukrainian footballer and coach (b. 1958)
- 2014 – Charles Keating, British actor (b. 1941)
- 2014 – Michael Brown, American shooting victim (b. 1996)
- 2014 – Ed Nelson, American actor (b. 1928)
- 2014 – Jerome Ehlers, Australian actor (b. 1958)
- 2015 – Frank Gifford, American football player (b. 1930)
- 2015 – John Henry Holland, American computer scientist (b. 1929)
- 2015 – Fikret Otyam, Turkish painter and journalist (b. 1926)
- 2015 – Susan Sheridan, British voice actress (b. 1947)
- 2015 – David Nobbs, British comedy writer (b. 1935)
- 2015 – George E. R. Kinnear II, American admiral (b. 1928)
- 2016 – Gerald Grosvenor, 6th Duke of Westminster, British aristocrat and landowner (b. 1951)
- 2016 – Kalikho Pul, Indian politician, Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh (b. 1969)
- 2016 – Wang Tuoh, Taiwanese writer (b. 1944)
- 2016 – Ernst Neizvestny, Russian-American sculptor, painter, graphic artist and philosopher (b. 1925)
- 2017 – Patricio Echegaray, Argentine politician (b. 1946)
- 2017 – Al McCandless, American politician (b. 1927)
- 2017 – Peter Weibel, German racing cyclist (b. 1950)
- 2017 – Thomas A. Bird, British World War II army officer and architect (b. 1918)
- 2018 – Manfred Melzer, German Roman Catholic prelate (b. 1944)
- 2018 – Mehrdad Pahlbod, Iranian politician (b. 1917)
- 2019 – Paul Findley, American politician (b. 1921)
- 2019 – Altair Gomes de Figueiredo, Brazilian footballer (b. 1938)
- 2019 – Fahrudin Jusufi, Yugoslavian footballer (b. 1939)
Observances change
- National Day of Singapore
- Nagasaki Peace Memorial Ceremony
- International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples
- National Women's Day (South Africa and Namibia)