May 9 Historical Events

The following events took place on May 9. The list is arranged in chronological order.

Found 53 events. Showing 1 - 30.

• 1092
  Lincoln Cathedral is consecrated.
• 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
  'Abd al-Latif (Timurid monarch) is assassinated.
• 1662
  The figure who later became Mr. Punch made 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.
• 1763
  The Siege of Fort Detroit begins during Pontiac’s War against British forces.
• 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: Vienna stock market crash heralds the Long Depression.
• 1874
  The first horse-drawn bus makes its début in the city of Mumbai, traveling two routes.
• 1877
  Mihail Kogălniceanu reads, in the Chamber of Deputies, the Declaration of Independence of Romania. This day became the Independence Day of Romania.
• 1877
  A magnitude 8.8 earthquake off the coast of Peru kills 2,541, including some as far away as Hawaii and Japan.
• 1887
  Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show opens in London.

• 1901
  Australia opens its first parliament in Melbourne.
• 1904
  The steam locomotive City of Truro becomes the first steam engine in Europe to exceed 100 mph.
• 1911
  The works of Gabriele D'Annunzio are placed in the Index of Forbidden Books by the Vatican.
• 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 Australian Parliament first convenes in Canberra.
• 1936
  Italy formally annexes Ethiopia after taking the capital Addis Ababa on May 5.
• 1940
  World War II: The German submarine U-9 sinks the French coastal submarine Doris near Den Helder.
• 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
  Holocaust: The SS murders 588 Jewish residents of the Podolian town of Zinkiv (Khmelnytska oblast, Ukraine). The Zoludek Ghetto (in Belarus) is destroyed and all its inhabitants murdered or deported.
• 1945
  World War II: Ratification in Berlin-Karlshorst of the German unconditional surrender of May 8 in Rheims, France, with the signatures of Marshal Georgy Zhukov for the Soviet Union, and for the Western Headquarters Sir Arthur Tedder, British Air Marshal and Eisenhower’s deputy, and for the German side of Colonel-General Hans-Jürgen Stumpff as the representative of the Luftwaffe, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel as the Chief of Staff of OKW, and Admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg as Commander-in-Chief of the Kriegsmarine.
• 1945
  World War II: The Channel Islands are liberated by the British after five years of German occupation.
• 1946
  King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy abdicates and is succeeded by Umberto II.