On this day in History - Dec. 9

• 1447 - Chenghua was born [d. 1487]. Emperor of China
• 1565 - Pope Pius IV [Gianangelo de' Medici], dies [b. 31.March.1499]
• 1579 - Martin de Porres was born [d. 1639]. Peruvian saint.
• 1594 - King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden was born [d. 1632]
• 1608 - John Milton was born in London [d. 1674]. One of the greatest poets of the English language
• 1641 - Anton Van Dyck dies in London [b. 1599]; Flemish portrait-painter.
• 1669 - Pope Clement IX dies [b. 28 Jan 1600]
• 1706 - D. Pedro II of Portugal II dies [b. 1648]. King of Portugal (1683 - 1706).
• 1824 - Battle of Ayacucho: Peruvian nationalists led by Antonio José de Sucre defeat Spanish colonial forces and secure the independence of Peru.
• 1854 - Almeida Garrett dies in Lisbon [b. 1799 in Oporto]. Portuguese writer, journalist and politician.
• 1854 - Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s famous poem, "The Charge of the Light Brigade," was published in England.
• 1868 - Fritz Haber was born [d. 1934]. German chemist and Nobel Prize laureate in 1918.
• 1875 - Antonio Borrero y Cortázar assumes the presidency of Ecuador
• 1882 - Joaquín Turina was born [d. 1949]. Spanish composer.
• 1888 - Maria de Arruda Müller was born [b. 2001]. Brazilian poetess.
• 1894 - Aníbal Machado was born [d. 1964]. Brazilian writer.
• 1900 - En France les femmes sont autorisées à exercer la profession d'avocat.
• 1901 - José Rodrigues Miguéis was born in Lisbon [d. 1980]. Portuguese writer.
• 1907 - Christmas seals went on sale for the first time, at the Wilmington, Del., post office; proceeds went to fight tuberculosis.
• 1909 - António Pedro was born in Cape Verde (d. 1966). Portuguese writer and plastic artist (surrealist painter).
• 1909 - Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. was born. American actor.
• 1913 - O ministro dos negócios estrangeiros alemão, fazendo no Reichtag o discurso anual sobre política externa, torna pública a existência de negociações com a Grã-Bretanha sobre a divisão das colónias portuguesas pelas duas potências e prevê o êxito das mesmas
• 1915 - Elisabeth Schwarzkopf was born. German soprano
• 1916 - Kirk Douglas was born. American actor
• 1917 - Forças turcas se rendem e o exercito inglês, liderado pelo General Allenby, ocupa Jerusalém
• 1917 - James Rainwater was born [d. 1986]. American physicist and Nobel Prize laureate.
• 1919 - William Lipscomb was born. American chemist and Nobel Prize laureate in 1976.
• 1920 - Carlo Azeglio Ciampi was born. President of the Italian Republic
• 1925 - Ernest Gellner was born. Anthropologist and philosopher.
• 1926 - Henry Way Kendall was born [d. 1999]. American physicist and Nobel Prize laureate in 1990.
• 1929 - John Cassavetes, was born, actor and film director (d. 1989)
• 1929 - Bob Hawke, twenty-third Prime Minister of Australia
• 1929 - Ginger Rogers makes Broadway debut
• 1930 - Oscar Humberto Mejía Victores. President of Guatemala (1983-1986)
• 1931 - Spain becomes a republic.
• 1937 - Battle of Nanjing begins.
• 1940 - British troops opened their first major offensive in North Africa during World War II.
• 1941 - China declared war against Japan, Germany, and Italy.
• 1942 - The Aram Khachaturian ballet "Gayane," featuring the surging "Saber Dance," was first performed by the Kirov Ballet.
• 1947 - Steve Owens was born. Football player
• 1948 - A Assembleia Geral da Organização das Nações Unidas (ONU) aprovou por unanimidade a Convenção para a Prevenção e o Castigo do Crime de Genocídio. A convenção entrou em funcionamento em 12 de Janeiro de 1951, quando foi ratificada por 20 países.
• 1949 -O governo nacionalista chinês, liderado por Chiang Kai-shek, se instala na Ilha de Formosa.
• 1950 - Joan Armatrading, born, singer
• 1953 - General Electric announces that all Communist employees will be discharged from the company
• 1953 - John Malkovich was born. Actor
• 1957 - Donny Osmond was born. Entertainer
• 1958 -The anti-Communist John Birch Society was formed in Indianopolis1961 - Tanganyika (now Tanzania) achieves independence.
• 1959 - Miguel Rovisco was born. Portuguese writer.
• 1962 - Julius Kambarage Nyerere is first president of newly formed Republic of Tanganyika.
• 1963 - Zanzibar becomes independen
• 1965 - "A Charlie Brown Christmas" premiered.
• 1965 - Nikolai V. Podgorny replaced Anastas I. Mikoyan as president of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet.
• 1966 - Barbados e Emiratos Árabes Unidos são admitidos como Estados-Membros da ONU
• 1974 -Portuguese and Rhodesian soldiers are accused in a UN report of torturing and killing over 1,000 Africans in Mozambique during the war of independence.
• 1974 - Começo em Portugal do recenseamento eleitoral com vista à realização das primeiras eleições a realizar após o 25 de Abril.
• 1977 - Clarice Lispector dies in Rio de Janeiro [b. 1920]. Ukranian-born, Brazilian writer.
• 1978 - Gastón Gaudio was born. Argentine tennis player.
• 1978 - Eva Aichmajerova was born in Litoměřice, Československo. Model and actress.
• 1979 - Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, the religious broadcaster, died in New York City at age 84.
• 1984 - The five-day-old hijacking of a Kuwaiti jetliner that claimed the lives of two Americans ended as Iranian security men seized control of the plane, which was parked at Tehran airport.
• 1985 - O ex-presidente argentino Jorge Videla é condenado à prisão perpétua por ter liderado a “guerra suja” na qual milhares de pessoas desapareceram.
• 1990 - Lech Walesa was elected president of Poland.
• 1992 - John Major announced the separation of Prince Charles, Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales
• 1992 - É aprovado no Brasil o Imposto Provisório sobre Movimentação Financeira (IPMF).
• 1992 - US Marines land in Somalia
• 1993 - The Air Force destroyed the first of 500 Minuteman II missile silos marked for elimination under an arms control treaty.
• 1993 - U.S. astronauts completed repair work on the Hubble Space Telescope.
• 1994 - Representatives of the Irish Republican Army and the British government opened peace talks in Northern Ireland.
• 1994 - Joaquim Chissano takes place as President of Mozambique
• 1996 - Archaeologist and anthropologist Mary Leakey died in Kenya at age 83.
• 1997 - In Russia 3 armed hijackers seized an Ilyushin-62 passenger plane from far east city of Magadan with at least 140 people onboard. They demanded $10 million and a flight to Switzerland.
• 1998 - In Angola Unita rebels advanced on Cuito after saying they had routed an attack by government forces on their southern stronghold.
• 2001 - In Uganda a gasoline truck crash killed 58 people near Iganga. Many of the victims had tried to gather up fuel when it ignited.
• 2002 - Stan Rice dies [b. 1942]. American painter, educator, and poet.
• 2003 - A suicide bomber killed five victims outside an exclusive Moscow hotel
• 2005 - The draw for the 2006 Football World Cup takes place in Leipzig, Germany.
• 2005 - The last regular Routemaster bus service in London, route 159, ends.