May 9

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