On This Day: 9 December

9 December in Indian history

• 1971Indo-Pakistani War: The Indian Air Force executes an airdrop of Indian Army units, bypassing Pakistani defences.India
• 1946The Constituent Assembly of India meets for the first time to write the Constitution of India.India

9 December in world history

• 2017Same-sex marriage in Australia became legal as the Marriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Act 2017 came into effect.
• 2008Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich is arrested by federal officials for crimes including attempting to sell the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.
• 2006Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on STS-116 carrying the P5 truss segment of the International Space Station.
• 1990In Serbia's first multi-party election, Slobodan Milošević won the presidential election and the Socialist Party of Serbia won the majority of seats in the National Assembly.
• 1968Douglas Engelbart gave what became known as "The Mother of All Demos", publicly debuting the computer mouse, hypertext, and the bit-mapped graphical user interface using the computer system NLS.
• 1965A large, brilliant fireball was seen by thousands in midwestern North America before landing in Kecksburg, Pennsylvania.
• 1953Red Scare: General Electric announces that all communist employees will be discharged from the company.
• 1950Cold War: Harry Gold is sentenced to 30 years in jail for helping Klaus Fuchs pass information about the Manhattan Project to the Soviet Union. His testimony is later instrumental in the prosecution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.
• 1941World War II: China, Cuba, Guatemala, and the Philippine Commonwealth declare war on Germany and Japan.
• 1940Second World War: British and Commonwealth forces began Operation Compass, the first major Allied military operation of the Western Desert campaign.
• 1937Second Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Nanking: Japanese troops under the command of Lt. Gen. Yasuhiko Asaka launch an assault on the Chinese city of Nanking.
• 1917First World War: Hussein al-Husayni, the Ottoman mayor of Jerusalem, surrendered the city to British forces.
• 1893National Assembly bombing by Auguste Vaillant during the Ère des attentats (1892–1894).
• 1872In Louisiana, P. B. S. Pinchback becomes the first African American governor of a U.S. state following the impeachment of Henry C. Warmoth.
• 1822In a memoir read to the French Academy of Sciences, Augustin-Jean Fresnel coined the terms linear, circular, and elliptical polarization, and reported a direct refraction experiment verifying his theory that optical rotation is a form of birefringence.
• 1775American Revolutionary War: After their loss in the Battle of Great Bridge, British authorities were forced to evacuate from the Colony of Virginia.

Born on 9 December

• 1993Mark McMorris, Canadian snowboarder
• 1946Sonia Gandhi, Italian-Indian politicianIndia
• 1919V. Dakshinamoorthy, Indian singer-songwriter (died 2013)India
• 1906Grace Hopper, American admiral and computer scientist, designed COBOL (died 1992)
• 1870Ida S. Scudder, Indian physician and missionary (died 1960)India
• 1868Fritz Haber, Polish-German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1934)

Died on 9 December

• 1971Rev. Aeneas Francon Williams, Church of Scotland Minister, Missionary in India and China, writer and poet (born 1886)India
• 1941Dmitry Merezhkovsky, Russian author, poet, and philosopher (born 1865)
• 1858Robert Baldwin, Canadian lawyer and politician, 3rd Premier of Canada West (born 1804)
• 748Nasr ibn Sayyar, Umayyad general and politician (born 663)

Frequently asked questions

What happened on 9 December in history?

2017: Same-sex marriage in Australia became legal as the Marriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Act 2017 came into effect. 2008: Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich is arrested by federal officials for crimes including attempting to sell the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by President-elect Barack Obama. 2006: Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on STS-116 carrying the P5 truss segment of the International Space Station. 1990: In Serbia's first multi-party election, Slobodan Milošević won the presidential election and the Socialist Party of Serbia won the majority of seats in the National Assembly.

What happened on 9 December in Indian history?

1971: Indo-Pakistani War: The Indian Air Force executes an airdrop of Indian Army units, bypassing Pakistani defences. 1946: The Constituent Assembly of India meets for the first time to write the Constitution of India.

Which famous people were born on 9 December?

Mark McMorris, Canadian snowboarder (1993); Sonia Gandhi, Italian-Indian politician (1946); V. Dakshinamoorthy, Indian singer-songwriter (died 2013) (1919); Grace Hopper, American admiral and computer scientist, designed COBOL (died 1992) (1906).

Which day is observed on 9 December?

Anna's Day, marks the day to start the preparation process of the lutefisk to be consumed on Christmas Eve, as well as a Swedish name day, c; Armed Forces Day (Peru); Fatherland's Heroes Day (Russia); Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Tanganyika from Britain in 1961. (Tanzania); International Anti-Corruption Day (United Nations).