more events on December 9
-
2008
Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich is arrested on federal charges, including an attempt to sell the US Senate seat being vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.
-
1992
U.S. Marines land in Somalia to ensure food and medicine reaches the deprived areas of that country.
-
1990
Lech Walesa is elected president of Poland.
-
1963
Masako, Crown Princes of Japan, wife of Crown Prince Naruhito, heir apparent to the Chrysanthemum Throne.
-
1960
The Laos government flees to Cambodia as the capital city of Vientiane is engulfed in war.
-
1955
Sugar Ray Robinson knocks out Carl Olson to regain the world middleweight boxing title.
-
1953
John Malkovich, actor (Places in the Heart), producer (Juno), director, fashion designer.
-
1950
Harry Gold gets 30 years imprisonment for passing atomic bomb secrets to the Soviet Union during World War II.
-
President Harry Truman bans U.S. exports to Communist China.
-
1949
The United Nations takes trusteeship over Jerusalem.
-
1948
The United States abandons a plan to de-concentrate industry in Japan.
-
1942
Dick Butkus, pro football player; inducted into Pro Football Hall of Fame, 1979.
-
1941
Franklin D. Roosevelt tells Americans to plan for a long war.
-
1940
The British army seizes 1,000 Italians in a sudden thrust in Egypt.
-
1934
Judi Dench (Dame Judith Dench), actress; known to James Bond fans for her role as M in Bond films beginning with Golden Eye (1997), her many awards include an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress (Chocolat, 2000).
-
1932
Billy Edd Wheeler, singer, songwriter ("Jackson," "Coward of the County").
-
1929
John Cassavetes, actor (The Dirty Dozen), film director, screenwriter (Faces).
-
1928
Dick Van Patten, actor; best known for his role on the TV series Eight is Enough.
-
1926
Henry Kendall, particle physicist; shared Nobel Prize in 1990.
-
1922
Redd Foxx (John Sanford), comedian, actor; best known for his starring role in the TV series Sanford and Son.
-
1919
William Lipscomb, chemist; awarded Nobel Prize in 1976.
-
1918
Kirk Douglas, American actor (Spartacus).
-
1917
The new Finnish Republic demands the withdrawal of Russian troops.
-
1912
Thomas P. "Tip" O’Neill, speaker of the House of Representatives.
-
1908
A child labor bill passes in the German Reichstag, forbidding work for children under age 13.
-
1906
Grace Hopper, mathematician and computer pioneer.
-
1900
The Russian czar rejects Boer Paul Kruger’s pleas for aid in South Africa against the British.
-
1899
Jean de Brunhoff, illustrator and author, creator of the Babar series of books.
-
1872
P.B.S. Pinchback becomes the first African-American governor of Louisiana.
-
1867
The capital of Colorado Territory is moved from Golden to Denver.
-
1863
Major General John G. Foster replaces Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside as Commander of the Department of Ohio.
-
1861
The U.S. Senate approves establishment of a committee that would become the Joint Committee on the Conduct of War.
-
1848
Joel Chandler Harris, writer, creator of the Uncle Remus tales.
-
1809
William Barret Travis, commander of the Texas troops at the battle of the Alamo.
-
1608
John Milton, British writer and poet (Paradise Lost).
-
536
Having captured Naples earlier in the year, Belisarius takes Rome.