February 9
474
Zeno crowned as co-emperor of the Byzantine Empire.
1775
American Revolutionary War: The British Parliament declares Massachusetts [to be] in rebellion.
1825 After no candidate receives a majority of electoral votes in
the US presidential election of 1824, the United States House of Representatives elects
John Quincy Adams as the sixth President of the United States.
1861 American Civil War:
Jefferson Davis is elected the Provisional President of the Confederate States of America by the
Confederate Convention at Montgomery, Alabama.
1870 US president Ulysses S. Grant signs a joint resolution of Congress establishing the
U.S. Weather Bureau.
1889 US president Grover Cleveland signs a bill elevating the
United States Department of Agriculture to a Cabinet-level agency.
1895 William G. Morgan creates a game called Mintonette, which soon comes to be referred to as
volleyball.
1913 A
group of meteors is visible across much of the eastern seaboard of North and South America, leading astronomers to conclude the source had been a small, short-lived natural satellite of the Earth.
1941 World War II: The
Cathedral of San Lorenzo in Genoa, Italy is struck by a bomb, which fails to detonate.
1942 Year-round
Daylight Saving Time is re-instated in the United States as a wartime measure to help conserve energy resources.
1943 World War II: Allied authorities declare Guadalcanal secure after Imperial Japan evacuates its remaining forces from the island, ending the
Battle of Guadalcanal.
1950 Second Red Scare: US Senator
Joseph McCarthy accuses the United States Department of State of being filled with Communists.
1964
The Beatles make their first appearance on
The Ed Sullivan Show, performing before a "record-busting" audience of 73 million viewers across the USA.
1965 The United States Marine Corps sends a
MIM-23 Hawk missile battalion to South Vietnam, the first American troops in-country without an official advisory or training mission.
1971
Satchel Paige becomes the first
Negro League player to be voted into the USA's
Baseball Hall of Fame.
1986
Halley's Comet last appeared in the inner Solar System.
1991
Voters in Lithuania vote for independence.
Births
1737 Thomas Paine; 1773 William Henry Harrison (9th POTUS); 1846 Wilhelm Maybach (of the Mercedes tuning Maybachs); 1874 Amy Lowell; 1901 Brian Donlevy (
Beau Geste); 1909 Heather Angel (
Hound of the Baskervilles); 1909 Carmen Miranda♪ ♫; 1909 Dean Rusk; 1914
Ernest Tubb♪ ♫; 1922 Kathryn Grayson (
Showboat, Anchors Aweigh, Kiss Me Kate); 1928
Frank Frazetta

; 1928 Roger Mudd; 1930 Garner Ted Armstrong; 1941 Sheila Kuehl ('Zelda' on
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis); 1942 Carole King♪ ♫; 1943 Joe Pesci; 1945 Mia Farrow; 1947 Joe Ely♪ ♫; 1947 Major Harris♪ ♫; 1949 Judith Light (
Who's the Boss?); 1953 Ciarαn Hinds; 1955 Charles Shaughnessy (
The Nanny); 1960 Holly Johnson♪ ♫(Frankie Goes To Hollywood); 1963 Travis Tritt♪ ♫; 1976 Charlie Day (
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia); 1981 Tom Hiddleston; 1987 Michael B. Jordan (
Fantastic Four, Creed)
Deaths
1555 John Hooper; 1881 Fyodor Dostoyevsky (
The Brothers Karamazov, Crime & Punishment); 1969 George "Gabby" Hayes; 1981 Bill Haley♪ ♫; 1984 Yuri Andropov; 1995 David Wayne (
The Tender Trap, The Andromeda Strain); 2005 Robert Kearns (invented the windscreen wiper); 2007 Ian Richardson (
House of Cards (British series), Grey Poupon commercials); 2010 Walter Frederick Morrison (invented the Frisbee); 2012 Joe Moretti♪ ♫; 2015 Ed Sabol (co-founded NFL Films)