← May 7

May 8

373 entries in history

May 9 →
Events
55
Births
168
Deaths
127
Holidays
23

⭐ Featured

2025

Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost was elected as Pope Leo XIV (pictured), making him the first pope born in the United States, the first to hold either U.S. or Peruvian citizenship, the first from the Order of Saint Augustine, and the second from the Americas after his immediate predecessor, Pope Francis.

1987

A British Special Air Service unit ambushed a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) unit in Loughgall, Northern Ireland, killing eight IRA members and one civilian.

1972

Four members of Black September hijacked Sabena Flight 571 to demand the release of 315 Palestinians convicted on terrorism charges.

55 results

2025

The 2025 papal conclave elects Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, taking the name Leo XIV as the 267th Pope of the Catholic Church.

2021

A car bomb explodes in front of a school in Kabul, capital city of Afghanistan killing at least 55 people and wounding over 150.

2019

British 17-year-old Isabelle Holdaway is reported to be the first patient ever to receive a genetically modified phage therapy to treat a drug-resistant infection.

1997

China Southern Airlines Flight 3456 crashes on approach into Bao'an International Airport, killing 35 people.

1988

A fire at Illinois Bell's Hinsdale Central Office triggers an extended 1AESS network outage once considered to be the "worst telecommunications disaster in US telephone industry history".

1987

The SAS kills eight Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteers and a civilian during an ambush in Loughgall, Northern Ireland.

1984

Corporal Denis Lortie enters the Quebec National Assembly and opens fire, killing three people and wounding 13. René Jalbert, Sergeant-at-Arms of the Assembly, succeeds in calming him, for which he will later receive the Cross of Valour.

1984

The Soviet Union announces a boycott upon the Summer Olympics at Los Angeles, later joined by 14 other countries.

1984

The Thames Barrier is officially opened, preventing the floodplain of most of Greater London from being flooded except under extreme circumstances.

1980

The World Health Organization confirms the eradication of smallpox.

1978

The first ascent of Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen, by Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler.

1976

The rollercoaster The New Revolution, the first steel coaster with a vertical loop, opens at Six Flags Magic Mountain.

1973

A 71-day standoff between federal authorities and the American Indian Movement members occupying the Pine Ridge Reservation at Wounded Knee, South Dakota ends with the surrender of the militants.

1972

Vietnam War: U.S. President Richard Nixon announces his order to place naval mines in major North Vietnamese ports in order to stem the flow of weapons and other goods to that nation.

1970

The Beatles release their 12th and final studio album Let It Be.

1967

The Philippine province of Davao is split into three: Davao del Norte, Davao del Sur, and Davao Oriental.

1963

South Vietnamese soldiers under the Roman Catholic President Ngo Dinh Diem open fire on Buddhists defying a ban on the flying of the Buddhist flag on Vesak, killing nine and sparking the Buddhist crisis.

1957

South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem began a state visit to the United States, his regime's main sponsor.

1950

The Tollund Man was discovered in a peat bog near Silkeborg, Denmark.

1946

Estonian schoolgirls Aili JÔgi and Ageeda Paavel blow up the Soviet memorial which preceded the Bronze Soldier of Tallinn.

1945

World War II: The German Instrument of Surrender signed at Berlin-Karlshorst comes into effect.

1945

End of the Prague uprising, celebrated now as a national holiday in the Czech Republic.

1945

Hundreds of Algerian civilians are killed by French Army soldiers in the Sétif massacre.

1945

The Halifax riot starts when thousands of civilians and servicemen rampage through Halifax, Nova Scotia.

1942

World War II: The German 11th Army begins Operation Trappenjagd (Bustard Hunt) and destroys the bridgehead of the three Soviet armies defending the Kerch Peninsula.

1942

World War II: The Battle of the Coral Sea comes to an end with Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft carrier aircraft attacking and sinking the United States Navy aircraft carrier USS Lexington.

1942

World War II: Gunners of the Ceylon Garrison Artillery on Horsburgh Island in the Cocos Islands rebel in the Cocos Islands Mutiny. Their mutiny is crushed and three of them are executed, the only British Commonwealth soldiers to be executed for mutiny during the Second World War.

1941

World War II: The German Luftwaffe launches a bombing raid on Nottingham and Derby.

1933

Mohandas Gandhi begins a 21-day fast of self-purification and launched a one-year campaign to help the Harijan movement.

1927

Attempting to make the first non-stop transatlantic flight from Paris to New York, French war heroes Charles Nungesser and François Coli disappear after taking off aboard The White Bird biplane.

1924

The Klaipėda Convention is signed formally incorporating Klaipėda Region (Memel Territory) into Lithuania.

1921

The creation of the Communist Party of Romania.

1919

Edward George Honey proposes the idea of a moment of silence to commemorate the Armistice of 11 November 1918 which ended World War I.

1902

In Martinique, Mount Pelée erupts, destroying the town of Saint-Pierre and killing over 30,000 people. Only a handful of residents survive the blast.

1899

The Irish Literary Theatre in Dublin produced its first play.

1898

The first games of the Italian football league system are played.

1886

Pharmacist John Pemberton first sells a carbonated beverage named "Coca-Cola" as a patent medicine.

1877

At Gilmore's Gardens in New York City, the first Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show opens.

1846

Mexican–American War: American forces led by Zachary Taylor defeat a Mexican force north of the Rio Grande in the first major battle of the war.

1842

A train derails and catches fire in Paris, killing between 52 and 200 people.

1821

Greek War of Independence: The Greeks defeat the Turks at the Battle of Gravia Inn.

1794

Branded a traitor during the Reign of Terror, French chemist Antoine Lavoisier, who was also a tax collector with the Ferme générale, is tried, convicted and guillotined in one day in Paris.

1788

King Louis XVI of France attempts to impose the reforms of Étienne Charles de LomĂ©nie de Brienne by abolishing the parlements.

1721

In the Papal States, Cardinal Michelangelo dei Conti is elected Pope, and takes the name Innocent XIII.

1639

William Coddington founds Newport, Rhode Island.

1608

A newly nationalized silver mine in Scotland at Hilderston, West Lothian is re-opened by Bevis Bulmer.

1541

Hernando de Soto stops near present-day Walls, Mississippi, and sees the Mississippi River (then known by the Spanish as Río de Espíritu Santo, the name given to it by Alonso Álvarez de Pineda in 1519).

1516

A group of imperial guards, led by Trịnh Duy SáșŁn, murdered Emperor LĂȘ TÆ°ÆĄng Dá»±c and fled, leaving the capital Thăng Long undefended.

1450

Kentishmen revolt against King Henry VI.

1429

Joan of Arc lifts the Siege of Orléans, turning the tide of the Hundred Years' War.

1373

Julian of Norwich, a Christian mystic and anchoress, experiences the deathbed visions described in her Revelations of Divine Love.

1360

Treaty of Brétigny drafted between King Edward III of England and King John II of France (the Good).

589

Reccared I opens the Third Council of Toledo, marking the entry of Visigothic Spain into the Catholic Church.

413

Emperor Honorius signs an edict providing tax relief for the Italian provinces Tuscia, Campania, Picenum, Samnium, Apulia, Lucania and Calabria, which were plundered by the Visigoths.

-453

Spring and Autumn period: The house of Zhao defeats the house of Zhi, ending the Battle of Jinyang, a military conflict between the elite families of the State of Jin.