Events on April 9 59
Year 475
Byzantine Emperor Basiliscus issues a circular letter (Enkyklikon) to the bishops of his empire, supporting the Monophysite christological position.
Year 537
Siege of Rome: The Byzantine general Belisarius receives his promised reinforcements, 1,600 cavalry, mostly of Hunnic or Slavic origin and expert bowmen. He starts, despite shortages, raids against the Gothic camps and Vitiges is forced into a stalemate.
Year 1288
Mongol invasions of Vietnam: Yuan forces are defeated by Trần forces in the Battle of Bach Dang in present-day northern Vietnam.
Year 1388
Despite being outnumbered 16 to 1, forces of the Old Swiss Confederacy are victorious over the Archduchy of Austria in the Battle of Näfels.
Year 1454
The Treaty of Lodi is signed, establishing a balance of power among northern Italian city-states for almost 50 years.
Year 1511
St John's College, Cambridge, England, founded by Lady Margaret Beaufort, receives its charter.
Year 1585
The expedition organised by Sir Walter Raleigh departs England for Roanoke Island (now in North Carolina) to establish the Roanoke Colony.
Year 1609
Eighty Years' War: Spain and the Dutch Republic sign the Treaty of Antwerp to initiate twelve years of truce.
Year 1682
Robert Cavelier de La Salle discovers the mouth of the Mississippi River, claims it for France and names it Louisiana.
Year 1860
On his phonautograph machine, Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville makes the oldest known recording of an audible human voice.
Year 1865
American Civil War: Robert E. Lee surrenders the Army of Northern Virginia (26,765 troops) to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, effectively ending the war.
Year 1914
Mexican Revolution: One of the world's first naval/air skirmishes takes place off the coast of western Mexico.
Year 1916
World War I: The Battle of Verdun: German forces launch their third offensive of the battle.
Year 1917
World War I: The Battle of Arras: The battle begins with Canadian Corps executing a massive assault on Vimy Ridge.
Year 1918
World War I: The Battle of the Lys: The Portuguese Expeditionary Corps is crushed by the German forces during what is called the Spring Offensive on the Belgian region of Flanders.
Year 1937
The Kamikaze arrives at Croydon Airport in London. It is the first Japanese-built aircraft to fly to Europe.
Year 1939
Marian Anderson sings at the Lincoln Memorial, after being denied the right to sing at the Daughters of the American Revolution's Constitution Hall.
Year 1942
World War II: The Battle of Bataan/Bataan Death March: United States forces surrender on the Bataan Peninsula. The Japanese Navy launches an air raid on Trincomalee in Ceylon (Sri Lanka); Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Hermes and Royal Australian Navy Destroyer HMAS Vampire are sunk off the island's east coast.
Year 1945
Execution of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, anti-Nazi dissident and spy, by the Nazi regime.
Year 1945
World War II: The German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer is sunk by the Royal Air Force
Year 1947
The Glazier-Higgins-Woodward tornadoes kill 181 and injure 970 in Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas.
Year 1947
The Journey of Reconciliation, the first interracial Freedom Ride begins through the upper South in violation of Jim Crow laws. The riders wanted enforcement of the United States Supreme Court's 1946 Irene Morgan decision that banned racial segregation in interstate travel.
Year 1948
Jorge Eliécer Gaitán's assassination provokes a violent riot in Bogotá (the Bogotazo), and a further ten years of violence in Colombia.
Year 1948
Fighters from the Irgun and Lehi Zionist paramilitary groups attacked Deir Yassin near Jerusalem, killing over 100.
Year 1952
Hugo Ballivián's government is overthrown by the Bolivian National Revolution, starting a period of agrarian reform, universal suffrage and the nationalization of tin mines
Year 1959
Project Mercury: NASA announces the selection of the United States' first seven astronauts, whom the news media quickly dub the "Mercury Seven".
Year 1960
Dr Hendrik Verwoerd, Prime Minister of South Africa and architect of apartheid, narrowly survives an assassination attempt by a white farmer, David Pratt in Johannesburg.
Year 1961
The Pacific Electric Railway in Los Angeles, once the largest electric railway in the world, ends operations.
Year 1969
The first British-built Concorde 002 makes its maiden flight from Filton to RAF Fairford.
Year 1975
The first game of the Philippine Basketball Association, the second oldest professional basketball league in the world.
Year 1980
The Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein kills philosopher Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr and his sister Bint al-Huda after three days of torture.
Year 1981
The U.S. Navy nuclear submarine USS George Washington accidentally collides with the Nissho Maru, a Japanese cargo ship, sinking it.
Year 1989
Tbilisi massacre: an anti-Soviet peaceful demonstration and hunger strike in Tbilisi, demanding restoration of Georgian independence, is dispersed by the Soviet Army, resulting in 20 deaths and hundreds of injuries.
Year 1992
A U.S. Federal Court finds former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega guilty of drug and racketeering charges. He is sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Year 2003
Iraq War: Baghdad falls to American forces; Iraqis turn on symbols of their former leader Saddam Hussein, pulling down a grand statue of him and tearing it to pieces.
Year 2005
Charles, Prince of Wales marries Camilla Parker Bowles in a civil ceremony at Windsor's Guildhall.
Year 2009
In Tbilisi, Georgia, up to 60,000 people protest against the government of Mikheil Saakashvili.
Year 2013
A 6.1-magnitude earthquake strikes Iran killing 32 people and injuring over 850 people.
Year 2013
At least 13 people are killed and another three injured after a man goes on a spree shooting in the Serbian village of Velika Ivanča.
Year 2014
A student stabs 20 people at Franklin Regional High School in Murrysville, Pennsylvania.
Year 2017
Palm Sunday church bombings at Coptic Churches in Tanta and Alexandria take place.