Events on August 9 38
Year 378
Gothic War: Battle of Adrianople: A large Roman army led by Emperor Valens is defeated by the Visigoths. Valens is killed along with over half of his army.
Year 1173
Construction of the campanile of the Cathedral of Pisa (now known as the Leaning Tower of Pisa) begins; it will take two centuries to complete.
Year 1329
Quilon, the first Indian Christian Diocese, is erected by Pope John XXII; the French-born Jordanus is appointed the first Bishop.
Year 1814
Indian Wars: The Creek sign the Treaty of Fort Jackson, giving up huge parts of Alabama and Georgia.
Year 1830
Louis Philippe becomes the king of the French following abdication of Charles X.
Year 1842
The Webster-Ashburton Treaty is signed, establishing the United States-Canada border east of the Rocky Mountains.
Year 1862
American Civil War: Battle of Cedar Mountain: At Cedar Mountain, Virginia, Confederate General Stonewall Jackson narrowly defeats Union forces under General John Pope.
Year 1877
Indian Wars: Battle of the Big Hole: A small band of Nez Percé Indians clash with the United States Army
Year 1902
Edward VII and Alexandra of Denmark are crowned King and Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
Year 1907
The first Boy Scout encampment concludes at Brownsea Island in southern England.
Year 1914
Start of the Battle of Mulhouse, part of a French attempt to recover the province of Alsace and the first French offensive of World War I.
Year 1936
Summer Olympic Games: Games of the XI Olympiad: Jesse Owens wins his fourth gold medal at the games.
Year 1942
World War II: Battle of Savo Island: Allied naval forces protecting their amphibious forces during the initial stages of the Battle of Guadalcanal are surprised and defeated by an Imperial Japanese Navy cruiser force.
Year 1944
The United States Forest Service and the Wartime Advertising Council release posters featuring Smokey Bear for the first time.
Year 1944
Continuation War: The Vyborg-Petrozavodsk Offensive, the largest offensive launched by Soviet Union against Finland during the Second World War, ends to a strategic stalemate. Both Finnish and Soviet troops at the Finnish front dug to defensive positions, and the front remains stable until the end of the war.
Year 1945
World War II: Nagasaki is devastated when an atomic bomb, Fat Man, is dropped by the United States B-29 Bockscar. Thirty-five thousand people are killed outright, including 23,200-28,200 Japanese war workers, 2,000 Korean forced workers, and 150 Japanese soldiers.
Year 1965
Singapore is expelled from Malaysia and becomes the only country to date to gain independence unwillingly.
Year 1969
Followers of Charles Manson murder pregnant actress Sharon Tate (wife of Roman Polanski), coffee heiress Abigail Folger, Polish actor Wojciech Frykowski, men's hairstylist Jay Sebring and recent high-school graduate Steven Parent.
Year 1971
The Troubles: The British Army in Northern Ireland launches Operation Demetrius. Hundreds of people are arrested and interned, thousands are displaced, and twenty are killed in the violence that followed.
Year 1974
As a direct result of the Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon becomes the first President of the United States to resign from office. His Vice President, Gerald Ford, becomes president.
Year 1991
The Italian prosecuting magistrate Antonino Scopelliti is murdered by the 'Ndrangheta on behalf of the Sicilian Mafia while preparing the government’s case in the final appeal of the Maxi Trial.
Year 1993
The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan loses a 38-year hold on national leadership.
Year 1999
Russian President Boris Yeltsin fires his Prime Minister, Sergei Stepashin, and for the fourth time fires his entire cabinet.
Year 2006
At least 21 suspected terrorists were arrested in the 2006 transatlantic aircraft plot that happened in the United Kingdom. The arrests were made in London, Birmingham, and High Wycombe in an overnight operation.
Year 2013
Gunmen open fire at a Sunni mosque in the city of Quetta killing at least ten people and injuring 30.
Year 2014
Michael Brown, an 18-year-old African American male in Ferguson, Missouri, was shot and killed by a Ferguson police officer after reportedly assaulting the officer and attempting to steal his weapon, sparking protests and unrest in the city.
Year ?
Caesar's Civil War: Battle of Pharsalus: Julius Caesar decisively defeats Pompey at Pharsalus and Pompey flees to Egypt.