Events on February 9 40
Year 1775
American Revolutionary War: The British Parliament declares Massachusetts in rebellion.
Year 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 President of the United States.
Year 1861
American Civil War: Jefferson Davis is elected the Provisional President of the Confederate States of America by the Confederate convention at Montgomery, Alabama.
Year 1870
US president Ulysses S. Grant signs a joint resolution of Congress establishing the U.S. Weather Bureau.
Year 1889
US president Grover Cleveland signs a bill elevating the United States Department of Agriculture to a Cabinet-level agency.
Year 1895
William G. Morgan creates a game called Mintonette, which soon comes to be referred to as volleyball.
Year 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.
Year 1920
Under the terms of the Svalbard Treaty, international diplomacy recognizes Norwegian sovereignty over Arctic archipelago Svalbard, and designates it as demilitarized.
Year 1941
World War II: The Cathedral of San Lorenzo in Genoa, Italy is struck by a bomb which fails to detonate.
Year 1942
World War II: Top United States military leaders hold their first formal meeting to discuss American military strategy in the war.
Year 1942
Year-round Daylight saving time is re-instated in the United States as a wartime measure to help conserve energy resources.
Year 1943
World War II: Allied authorities declare Guadalcanal secure after Imperial Japan evacuates its remaining forces from the island, ending the Battle of Guadalcanal.
Year 1945
World War II: Battle of the Atlantic: HMS Venturer sinks U-864 off the coast of Fedje, Norway, in a rare instance of submarine-to-submarine combat.
Year 1945
World War II: A force of Allied aircraft unsuccessfully attacked a German destroyer in Førdefjorden, Norway.
Year 1950
Second Red Scare: US Senator Joseph McCarthy accuses the United States Department of State of being filled with Communists.
Year 1959
The R-7 Semyorka, the first intercontinental ballistic missile, becomes operational at Plesetsk, USSR.
Year 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.
Year 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.
Year 1971
The 6.5-6.7 Mw Sylmar earthquake hits the Greater Los Angeles Area with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing 64 and injuring 2,000.
Year 1971
Satchel Paige becomes the first Negro League player to be voted into the USA's Baseball Hall of Fame.
Year 1978
The Budd Company unveils its first SPV-2000 self-propelled railcar in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Year 1996
The Provisional Irish Republican Army declares the end to its 18-month ceasefire and explodes a large bomb in London's Canary Wharf, killing two people.
Year 2016
Two passenger trains collided in the German town of Bad Aibling in the state of Bavaria. Twelve people died, and 85 others were injured.