Events on July 9 53
Year 491
Odoacer makes a night assault with his Heruli guardsmen, engaging Theoderic the Great in Ad Pinetam. Both sides suffer heavy losses, but in the end Theodoric forces Odoacer back into Ravenna.
Year 660
Korean forces under general Kim Yu-sin of Silla defeat the army of Baekje in the Battle of Hwangsanbeol.
Year 869
The 8.4-9.0 Mw Sanriku earthquake strikes the area around Sendai in northern Honshu, Japan. Inundation from the tsunami extended several kilometers inland.
Year 1357
Emperor Charles IV assists in laying the foundation stone of Charles Bridge in Prague.
Year 1386
The Old Swiss Confederacy makes great strides in establishing control over its territory by soundly defeating the Archduchy of Austria in the Battle of Sempach.
Year 1401
Turko-Mongol ruler Tamerlane (Timur) destroys Baghdad, killing 20,000.
Year 1540
King Henry VIII of England annuls his marriage to his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves.
Year 1572
Nineteen Catholics suffer martyrdom for their beliefs in the Dutch town of Gorkum.
Year 1609
Bohemia is granted freedom of religion through the Letter of Majesty by the Holy Roman Emperor, Rudolf II.
Year 1701
A Bourbon force under Nicolas Catinat withdraws from a smaller Habsburg force under Prince Eugene of Savoy in the Battle of Carpi.
Year 1745
French victory in the Battle of Melle allows them to capture Ghent in the days after.
Year 1755
The Braddock Expedition is soundly defeated by a smaller French and Native American force in its attempt to capture Fort Duquesne in what is now downtown Pittsburgh.
Year 1776
George Washington orders the Declaration of Independence to be read out to members of the Continental Army in Manhattan, while thousands of British troops on Staten Island prepare for the Battle of Long Island.
Year 1789
In Versailles, the National Assembly reconstitutes itself as the National Constituent Assembly and begins preparations for a French constitution.
Year 1793
The Act Against Slavery in Upper Canada bans the importation of slaves and will free those who are born into slavery after the passage of the Act at 25 years of age.
Year 1807
The Treaties of Tilsit are signed by Napoleon I of France and Alexander I of Russia.
Year 1811
Explorer David Thompson posts a sign near what is now Sacajawea State Park in Washington state, claiming the Columbia District for the United Kingdom.
Year 1815
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord becomes the first Prime Minister of France.
Year 1821
Four hundred and seventy prominent Cypriots including Archbishop Kyprianos are executed in response to Cypriot aid to the Greek War of Independence
Year 1850
U.S. President Zachary Taylor dies after eating raw fruit and iced milk, he is succeeded in office by Vice President Millard Fillmore.
Year 1863
The Siege of Port Hudson ends, giving the Union complete control of the Mississippi River.
Year 1868
The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, guaranteeing African Americans full citizenship and all persons in the United States due process of law.
Year 1875
The Herzegovina Uprising against Ottoman rule begins, which would last until 1878 and have far-reaching implications throughout the Balkans.
Year 1893
Daniel Hale Williams, American heart surgeon, performs 1st successful open-heart surgery in United States without anesthesia.
Year 1896
William Jennings Bryan delivers his Cross of Gold speech advocating bimetallism at the 1896 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Year 1900
The Governor of Shanxi province in North China orders the execution of 45 foreign Christian missionaries and local church members, including children.
Year 1918
In Nashville, Tennessee, an inbound local train collides with an outbound express, killing 101 and injuring 171 people, making it the deadliest rail accident in United States history.
Year 1922
Johnny Weissmuller swims the 100 meters freestyle in 58.6 seconds breaking the world swimming record and the 'minute barrier'.
Year 1932
The state of São Paulo revolts against the Brazilian Federal Government, starting the Constitutionalist Revolution.
Year 1937
The silent film archives of Fox Film Corporation are destroyed by the 1937 Fox vault fire.
Year 1943
The Allied invasion of Sicily soon causes the downfall of Mussolini and forces Hitler to break off the Battle of Kursk.
Year 1944
American forces take Saipan, bringing the Japanese archipelago within range of B-29 raids, and causing the downfall of the Tojo government.
Year 1944
Finland wins the Battle of Tali-Ihantala, the largest battle ever fought in northern Europe. The Red Army withdraws its troops from Ihantala and digs into a defensive position, thus ending the Vyborg-Petrozavodsk Offensive.
Year 1955
The Russell-Einstein Manifesto calls for a reduction of the risk of nuclear warfare.
Year 1956
The 7.7 Mw Amorgos earthquake shakes the Cyclades island group in the Agean Sea with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). The shaking and the destructive tsunami that followed left fifty-three people dead. A damaging M7.2 aftershock occurred minutes after the mainshock.
Year 1958
A 7.8 Mw strike-slip earthquake in Alaska causes a landslide that produces a megatsunami. The runup from the waves reached 525 m (1,722 ft) on the rim of Lituya Bay; five people were killed.
Year 1979
A car bomb destroys a Renault motor car owned by "Nazi hunters" Serge and Beate Klarsfeld outside their home in France in an unsuccessful assassination attempt.
Year 1982
Pan Am Flight 759 crashes in Kenner, Louisiana, killing all 145 people on board and eight others on the ground.
Year 1986
The New Zealand Parliament passes the Homosexual Law Reform Act legalising homosexuality in New Zealand.
Year 1993
The Parliament of Canada passes the Nunavut Act leading to the 1999 creation of Nunavut, dividing the Northwest Territories into arctic (Inuit) and sub-arctic (Dene) lands based on a plebiscite.
Year 1995
The Navaly church bombing is carried out by the Sri Lanka Air Force killing 125 Tamil civilian refugees.
Year 1999
Days of student protests begin after Iranian police and hardliners attack a student dormitory at the University of Tehran.
Year 2002
The African Union is established in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; its first chairman is Thabo Mbeki, President of South Africa.
Year 2006
One hundred twenty-five people are killed when S7 Airlines Flight 778, a Airbus A310 passenger jet, veers off the runway while landing in wet conditions at Irkutsk Airport in Siberia.