August 9 - Events

Events

• 48 BC – Caesar's civil war: Battle of Pharsalus – Julius Caesar decisively defeats Pompey at Pharsalus and Pompey flees to Egypt.
• 378 – Gothic War: Battle of Adrianople – A large Roman army led by Emperor Valens is defeated by theVisigoths in present-day Turkey. Valens is killed along with over half of his army.
• 681 – Bulgaria is founded as a Khanate on the south bank of the Danube after defeating the Byzantine armies of Emperor Constantine IV south of the Danube delta.
• 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.
• 1329 – Quilon, the first Indian Christian Diocese, is erected by Pope John XXII; the French-born Jordanus is appointed the first Bishop.
• 1483 – Opening of the Sistine Chapel in Rome with the celebration of a Mass.
• 1810 – Napoleon annexes Westphalia as part of the First French Empire.
• 1814 – Indian Wars: the Creek sign the Treaty of Fort Jackson, giving up huge parts of Alabama and Georgia.
• 1842 – The Webster-Ashburton Treaty is signed, establishing the United States-Canada border east of theRocky Mountains.
• 1854 – Henry David Thoreau published Walden.
• 1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Cedar Mountain – At Cedar Mountain, Virginia, Confederate General Stonewall Jackson narrowly defeats Union forces under General John Pope.
• 1877 – Indian Wars: Battle of Big Hole – A small band of Nez Percé Indians clash with the United States Army.
• 1892 – Thomas Edison receives a patent for a two-way telegraph.
• 1902 – Edward VII and Alexandra of Denmark are crowned King and Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
• 1907 – The first Boy Scout encampment concludes at Brownsea Island in southern England.
• 1925 – A train robbery takes place in Kakori, near Lucknow, India
• 1936 – Summer Olympic Games: Games of the XI Olympiad – Jesse Owens wins his fourth gold medal at the games becoming the first American to win four medals in one Olympiad.
• 1942 – Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi is arrested in Bombay by British forces, launching the Quit India Movement.
• 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.
• 1944 – The United States Forest Service and the Wartime Advertising Council release posters featuring Smokey Bear for the first time.
• 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.
• 1945 – World War II: Nagasaki is devastated when an atomic bomb, Fat Man, is dropped by the United States B-29 Bockscar. 39,000 people are killed outright.
• 1965 – Singapore is expelled from Malaysia and becomes the first and only country to date to gain independence unwillingly.
• 1965 – A fire at a Titan missile base near Searcy, Arkansas kills 53 construction workers.
• 1969 – Members of a cult led by Charles Manson brutally murder pregnant actress Sharon Tate (wife of Roman Polanski), coffee heiressAbigail Folger, Polish actor Wojciech Frykowski, men's hairstylist Jay Sebring and recent high-school graduate Steven Parent.
• 1971 – The Troubles: The British security forces in Northern Ireland launch Operation Demetrius. Hundreds of people are arrested andinterned, thousands are displaced, and twenty are killed in the violence that follows.
• 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.
• 1977 – The military-controlled Government of Uruguay announces that it will return the nation to civilian rule through general elections in1981 for a President and Congress.
• 1988 – Wayne Gretzky is traded from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings in one of the most controversial player transactions in ice hockey history, upsetting many Canadians so much that some considered him a "traitor" to his home country.
• 1993 – The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan loses a 38-year hold on national leadership.
• 1999 – Russian President Boris Yeltsin fires his Prime Minister, Sergei Stepashin, and for the fourth time fires his entire cabinet.
• 1999 – The Diet of Japan enacts a law establishing the Hinomaru and Kimi Ga Yo as the official national flag and national anthem.
• 2001 – US President George W. Bush announces his support for federal funding of limited research on embryonic stem cells.