On This Day
What Happened on December 9 in History
8 events that happened on December 9, oldest first. Every entry is written in our own words and links to its source.
Colonial America and the Revolution
1775
Virginia Patriots repulsed a British attack at the Battle of Great Bridge near Norfolk.
British regulars advancing along a narrow causeway were cut down by Colonel William Woodford's entrenched force of roughly 900 men. The defeat led Royal Governor Lord Dunmore to flee Virginia.
Source: battlefields.org; battlefields.org
The Cold War
1946
The Nuremberg Doctors' Trial opened against 23 Nazi physicians and administrators.
An American military tribunal charged the defendants with war crimes and crimes against humanity, including deadly medical experiments on prisoners. It was the first of 12 later trials held by U.S. authorities at Nuremberg.
Source: encyclopedia.ushmm.org
1948
The UN General Assembly adopted the Genocide Convention by unanimous vote.
Meeting in Paris, the 56 nations voting approved the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The treaty entered into force on January 12, 1951.
Source: legal.un.org
1961
Tanganyika won its independence from Britain, with Julius Nyerere as prime minister.
The East African territory had been under British administration as a United Nations trust territory. The United States recognized the new nation the same day with a congratulatory message from President John F. Kennedy.
Source: history.state.gov
1965
"A Charlie Brown Christmas" aired for the first time on American television.
TV executives expected Charles Schulz's low-key special, with its jazz score and no laugh track, to flop. Instead it drew a huge audience, won an Emmy and became one of the longest-running holiday specials ever.
Source: history.com; history.com
1979
A commission of scientists certified that smallpox had been eradicated worldwide.
The finding, endorsed by the World Health Assembly in May 1980, made smallpox the only human infectious disease ever officially wiped out. The disease had killed roughly 30 percent of the people it infected.
Source: history.com; infocus.nlm.nih.gov
1983
Brian De Palma's gangster film "Scarface," starring Al Pacino, opened in theaters.
Pacino played Tony Montana, a Cuban refugee who builds a cocaine empire in Miami before his world collapses in violence. Written by Oliver Stone and loosely based on a 1932 film, it drew mixed reviews but became a box office success and a pop culture landmark.
Source: history.com
The Modern Era
1992
U.S. Marines landed in Mogadishu to lead an international relief mission in Somalia.
About 1,800 Marines arrived at the start of a U.S.-led effort to restore order so food could reach Somalis caught in civil war and famine. Fighting and starvation had already killed hundreds of thousands of people.
Source: history.com