On This Day

What Happened on January 9 in History

8 events that happened on January 9, oldest first. Every entry is written in our own words and links to its source.

The Young Republic and the Civil War Era

1861
Southern guns fired on the Star of the West as it tried to bring supplies to Fort Sumter.
The Buchanan administration sent the civilian steamer to resupply Major Robert Anderson's garrison in Charleston Harbor. Citadel cadets manning a battery on Morris Island opened fire, and the unarmed ship turned back. War did not follow at once, but the shots raised tensions between North and South.
Source: history.com; nps.gov

1913
Richard Nixon, the future 37th president of the United States, was born in California.
The son of Quaker parents, Nixon studied at Whittier College and Duke University Law School and served in the Navy in World War II. He later became the first president to resign from office.
Source: history.com; archive.nytimes.com
1916
The last Allied troops withdrew from the Gallipoli Peninsula, ending the failed campaign against the Ottoman Empire.
British, French, Australian and New Zealand forces had landed in 1915 hoping to open the Dardanelles and reach Istanbul. The campaign cost the Allies about 250,000 casualties and badly damaged confidence in their commanders.
Source: history.com
1945
American troops of the Sixth Army landed at Lingayen Gulf on Luzon in the Philippines.
More than 60,000 soldiers came ashore under General Douglas MacArthur, following the victories on and around Leyte in late 1944. The landing opened the campaign to retake Luzon and Manila from Japan.
Source: history.com

1952
Harry Truman warned in his State of the Union address that the nation was moving through a perilous time.
With the Korean War dragging on, Truman focused on meeting the communist challenge abroad and praised the Point Four program of technical aid. Winston Churchill was in the audience as a special guest.
Source: history.com

2001
Apple released iTunes, its software for playing and organizing digital music.
The program grew out of an MP3 player built by former Apple engineers whom the company hired back. Paired with the iPod, released later that year, it changed how people bought and listened to music.
Source: history.com
2005
Sudan's government and the southern rebel SPLM/A signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in Nairobi, Kenya.
The deal ended a civil war between the north and south that had raged since 1983. It set up a six-year interim period followed by a referendum on southern independence, which led to the birth of South Sudan in 2011.
Source: peacekeeping.un.org; peaceaccords.nd.edu
2007
Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPhone at the Macworld convention in San Francisco.
Apple's chief executive presented a touchscreen phone that combined an iPod, a camera and web browsing. It went on sale in the United States that June, and Time magazine later named it the invention of the year.
Source: history.com; archive.nytimes.com