July 9 facts for kids

2025 Calendar

July 9 in recent years

July 9 is the 190th day of the year (191st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 175 days remain until the end of the year.

This page tells you about important things that happened on July 9th throughout history. You'll learn about big events, famous people who were born, and notable people who passed away on this day.

Historic Events
Famous Births
Notable Deaths
Special Days and Celebrations
See also

Historic Events

Early Times (Before 1600)

118 – Hadrian became the Roman Emperor a year before. On this day, he officially entered Rome.
381 – The First Council of Constantinople ended. This was a big meeting of Christian bishops in Constantinople, called by the Roman Emperor Theodosius I.
491 – Odoacer and Theodoric the Great fought a tough battle near Ad Pinetam. Both sides lost many soldiers, but Theodoric eventually pushed Odoacer back to Ravenna.
551 – A huge earthquake hit Beirut. It caused a giant tsunami that crashed into towns along the coast of Byzantine Phoenicia. Thousands of people lost their lives.
660 – Korean forces from Silla, led by General Kim Yu-sin, defeated the army of Baekje in the Battle of Hwangsanbeol.
869 – A very powerful earthquake (between 8.4 and 9.0 magnitude) struck near Sendai in northern Honshu, Japan. The tsunami that followed reached several kilometers inland.
969 – The Fatimid general Jawhar led the main prayer in Fustat. This event showed that the Fatimid conquest of Egypt was complete.
1357 – Emperor Charles IV helped lay the first stone for the famous Charles Bridge in Prague.
1386 – The Old Swiss Confederacy won a major victory against the Duchy of Austria in the Battle of Sempach. This helped the Swiss gain more control over their lands.
1401 – The conqueror Timur attacked the Jalairid Sultanate and destroyed the city of Baghdad.
1540 – King Henry VIII of England ended his marriage to his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves.
1572 – Nineteen Catholics faced consequences for their beliefs in the Dutch town of Gorkum.

Modern History (1601–1900)

1609 – Bohemia was granted freedom of religion by the Holy Roman Emperor, Rudolf II, through a document called the Letter of Majesty.
1755 – The Braddock Expedition was defeated by French and Native American forces. They were trying to capture Fort Duquesne in what is now downtown Pittsburgh.
1762 – Catherine the Great became the Empress of Russia after a change in power against her husband, Peter III.
1763 – The Mozart family grand tour of Europe began. This trip helped make young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart very famous.
1776 – George Washington ordered the United States Declaration of Independence to be read to his soldiers in Manhattan. Meanwhile, British troops on Staten Island were getting ready for the Battle of Long Island.
1789 – In Versailles, France, the National Assembly changed its name to the National Constituent Assembly. They began working on a new French constitution.
1793 – The Act Against Slavery was passed in Upper Canada. This law stopped the import of enslaved people and said that those born into slavery after this date would become free at age 25.
1795 – Financier James Swan paid off the entire $2,024,899 US national debt from the American Revolution.
1810 – Napoleon added the Kingdom of Holland to his French Empire.
1816 – Argentina declared independence from Spain.
1821 – Many important Cypriots, including Archbishop Kyprianos, were executed. This happened because Cyprus had helped the Greek War of Independence.
1850 – U.S. President Zachary Taylor died. His Vice President, Millard Fillmore, took over as president.
1850 – The Persian prophet Báb was executed in Tabriz, Persia.
1863 – American Civil War: The Siege of Port Hudson ended. This gave the Union army full control of the Mississippi River.
1868 – The 14th Amendment was added to the U.S. Constitution. This amendment guaranteed full citizenship and fair legal treatment for all people in the United States, including African Americans.
1877 – The very first Wimbledon Championships tennis tournament began.
1893 – Daniel Hale Williams, an American heart surgeon, performed the first successful open-heart surgery in the United States without using anesthesia.
1900 – The Federation of Australia was officially approved.

Recent History (1901–Present)

1918 – In Nashville, Tennessee, a local train crashed head-on with an express train. This terrible accident killed 101 people and injured 171, making it the deadliest train crash in U.S. history.
1922 – Johnny Weissmuller swam the 100 meters freestyle in 58.6 seconds. He broke the world swimming record and became the first person to swim it in under a minute!
1926 – Chiang Kai-shek became the commander-in-chief of the National Revolutionary Army. This marked the start of the Northern Expedition, which aimed to unite China.
1932 – The state of São Paulo revolted against the Brazilian government, starting the Constitutionalist Revolution.
1937 – The silent film archives of Fox Film Corporation were destroyed in a large fire.
1943 – World War II: The Allied invasion of Sicily began. This led to the fall of Benito Mussolini and forced Adolf Hitler to stop the Battle of Kursk.
1944 – World War II: American forces captured Saipan. This meant that B-29 bombers could now reach the Japanese archipelago, leading to the downfall of the Tojo government in Japan.
1944 – World War II: In the Continuation War, Finland won the Battle of Tali–Ihantala, the largest battle ever fought in northern Europe. The Red Army then moved back, ending their attack.
1955 – The Russell–Einstein Manifesto was released. It called for reducing the danger of nuclear warfare.
1956 – A strong earthquake (7.7 magnitude) hit the Cyclades islands in the Aegean Sea. The shaking and a destructive tsunami killed 53 people.
1958 – A powerful earthquake in Alaska caused a huge landslide. This created a megatsunami with waves that reached an incredible 525 meters (about 1,722 feet) high in Lituya Bay.
1961 – Greece became the first country to join the European Economic Community by signing the Athens Agreement.
1962 – The Starfish Prime test happened. This was a nuclear test carried out at a very high altitude in space.
1979 – A car bomb exploded outside the home of "Nazi hunters" Serge and Beate Klarsfeld in France. They were not harmed.
1982 – Pan Am Flight 759 crashed in Kenner, Louisiana. All 145 people on board died, along with eight people on the ground.
1986 – The New Zealand Parliament passed the Homosexual Law Reform Act. This law made homosexuality legal in New Zealand.
1993 – The Parliament of Canada passed the Nunavut Act. This led to the creation of Nunavut in 1999, dividing the Northwest Territories into lands for the Inuit and Dene peoples.
1997 – An explosion on a Fokker 100 plane from the Brazilian airline TAM caused the aircraft to lose pressure. An engineer, Fernando Caldeira de Moura Campos, was pulled out of the plane and fell 2,400 meters.
1999 – Student protests began in Iran after police attacked a student dormitory at the University of Tehran.
2002 – The African Union was officially created in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It replaced the Organisation of African Unity (OAU).
2006 – One hundred and twenty-five people died when S7 Airlines Flight 778, an Airbus A310, went off the runway while landing in wet conditions at Irkutsk Airport in Siberia.
2011 – South Sudan became an independent country, separating from Sudan.
2011 – A large rally took place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. People gathered to ask for fairer elections in the country.

Famous Births

Born Before 1600

1249 – Emperor Kameyama of Japan (died 1305)
1577 – Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, an English-American soldier and politician who was a Colonial Governor of Virginia (died 1618)
1578 – Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor (died 1637)

Born 1601–1900

1654 – Emperor Reigen of Japan (died 1732)
1764 – Ann Ward, a famous English author and poet (died 1823)
1775 – Matthew Lewis, an English author and playwright (died 1818)
1819 – Elias Howe, an American inventor who created the sewing machine (died 1867)
1858 – Franz Boas, a German-American anthropologist and linguist (died 1942)
1879 – Carlos Chagas, a Brazilian physician and scientist who studied parasites (died 1934)
1879 – Ottorino Respighi, an Italian composer and conductor (died 1936)

Born 1901–Present

1901 – Barbara Cartland, a very popular English author (died 2000)
1911 – Mervyn Peake, an English author and illustrator (died 1968)
1911 – John Archibald Wheeler, an American physicist and author (died 2008)
1916 – Edward Heath, an English politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (died 2005)
1922 – Kathleen Booth, a British computer scientist and mathematician (died 2022)
1926 – Ben Roy Mottelson, an American-Danish physicist and Nobel Prize winner (died 2022)
1927 – O. J. Simpson, an American football player and actor
1929 – Hassan II of Morocco (died 1999)
1932 – Donald Rumsfeld, an American politician who was the United States Secretary of Defense (died 2021)
1933 – Oliver Sacks, an English-American neurologist and author (died 2015)
1937 – David Hockney, a famous English painter and photographer
1938 – Brian Dennehy, an American actor (died 2020)
1945 – Dean Koontz, an American author and screenwriter
1946 – Bon Scott, a Scottish-Australian singer-songwriter (died 1980)
1950 – Viktor Yanukovych, a Ukrainian politician who was the President of Ukraine (died 2014)
1951 – Chris Cooper, an American actor
1955 – Lindsey Graham, an American lawyer and politician
1955 – Jimmy Smits, an American actor and producer
1956 – Tom Hanks, a very famous American actor, director, and producer
1957 – Kelly McGillis, an American actress
1959 – Kevin Nash, an American professional wrestler and actor
1964 – Courtney Love, an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actress
1964 – Gianluca Vialli, an Italian footballer and coach (died 2023)
1971 – Marc Andreessen, an American software developer who helped create Netscape
1975 – Jack White, an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1976 – Fred Savage, an American actor, director, and producer
1985 – Ashley Young, an English footballer
1987 – Rebecca Sugar, an American animator, composer, and screenwriter, known for Steven Universe
1990 – Fábio and Rafael, Brazilian footballers (twin brothers)
1991 – Mitchel Musso, an American actor and singer
1993 – Mitch Larkin, an Australian swimmer
1993 – DeAndre Yedlin, an American footballer

Notable Deaths

Died Before 1600

230 – Empress Dowager Bian, the wife of Cao Cao (born 159)
518 – Anastasius I Dicorus, a Byzantine emperor (born 430)
880 – Ariwara no Narihira, a Japanese poet (born 825)
1228 – Stephen Langton, an English cardinal and theologian (born 1150)
1386 – Leopold III, Duke of Austria (born 1351)
1441 – Jan van Eyck, a famous Dutch painter (born 1359)
1553 – Maurice, Elector of Saxony (born 1521)

Died 1601–1900

1706 – Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville, a Canadian captain and explorer (born 1661)
1746 – Philip V of Spain (born 1683)
1797 – Edmund Burke, an Irish-English philosopher and politician (born 1729)
1850 – Báb, a Persian religious leader who founded Bábism (born 1819)
1850 – Zachary Taylor, the 12th President of the United States (born 1784)
1856 – Amedeo Avogadro, an Italian chemist (born 1776)
1880 – Paul Broca, a French physician and anatomist (born 1824)

Died 1901–Present

1932 – King Camp Gillette, an American businessman who founded the Gillette Company (born 1855)
1938 – Benjamin N. Cardozo, an American lawyer and judge (born 1870)
1967 – Fatima Jinnah, a Pakistani dentist and politician (born 1893)
1974 – Earl Warren, an American judge who was the Chief Justice of the United States (born 1891)
1977 – Alice Paul, an American activist who fought for women's rights (born 1885)
1980 – Vinicius de Moraes, a Brazilian poet, playwright, and composer (born 1913)
1985 – Charlotte, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg (born 1896)
2002 – Rod Steiger, an American actor (born 1925)
2004 – Isabel Sanford, an American actress (born 1917)
2007 – Charles Lane, an American actor (born 1905)
2011 – Facundo Cabral, an Argentine singer-songwriter (born 1937)
2014 – Eileen Ford, an American businesswoman who co-founded Ford Models (born 1922)
2015 – Christian Audigier, a French fashion designer (born 1958)
2019 – Ross Perot, an American businessman and politician (born 1930)
2019 – Fernando de la Rúa, the 43rd President of Argentina (born 1937)
2019 – Rip Torn, an American actor (born 1931)

Special Days and Celebrations

Arbor Day (Cambodia) – A day to celebrate trees and nature.
Constitution Day (Australia) – Celebrates the day Australia's constitution was approved.
Constitution Day (Palau)
Constitutionalist Revolution Day (São Paulo) – A day to remember the revolution in São Paulo, Brazil.
Independence Day (Argentina) – Celebrates Argentina's declaration of independence from Spain in 1816.
Independence Day (South Sudan) – Celebrates South Sudan becoming independent from Sudan in 2011.
Nunavut Day (Nunavut) – A special day in the Canadian territory of Nunavut.