October 9 facts for kids

October 9 is the 282nd day of the year (283rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 83 days remain until the end of the year. October 9th is a day filled with many interesting events throughout history, from the crowning of kings to the invention of new alphabets and the birth of famous people. It's a day when important discoveries were made, new countries became independent, and popular culture milestones happened. Let's explore some of the most notable moments that took place on this day.

Historical Events on October 9

Early History (Before 1600)

• In 768, two important leaders, Carloman I and Charlemagne, became kings of the Franks.
• The Kingdom of Valencia was founded by James I of Aragon in 1238.
• The famous Prague astronomical clock was first mentioned in 1410.
• Korea introduced its unique alphabet, Hangul, to the world in 1446.
• In 1594, Portuguese troops faced defeat in Sri Lanka, ending the Campaign of Danture.

Important Moments (1601–1900)

• The most recent supernova seen in our galaxy, Kepler's Supernova, was observed in 1604.
• Roger Williams was sent away from the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1635 because of disagreements about religion.
• Yale University, a famous school, was officially started in 1701 in Old Saybrook, Connecticut.
• Peter the Great led Russian forces to victory against the Swedes at the Battle of Lesnaya in 1708.
• In 1740, a terrible event began in Batavia (now Jakarta), where many Chinese people were killed.
• During the Seven Years' War in 1760, Russian and Austrian soldiers briefly took over Berlin.
• A strong earthquake hit northern Algeria in 1790, causing a tsunami and killing many people.
• In 1799, the ship HMS Lutine sank, and 240 men lost their lives.
• Hobart, the capital of Tasmania, Australia, was founded in 1804.
• Prussia started a war against France in 1806.
• During the War of 1812, American forces captured two British ships on Lake Erie in 1812.
• Guayaquil declared its independence from Spain in 1820.
• The first organized group of immigrants from Norway arrived in New York Harbor in 1825 on the ship Restauration.
• Ioannis Kapodistrias, the first leader of independent Greece, was killed in 1831.
• Ireland's first public railway, the Dublin and Kingstown Railway, opened in 1834.
• Slavery was ended in the Swedish colony of Saint Barthélemy in 1847.
• In 1861, during the American Civil War, Union troops successfully defended Fort Pickens from Confederate attacks.
• Union cavalry won against Confederate forces at Toms Brook, Virginia, in 1864.
• The U.S. Naval Institute was created at the U.S. Naval Academy in 1873.
• The Universal Postal Union, which helps countries send mail to each other, was formed in 1874.
• The Cook Islands became a territory of the United Kingdom in 1900.

Modern Times (1901–Present)

• The Wuchang Uprising began in 1911, leading to the end of the Qing dynasty in China.
• The steamship SS Volturno caught fire in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean in 1913.
• The Siege of Antwerp ended during World War I in 1914.
• In 1918, the Finnish Parliament offered its throne to Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse.
• The Cincinnati Reds won the 1919 World Series in 1919, which led to the famous Black Sox Scandal.
• In 1934, King Alexander I of Yugoslavia and French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou were killed in Marseille.
• Hoover Dam (then called Boulder Dam) started making electricity for Los Angeles in 1936.
• Ricardo Adolfo de la Guardia Arango became the new president of Panama after a coup in 1941.
• Australia's Statute of Westminster Adoption Act 1942 became law in 1942.
• The Goyang Geumjeong Cave massacre began in Korea in 1950.
• Uganda gained its independence from the United Kingdom in 1962.
• A huge landslide in Italy in 1963 caused a giant wave that went over the Vajont Dam, tragically killing over 2,000 people.
• In 1966, the Republic of Korea Army carried out the Binh Tai Massacre during the Vietnam War.
• Ernesto "Che" Guevara was executed in 1967 after trying to start a revolution in Bolivia.
• The National Guard was called into Chicago in 1969 during protests about the trial of the "Chicago Eight".
• The Khmer Republic was announced in Cambodia in 1970.
• Pope John Paul II met with the 14th Dalai Lama in Vatican City in 1980.
• François Mitterrand, the President of France, ended the death penalty in France in 1981.
• South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan survived an assassination attempt in Burma in 1983.
• The popular children's TV show Thomas The Tank Engine & Friends first aired in 1984.
• The musical The Phantom of the Opera opened in London in 1986.
• The Fox Broadcasting Company (FBC) launched as a new TV network in the US in 1986.
• The Peekskill meteorite, a 27.7-pound meteorite, crashed into a parked car in New York in 1992.
• An Amtrak train was intentionally derailed by saboteurs near Palo Verde, Arizona, in 1995.
• North Korea conducted its first nuclear test in 2006.
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average reached a record high in 2007 before dropping due to financial problems.
• NASA's Lunar Precursor Robotic Program had its first lunar impact in 2009.
• The Pakistani Taliban tried to assassinate schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai in 2012.
• The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army launched its first attack on Myanmar security forces in 2016.
• Turkey began a military offensive in north-eastern Syria in 2019.

Famous Birthdays on October 9

Many notable people were born on October 9th throughout history. Here are some of them:

Born Before 1900

• 1201 – Robert de Sorbon, who founded the famous Collège de Sorbonne in Paris.
• 1328 – Peter I of Cyprus, a king.
• 1593 – Nicolaes Tulp, a Dutch doctor and politician.
• 1757 – Charles X of France, a king of France.
• 1823 – Mary Ann Shadd, an American-Canadian activist who worked to end slavery.
• 1835 – Camille Saint-Saëns, a famous French composer.
• 1852 – Hermann Emil Fischer, a German chemist who won a Nobel Prize.
• 1858 – Mihajlo Pupin, a Serbian-American physicist and chemist.
• 1859 – Alfred Dreyfus, a French colonel known for the Dreyfus Affair.
• 1873 – Karl Schwarzschild, a German physicist and astronomer.
• 1879 – Max von Laue, a German physicist who won a Nobel Prize.
• 1888 – Nikolai Bukharin, a Russian journalist and politician.
• 1892 – Ivo Andrić, a Yugoslav writer who won a Nobel Prize.
• 1900 – Alastair Sim, a Scottish-English actor.

Born After 1900

• 1906 – Léopold Sédar Senghor, the first President of Senegal.
• 1907 – Jacques Tati, a French actor and director.
• 1911 – Joe Rosenthal, an American photographer famous for the Iwo Jima flag raising photo.
• 1933 – Peter Mansfield, an English physicist who won a Nobel Prize.
• 1935 – Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, a member of the British royal family.
• 1936 – Brian Blessed, a well-known English actor.
• 1938 – Heinz Fischer, a former President of Austria.
• 1940 – John Lennon, the famous English singer-songwriter from The Beatles.
• 1944 – John Entwistle, the English bass player from The Who.
• 1947 – France Gall, a French singer.
• 1948 – Jackson Browne, an American singer-songwriter.
• 1950 – Jody Williams, an American activist who won a Nobel Prize.
• 1952 – Sharon Osbourne, an English television host and manager.
• 1953 – Tony Shalhoub, an American actor.
• 1954 – Scott Bakula, an American actor.
• 1955 – Steve Ovett, an English runner.
• 1964 – Guillermo del Toro, a Mexican-American director and producer.
• 1966 – David Cameron, a former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
• 1967 – Eddie Guerrero, an American wrestler.
• 1969 – PJ Harvey, an English musician and singer-songwriter.
• 1970 – Annika Sörenstam, a Swedish golfer.
• 1973 – Steve Burns, an American actor and TV host (from Blue's Clues).
• 1975 – Sean Lennon, American singer-songwriter and son of John Lennon.
• 1979 – Chris O'Dowd, an Irish actor.
• 1979 – Brandon Routh, an American actor.
• 1984 – Marie Kondo, a Japanese author and TV presenter.
• 1986 – Laure Manaudou, a French swimmer.
• 1992 – Tyler James Williams, an American actor.
• 1993 – Scotty McCreery, an American singer.
• 1996 – Bella Hadid, an American model.
• 1997 – Jharrel Jerome, an American actor.

Notable Deaths on October 9

This day also marks the passing of many important figures throughout history.

Died Before 1900

• 680 – Saint Ghislain, a Frankish saint.
• 1047 – Pope Clement II, a Pope.
• 1253 – Robert Grosseteste, an English bishop and philosopher.
• 1390 – John I of Castile, a king.
• 1562 – Gabriele Falloppio, an Italian doctor who studied anatomy.
• 1581 – Louis Bertrand, a Spanish missionary and saint.
• 1797 – Vilna Gaon, a famous Lithuanian rabbi.
• 1806 – Benjamin Banneker, an American astronomer and surveyor.
• 1831 – Ioannis Kapodistrias, the first Governor of Greece.
• 1897 – Jan Heemskerk, a former Prime Minister of the Netherlands.

Died After 1900

• 1911 – Jack Daniel, an American businessman who founded the famous whiskey company.
• 1934 – Alexander I of Yugoslavia, the King of Yugoslavia.
• 1934 – Louis Barthou, a French politician and former Prime Minister.
• 1943 – Pieter Zeeman, a Dutch physicist who won a Nobel Prize.
• 1958 – Pope Pius XII, a Pope.
• 1967 – Che Guevara, an Argentinian-Cuban doctor and revolutionary leader.
• 1967 – Cyril Norman Hinshelwood, an English chemist who won a Nobel Prize.
• 1974 – Oskar Schindler, a Czech-German businessman who saved many Jewish people during World War II.
• 1978 – Jacques Brel, a Belgian singer-songwriter and actor.
• 1988 – Felix Wankel, a German engineer who invented the Wankel engine.
• 1995 – Alec Douglas-Home, a former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
• 2010 – Maurice Allais, a French economist and physicist who won a Nobel Prize.
• 2013 – Wilfried Martens, a former Prime Minister of Belgium.
• 2014 – Jan Hooks, an American actress and comedian.
• 2015 – Richard F. Heck, an American chemist who won a Nobel Prize.
• 2015 – Geoffrey Howe, a British politician and former Deputy Prime Minister.
• 2016 – Andrzej Wajda, a Polish film and theatre director.

Holidays and Celebrations

October 9th is recognized with several special days around the world:

• Christian feast day:
  • Abraham
  • Denis
  • Dionysius the Areopagite
  • Ghislain
  • Innocencio of Mary Immaculate and Martyrs of Asturias
  • John Henry Newman
  • John Leonardi
  • Luis Beltran
  • Robert Grosseteste (Church of England)
  • Wilfred Grenfell (Episcopal Church (USA))
  • October 9 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
• Fire Prevention Day (Canada, United States)
• Hangul Day (South Korea) – A day to celebrate the Korean alphabet.
• Independence Day (Uganda) – Celebrates Uganda becoming independent from the United Kingdom in 1962.
• Independence of Guayaquil (Ecuador) – Celebrates Guayaquil's independence from Spain in 1820.
• Leif Erikson Day (United States, Iceland and Norway) – Honors the Norse explorer Leif Erikson.
• National Day of Commemorating the Holocaust (Romania)
• National Nanotechnology Day (United States)
• Takayama Autumn Festival (Takayama, Japan)
• World Post Day – Celebrates the creation of the Universal Postal Union.
• Indian Foreign Service Day

See also

A friendly robot icon.

In Spanish: 9 de octubre para niños