April 9

1413 After Henry IV died on March 20, 1413, Henry V succeeded him as King of England and was crowned on April 9, 1413 at Westminster Abbey in London. The ceremony was marked by a huge snowstorm. After a successful military campaign, the 1520 Treaty of Troyes recognized Henry as the heir and regent of France. By the time of his death two years later, he was the most influential ruler in Europe.

Posthumous portrait of Henry

1626 Francis Bacon was driving in his carriage one wintry day, when he decided on impulse to observe the effect of cold on the preservation of meat. Bacon stopped his carriage, purchased a chicken and stuffed it with snow. Soon afterwards he was seized by a chill, which developed into bronchitis. Bacon made his way to the nearby house of his friend Earl of Arundel, where he was given a bed so damp that his condition worsened and he died of pneumonia on April 9, 1626.

1664 Samuel Pepys was a 17th-century English naval administrator and Member of Parliament, who kept a diary in which he recorded his daily life and experiences. His diary entry for April 9, 1664 reports him eating tripe for dinner but later, "I found myself sick in my stomach and vomited, which I do not use to do."

Tripe in an Italian market

1689 After helping King James II secure the English throne in 1685, John Churchill switched sides to the Protestant Dutchman, William of Orange, joining him in his revolution against the Catholic King James II three years later. As part of William and Mary's coronation honors, Churchill was created Earl of Marlborough on April 9, 1689.

1747 Lord Lovat, became the last man in Britain to be executed by beheading on April 9, 1747
Like much else in Britain, execution has had class distinctions. Aristocrats were beheaded, usually with an axe but for women sometimes with a sword. Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat, was the last man in Britain to be executed by beheading for high treason (supporting the Stuarts’ claim to the Crown),

Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat

1806 Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Britain's most influential 19th century engineer, was born on April 9, 1806 in Britan Street, Portsea, Portsmouth, Hampshire, where his father was working on block-making machinery.. He made major contributions in ship-building and bridge construction.  Brunel  customarily worked an 18-hour day, sleeping at the office, rising at 4am. Only five foot tall, because of his small size Brunel always wore a reinforced top hat to make himself look taller.

1860 Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville made the oldest known recording of an audible human voice on April 9, 1860. He recorded an unknown woman on his phonautograph machine singing the French folk song. "Au clair de la lune". A ten second clip was retrieved from the original soot-covered paper phonoautograph recording by scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California in 2008.

1865 The American Civil War ended on April 9, 1865, when Confederate General Robert Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox. The Confederacy was defeated at the total cost of the death of 620,000 Union and Confederate soldiers. A Civil War soldier’s chance of surviving the war was about 1 in 4.

1866 The Civil Rights Act of 1866 was enacted on April 9, 1866. It was the first federal law in the United States to affirm that all citizens, regardless of race or color, were equally protected by the law. The act was passed by Congress over the veto of President Andrew Johnson and was designed to overturn the Black Codes, which were state laws that discriminated against African Americans and restricted their rights and freedoms.

1867 Ten days after The United States purchased Alaska for $7.2 million, or about 2 cents an acre the United States Senate ratified the treaty with Russia for the purchase of Alaska on April 9, 1867. It was passed by a single vote. Alaska's purchase was accomplished solely through the determined efforts of US Secretary of State William H. Seward. For many years afterward the land was mockingly referred to as "Seward's Folly" or "Seward's Icebox" because of its supposed uselessness.

1906 Pentecostalism was born in Los Angeles on April 9, 1906. Members of the black congregation of the Azusa Street Mission in Los Angeles, under the leadership of their pastor William Seymour, experienced baptism in the Spirit and started speaking in tongues. As word spread, many Christians from all over the world visited Azusa Street and returned home fired up by the Holy Spirit. Many Pentecostal churches were formed.

1922 Charles Lindbergh enrolled as a student at the Nebraska Aircraft Corporation's flying school in Lincoln in March 1922 and flew for the first time in his life on April 9, 1922, when he took to the air as a passenger in a two-seat Lincoln Standard "Tourabout" biplane trainer piloted by Otto Timm.

1928 The first speedway meeting in the UK to feature bikes with no brakes and broadsiding round corners on loose dirt was the third meeting held at High Beech, a village inside Epping Forest on April 9, 1928, where Colin Watson, Alf Medcalf and "Digger" Pugh demonstrated the art. Two Australians Billy Galloway and Keith McKay there to promote the sport also featured.

1939 In 1939 the celebrated African American contralto Marian Anderson was refused permission to sing in Washington's Constitution Hall because of her race. The racism incident placed Anderson into the spotlight of the international community. With the aid of Eleanor Roosevelt and her husband Franklin D. Roosevelt, Anderson performed a critically acclaimed open-air concert on Easter Sunday, April 9, 1939, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C , for an audience of 75,000.

1940 A mechanic named Arthur Kosted developed a method to mass-produce the shopping carts by inventing an assembly line capable of forming and welding the wire. The cart was awarded patent number 2,196,914 on April 9, 1940.

1940 Denmark was invaded by Hitler's Germany on April 9, 1940, The Nazis stayed in the country throughout World War II. During the war, in 1943, the Danes helped over 8,000 Jews to escape from Denmark into Sweden after the Nazis tried to arrest them.

1940 With the German invasion of Norway in progress on April 9, 1940, Norwegian military officer and politician Vidkun Quisling attempted to seize power in the world's first radio-broadcast coup d'état, but failed after the Germans refused to support his government. Quisling served as Minister-President between 1942 and 1945, heading the pro-Nazi puppet government, known as the Quisling regime.

1945 Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer returned from America to Nazi Germany in 1939 to be with his people in the tragic times that he saw ahead. He opposed the "German Christian Movement," which advocated the removal of all Jewish elements from the Christian faith and challenged Christians to reject a complacent, immature and compliant faith. Two years after being arrested for involvement in the political resistance against Hitler, the Nazis hanged him on April 9, 1945.

1950 Bob Hope the legendary American comedian and actor, made his network TV debut on April 9, 1950, by hosting the 90-minute entertainment show called Star-Spangled Review on NBC. The show featured musical performances, comedy skits, and appearances by several celebrities of the time, including Frank Sinatra and Doris Day.

1953 The mathematics master of Harrow predicted to the Mathematical Association in a speech on April 9, 1953 that by 2003, schoolchildren would be working out sums on calculating machines and there would be no multiplication tables. He said: "Each maths room will have its calculating machine, and the child on duty for the day will do any calculating needed."

1959 The architect Frank Lloyd Wright died on April 9, 1959, while undergoing surgery in Phoenix to remove an intestinal obstruction. Wright was recognized in 1991 by the American Institute of Architects as "the greatest American architect of all time."

1959 Hollywood actor Gary Cooper was raised in the Episcopal Church in the United States, Cooper was slowly drawn to Catholicism after an audience with Pope Pius XII in 1953. The actor was finally baptized as a Roman Catholic on April 9, 1959 at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills.

1965 The Houston Astrodome located at 8400 Kirby Drive, Houston, Texas, opened on April 9, 1965. It had a seating capacity of 66,000 - more than triple that of a large indoor arena. In the sense that it was built for baseball and football - games previously played outdoors - it was the first weather-free stadium in the world. Spectators at the Astrodome were completely protected from weather by a dome of plastic panes. The interior was climate-controlled at 74 degrees F (23 degrees C).

1967 The first Boeing 737 took its maiden flight on April 9, 1967 piloted by Brien Wygle and Lew Wallick. During the test flight, Wygle and Wallick checked out the airplane's handling characteristics and maneuverability before declaring that it handled beautifully. The airplane landed after two-and-a-half hours in the air at Paine Field in Everett, Washington. It eventually became the most ordered and produced commercial passenger jet airliner in the world.

1974 Phil Brooks was an African-American inventor from Kansas who received a patent for an improved Disposable Syringe on April 9, 1974. His invention aimed to make the disposable syringe easier and safer to use, and his patent was granted as U.S. Patent 3,802,434

1979 John Wayne had lung cancer in the 1960s. He had his left lung removed in 1964 and was declared cancer free five years later. Wayne has been credited with coining the term "The Big C" as a euphemism for cancer. He made his last public appearance at the Academy Awards ceremony on April 9, 1979.

2003 The toppling of Saddam Hussein’s statue in Baghdad's Firdos Square on April 9, 2003 shortly after the Iraq War invasion marked a significant moment in the Iraq War. The toppling of the statue was seen as a symbolic capture of the city by the Coalition forces, and the event was widely reported in the media around the world. The statue's destruction was also seen as a symbol of the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, which had ruled Iraq with an iron fist for decade.

2005 On April 9, 2005, Prince Charles, The Prince of Wales and Camilla Parker Bowles were married in a civil ceremony at the Guildhall, Windsor. The wedding was a low-key affair, attended by close family and friends, and was followed by a blessing at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury. 

2017 Chuck Berry the rock 'n' roll legend and guitarist, passed away on March 18, 2017, at the age of 90. His funeral was held on April 9, 2017, at The Pageant, a music venue in his hometown of St. Louis, Missouri. The funeral was attended by family, friends, and fans, and featured live music performances in honor of Chuck Berry's legacy.

2021 Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh, passed away peacefully on the morning of April 9, 2021 at Windsor Castle, aged 99, the oldest-ever male member of the British royal family. He was the consort of the British monarch from Queen Elizabeth II's accession until his death 69 years 62 days later.