This Day in History

[Gravdigr]

February 9

474 – Zeno crowned as co-emperor of the Byzantine Empire.

1775 – American Revolutionary War: The British Parliament declares Massachusetts [to be] in rebellion.

1825 – After no candidate receives a majority of electoral votes in the US presidential election of 1824, the United States House of Representatives elects John Quincy Adams as the sixth President of the United States.

1861 – American Civil War: Jefferson Davis is elected the Provisional President of the Confederate States of America by the Confederate Convention at Montgomery, Alabama.

1870 – US president Ulysses S. Grant signs a joint resolution of Congress establishing the U.S. Weather Bureau.

1889 – US president Grover Cleveland signs a bill elevating the United States Department of Agriculture to a Cabinet-level agency.

1895 – William G. Morgan creates a game called Mintonette, which soon comes to be referred to as volleyball.

1913 – A group of meteors is visible across much of the eastern seaboard of North and South America, leading astronomers to conclude the source had been a small, short-lived natural satellite of the Earth.

1941 – World War II: The Cathedral of San Lorenzo in Genoa, Italy is struck by a bomb, which fails to detonate.

1942 – Year-round Daylight Saving Time is re-instated in the United States as a wartime measure to help conserve energy resources.

1943 – World War II: Allied authorities declare Guadalcanal secure after Imperial Japan evacuates its remaining forces from the island, ending the Battle of Guadalcanal.

1950 – Second Red Scare: US Senator Joseph McCarthy accuses the United States Department of State of being filled with Communists.

1964 – The Beatles make their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, performing before a "record-busting" audience of 73 million viewers across the USA.

1965 – The United States Marine Corps sends a MIM-23 Hawk missile battalion to South Vietnam, the first American troops in-country without an official advisory or training mission.

1971 – Satchel Paige becomes the first Negro League player to be voted into the USA's Baseball Hall of Fame.

1986 – Halley's Comet last appeared in the inner Solar System.

1991 – Voters in Lithuania vote for independence.

Births

1737 – Thomas Paine; 1773 – William Henry Harrison (9th POTUS); 1846 – Wilhelm Maybach (of the Mercedes tuning Maybachs); 1874 – Amy Lowell; 1901 – Brian Donlevy (Beau Geste); 1909 – Heather Angel (Hound of the Baskervilles); 1909 – Carmen Miranda♪ ♫; 1909 – Dean Rusk; 1914 – Ernest Tubb♪ ♫; 1922 – Kathryn Grayson (Showboat, Anchors Aweigh, Kiss Me Kate); 1928 – Frank Frazetta; 1928 – Roger Mudd; 1930 – Garner Ted Armstrong; 1941 – Sheila Kuehl ('Zelda' on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis); 1942 – Carole King♪ ♫; 1943 – Joe Pesci; 1945 – Mia Farrow; 1947 – Joe Ely♪ ♫; 1947 – Major Harris♪ ♫; 1949 – Judith Light (Who's the Boss?); 1953 – Ciarán Hinds; 1955 – Charles Shaughnessy (The Nanny); 1960 – Holly Johnson♪ ♫(Frankie Goes To Hollywood); 1963 – Travis Tritt♪ ♫; 1976 – Charlie Day (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia); 1981 – Tom Hiddleston; 1987 – Michael B. Jordan (Fantastic Four, Creed)

Deaths

1555 – John Hooper; 1881 – Fyodor Dostoyevsky (The Brothers Karamazov, Crime & Punishment); 1969 – George "Gabby" Hayes; 1981 – Bill Haley♪ ♫; 1984 – Yuri Andropov; 1995 – David Wayne (The Tender Trap, The Andromeda Strain); 2005 – Robert Kearns (invented the windscreen wiper); 2007 – Ian Richardson (House of Cards (British series), Grey Poupon commercials); 2010 – Walter Frederick Morrison (invented the Frisbee); 2012 – Joe Moretti♪ ♫; 2015 – Ed Sabol (co-founded NFL Films)