October 9 in History

2006

North Korea reportedly tests its first nuclear device.

1999

Last flight of the Lockheed SR-71 “Blackbird” stealth reconnaissance aircraft takes place.

1983

The president of South Korea, Doo Hwan Chun, with his cabinet and other top officials are scheduled to lay a wreath on a monument in Rangoon, Burma, when a bomb explodes. Hwan had not yet arrived so escaped injury, but 17 Koreans–including the deputy prime minister and two other cabinet members–and two Burmese are killed. North Korea is blamed.

1950

U.N. forces, led by the First Cavalry Division, cross the 38th parallel in South Korea and begin attacking northward towards the North Korean capital of Pyongyang.

1949

Harvard Law School begins admitting women.

1946

Eugene O’Neill’s play The Iceman Cometh opens at the Martin Beck Theatre in New York.

1941

President Franklin D. Roosevelt requests congressional approval for arming U.S. merchant ships.

1934

In Marseilles, a Macedonian revolutionary associated with Croat terrorists in Hungary assassinates King Alexander of Yugoslavia and French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou. The two had been on a tour of European capitals in quest of an alliance against Nazi Germany. The assassinations bring the threat of war between Yugoslavia and Hungary, but confrontation is prevented by the League of Nations.

1914

Germans take Antwerp, Belgium, after 12-day siege.

1888

The Washington Monument, designed by Robert Mills, opens to the public.

1863

Confederate cavalry raiders return to Chattanooga after attacking Union General William Rosecrans‘ supply and communication lines all around east Tennessee.

1825

The first Norwegian immigrants to America arrive on the sloop Restaurationen.

1781

Americans begin shelling the British surrounded at Yorktown.

1779

The Luddite riots begin in Manchester, England in reaction to machinery for spinning cotton being installed.

1760

Austrian and Russian troops enter Berlin and begin burning structures and looting.

1470

Henry VI of England is restored to the throne.