A Brief History
This article presents a chronological list of notable events that happened on May 9th. For each date below, please click on the date to be taken to an article covering that date’s event.
Digging Deeper
On May 9, 1671, Anglo-Irish Thomas Blood dressed up as a parson and attempted to steal the Crown Jewels of England.
On May 9, 1865, the American Civil War ended, or did it?
On May 9, 1926, Richard E. Byrd claimed to have made a flight over the North Pole, making him (the navigator) and his pilot the first men to have achieved that distinction.
On May 9, 1960, the Searle manufactured drug, Enovid, was approved by the Food and Drug Administration of the United States as a birth control measure, making Enovid the first oral contraceptive pill approved for use by any nation.
On May 9, 1961, the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Newton Minow, shocked Americans by declaring commercial television programming to be a “vast wasteland.”
On May 9, 1980, in a scene out of horror movie the freighter MV Summit Venture collided with a support pier of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge that spanned 4.1 miles across Tampa Bay in Florida.
On May 9, 1980, the Security Pacific Bank of Norco, California was held up by five robbers, leading to chases and shootouts resulting in two robbers and a deputy sheriff being killed and a whopping 33 vehicles being destroyed.
On May 9, 1986, Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay died, the first man to climb Mt. Everest.
On May 9, 2015, the 70th anniversary of the German surrender in World War II, Russia, led by dictator (President of the Federation of Russia) Vladimir Putin, conducted the most massive military parade in the history of Russia/USSR, the likes of which could never be pulled off in the United States, undoubtedly to the chagrin of President Donald Trump!
On May 9, 2017, if the Toronto Raptors were still alive in the NBA playoffs they would again play the defending League Champion Cleveland Cavaliers in the second round of the 2017 NBA Playoffs.
On May 9, 2019, we once again celebrated a special day, National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day, a “holiday” celebrated on the first Thursday of the first full week of May each year.
On May 9, 2020, the unemployment rate in the United States hit the staggering number of 14.9%, the worst employment number since the Great Depression in 1939.
On May 9, 2021, we wished all of the great mothers out there a Happy Mother’s Day, and we also gave you a brief update about this site’s YouTube channel.
Question for students (and subscribers): Which event that occurred on today’s date would you like to learn more about? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Andrews, John and Matt Baker. Timeline of World History. Thunder Bay Press, 2020.
You can also watch video versions of this article on YouTube.
