#TodayInHistory – April 9
3 min read
April 9 – Some important events on this day
1388 👉🏼 Battle of Näfels: Glarius Swiss defeat Habsburg (Austrian) army
1483 👉🏼 Edward V (aged 12) succeeds his father Edward IV as king of England. He is never crowned, and disappears presumed murdered, after incarceration in the Tower of London with his younger brother Richard (the “Princes in the Tower”)
1667 👉🏼 1st public art exhibition at the Palais-Royale in Paris
1731 👉🏼 British mariner Robert Jenkins’ ear cut off by Spanish Guarde Costa in the Caribbean, later catalyst for war between Britain & Spain
1768 👉🏼 John Hancock, the first person to sign the Declaration of Independence, refuses to allow two British customs agents to go below deck of his ship, considered by some to be the first act of physical resistance to British authority in the colonies.
1772 👉🏼 Philosopher and mathematician Jean-Baptiste Le Rond d’Alembert becomes permanent secretary of the French Academy of Sciences.
He was one of the most prominent men of the enlightenment, and best remembered as co-editor with Denis Diderot of the “Encyclopédie”, between 1751 and 1772. His most famous work is “Traité de dynamique” (1743) where he explains his laws of motion, building on the work of Isaac Newton. This work explained his D’Alembert Principle of mechanics.
1865 👉🏼 Confederate General Robert E. Lee and 26,765 troops surrender at Appomattox Court House to US Lieutenant General Ulysses S Grant (US Civil War)
1869 👉🏼 Hudson Bay Company cedes its territory to Canada
1914 👉🏼 “World, the Flesh & the Devil”, 1st color film, shown in London
1916 👉🏼 The Libau sets sail from Germany with its cargo to assist Irish republicans. Captain Karl Spindler changes the name of the vessel to the Aud to avoid British detection.
The SS Libau disguised as the Norwegian ship SS Aud, whom she resembled, sailed from Germany with a volunteer crew and a cargo of 10 machine gunsand 20,000 Mosin-Nagant rifles (captured from the Russians). The arms were meant to aid Irish independence and be used during the Easter Rising.
Although the SS Libau evaded British lookout, arriving off Fenit Harbour in Tralee Bay on the 20th April, she failed to meet with her intended supporters. Their leader, Roger Casement, a British Diplomat had already been captured. The SS Libau then tried to return to Germany but was intercepted by HMS Bluebell on 23 April. The crew scuttled the ship outside Queenstown harbour to stop the arms falling into British hands.
1974 👉🏼 San Diego Padres owner Ray Kroc, addresses fans “Ladies & gentlemen, I suffer with you I’ve never seen such stupid baseball playing in my life”
1992 👉🏼 John Major elected Prime Minister of the United Kingdom after his Conservative Party wins the most votes in British electoral history
2003 👉🏼 Baghdad falls to U.S. forces, ending the Invasion of Iraq, but resulting in widespread looting
2012 👉🏼 “The Lion King” becomes highest grossing Broadway show after overtaking “The Phantom of the Opera”
