#TodayInHistory – May 9

May 9 – Some important events on this day

1386 👉🏼 Treaty of Windsor between Portugal and England (oldest diplomatic alliance in the world still in force)
1502 👉🏼 Christopher Columbus leaves Spain on his 4th and final trip to the New World

1671 👉🏼 In London, Thomas Blood, an Irish adventurer better known as “Captain Blood,” is captured attempting to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London. ✔️ READ THE ARTICLE!

1768 👉🏼 Statesman John Hancock pays duties on 25 pipes of wine, only one fourth of his ship’s carrying capacity. British officials accuse him of unloading the rest during the night to avoid paying duties on the entire cargo.
1865 👉🏼 President Andrew Johnson issues a proclamation declaring armed resistance in the South is virtually at an end; this is the commonly accepted end date of the American Civil War.
1877 👉🏼 Mihail Kogălniceanu reads, in the Chamber of Deputies, the Declaration of Independence of Romania. This day becomes the Independence Day of Romania 🇷🇴

1901 👉🏼 The First Australian Parliament opens in Melbourne, though the first working session will not be until 21 May.
The first Australian parliament with Edmund Barton as Prime Minister, was opened in Melbourne by Prince George, Duke of Cornwall and York, later King George V. It followed elections at the end of March after the establishment of the Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January 1901. Barton headed a coalition government composed of his own Protectionist Party but with crucial support from the Australian Labour Party (in photo).
The official opening was attended by 14,000 people and had to be held in the Royal Exhibition Hall to accommodate them. The parliament then sat in Parliament House, home of the Parliament of Victoria until 1927 when new parliament buildings were opened in Canberra.

1914 👉🏼 US President Woodrow Wilson proclaims Mother’s Day
1926 👉🏼 1st flight over the North Pole claimed by Richard E. Byrd and co-pilot Floyd Bennett. Later discovery of Byrd’s diary suggests they may have turned back 150 miles short of the pole due to an oil leak.
1936 👉🏼 1st KLM airplane to land on Bonaire ✈️
1941 👉🏼 British intelligence at Bletchley Park breaks German spy codes after capturing Enigma machines aboard the weather ship Muenchen
1945 👉🏼 World War II: The Soviet Union marks Victory Day
1945 👉🏼 Czechoslovakia liberated from Nazi occupation (National Day)
1960 👉🏼 US becomes the first country to legalize the birth control pill

1981 👉🏼 The Motherland Monument at 62 m high is opened in Kiev, Ukraine in ceremony attended by Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev.
The Monument is part of a museum commemorating Soviet victories in the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet name for WWII’s eastern front. The statue holds a sword in one hand and a shield with the emblem of the USSR in the other.
It was designed by the Ukrainian sculptor Vasiliy Boroday, who originally wanted it to be covered in gold leaf before stainless steel was chosen instead. There are two impressive viewing platforms over the city of Kiev from inside the statue.

2012 👉🏼 Mark Rothko’s “Orange, Red, Yellow” becomes the most expensive contemporary art piece to be sold at auction for $86.9 million dollars

2018 👉🏼 Historic win in Malaysian general election by opposition coalition Pakatan Harapan led by 92 year old former Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad, defeating Prime Minister Najib Razak and ending 61 years of rule by the Barisan Nasional coalition.