August 9 – Some important events on this day.
48 BC 👉🏼 Caesar’s civil war: Battle of Pharsalus – Julius Caesar decisively defeats Pompey at Pharsalus and Pompey flees to Egypt.
378 👉🏼 Battle of Adrianople: Goth army defeats Roman forces under Emperor Valens
681 👉🏼 Bulgaria is founded as a Khanate on the south bank of the Danube, after defeating the Byzantine armies of Emperor Constantine IV south of the Danube delta.
1173 👉🏼 Construction of the Tower of Pisa begins, and it takes two centuries to complete.
1483 👉🏼 Opening of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican
1790 👉🏼 Robert Gray’s Columbia Rediviva returns to Boston after 3 year journey, 1st American ship to circumnavigate the Globe
1803 👉🏼 1st horses arrive in Hawaii
1803 👉🏼 Commercial Steamboat Inventor Robert Fulton tests his steam paddle-boat on the River Seine, France, but it sinks
1829 👉🏼 “Stourbridge Lion” locomotive goes into service
1898 👉🏼 Rudolf Diesel of Germany obtains patent #608,845 for his internal combustion engine, later known as the diesel engine
1942 👉🏼 Mahatma Gandhi and 50 others arrested in Bombay after passing of a “quit India” motion and campaign by the All-India Congress
1945 👉🏼 US drops second atomic bomb “Fat Man” on Nagasaki, Japan, destroying part of the city.
Nagasaki was the second Japanese city to be bombed by the US in the dying days of World War II. Unlike “Little Boy” dropped on Hiroshima on the 6th August 1945, Nagasaki’s bomb, christened “Fat Man”, was plutonium based and dropped three days later on the 9th August.
Although this second bomb was more powerful than that dropped on Hiroshima, the hilly terrain of Nagasaki protected it to some extent and there was no firestorm. The effects were still catastrophic, with the exact death toll unknown but estimated at about 75,000.
1964 👉🏼 1st Rolling Stones concert in Netherlands
1965 👉🏼 Singapore separates from the Federation of Malaysia and gains its independence.
1974 👉🏼 Richard Nixon resigns as President of the United States and Vice President Gerald Ford swears the oath of office to take his place as the 38th US President.
Richard Nixon became the only president in the history of the United States to resign the office on this day, after the long and arduous Watergate scandal finally brought him down.
What began as a burglary at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee on June 17, 1972, escalated into the most infamous political cover-up in American history when it became clear Nixon’s administration was involved. It then spiralled into a series of investigations about other illegal activities by Nixon’s camp, including using the CIA and the IRS as weapons against political opponents.
For well over a year Nixon denied covering up the scandal, until it was revealed the White House had a tape system installed that recorded conversations. Nixon’s administration desperately tried to prevent the release of the tapes, even taking it to the Supreme Court. Meanwhile impeachment proceedings were started against Nixon in Congress.
On August 5, 1974, Nixon’s position became untenable when the so-called “smoking gun” tape was released, where Nixon and his chief of staff are heard discussing the break-in and how to stop the FBI investigating it. This destroyed Nixon’s credibility, as he had claimed no knowledge of the events prior to early 1973 and no part in the cover-up.
Four days later Nixon resigned and was succeeded by his vice president, Gerald Ford.
2016 👉🏼 Longest ever hunger strike ends, Indian human rights campaigner Irom Sharmila tastes honey after 16 years
2017 👉🏼 Giant inflatable chicken resembling US President Donald Trump placed outside US White House as a political protest.
A political protest organized by Taran Singh Brar, an American artist and documentary filmmaker, was erected in Ellipse Park just south of The White House in Washington D.C.
Standing 9 meters high, the bird was granted a legal permit, but not personally witnessed by US President Donald Trump who was out of the capital that day.
