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On this day in history - May 9

What Happened On This Day – May 9

  • 2012 The brand-new Sukhoi Superjet 100 plane crashes

    The regional jet was the first airliner produced in Russia since the end of the USSR in 1991. The doomed flight was a demonstration tour carrying potential customers. All 45 people on board perished in the crash, which was caused by pilot error.

  • 1997 Pete Peterson becomes the first U.S. ambassador to visit Vietnam after the end of the war

    Peterson, a Vietnam veteran, devoted himself to promoting reconciliation between the two countries. About 2.5 million Vietnamese, most of them civilians, were killed during the war.

  • 1979 Iranian Jewish businessman Habib Elghanian is executed

    An Islamic revolutionary tribunal had convicted him of “contacts with Israel and Zionism” and “friendship with the enemies of God”. His execution triggered a Jewish mass exodus from Iran.

  • 1969 Carlos Lamarca begins his fight against Brazil's military dictatorship

    Lamarca was a member of the communist organization Vanguardia Popular Revolucionária (VPR) and is well known for his urban guerilla actions. Brazilian forces killed him in 1971.

  • 1960 The first birth control pill is approved

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that it would add birth control as a new indication for the drug “Enovid”.

Illustration of stork, signifying birth

Births On This Day,
May 9

  • 1949 Billy Joel

    American singer-songwriter, pianist

  • 1934 Alan Bennett

    English actor, screenwriter, author

  • 1921 Sophie Scholl

    German student, activist

  • 1837 Adam Opel

    German engineer, founded the Opel Company

  • 1800 John Brown

    American activist

Illustration of tombstone, signifying death

Deaths On This Day,
May 9

  • 2012 Vidal Sassoon

    English/American hairdresser

  • 1986 Tenzing Norgay

    Nepalese mountaineer

  • 1976 Ulrike Meinhof

    German journalist, activist

  • 1805 Friedrich Schiller

    German poet, playwright, historian

  • 1707 Dieterich Buxtehude

    German/Danish organist, composer