February 9 birthdays & history

Famous people born on February 9

• 1773William Henry Harrison, American general and politician, 9th President of the United States
• 1737Thomas Paine, English-American philosopher, author, and activist
• 1940J. M. Coetzee, South African-Australian novelist, essayist, and linguist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1944Alice Walker, American novelist, short story writer, and poet
• 1943Joseph Stiglitz, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1981Tom Hiddleston, English actor
• 1910Jacques Monod, French biochemist and geneticist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1945Yoshinori Ohsumi, Japanese biologist, 2016 Nobel Prize Laureate in Physiology or Medicine
• 1945Mia Farrow, American actress, activist, and model
• 1943Joe Pesci, American actor

What happened on February 9

• 1825After no candidate received a majority of electoral votes in the previous year's presidential election, the United States House of Representatives chose John Quincy Adams as president in a contingent election.
• 1849The new Roman Republic is declared.
• 1855A series of hoof-like marks in the snow continuing through the countryside for some 40 to 100 miles (60 to 160 km) were discovered in Devon, England.
• 1861Jefferson Davis was named the provisional president of the Confederate States of America.
• 1893Verdi's last opera, Falstaff, premieres at La Scala, Milan.
• 1895William G. Morgan creates a game called Mintonette, which soon comes to be referred to as volleyball.
• 1900The Davis Cup competition is established.
• 1907More than 3,000 women in London participated in the Mud March, the first large procession organised by the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies.
• 1920The Svalbard Treaty was signed in Paris, recognizing Norwegian sovereignty over the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard.
• 1923Stanley Bruce became prime minister of Australia as leader of the country's first Coalition government.
• 1975The spacecraft and crew of the Soviet Soyuz 17 mission returned to earth after 29 days in orbit at the Salyut 4 station.
• 2020Japanese figure skater Yuzuru Hanyu won the Four Continents Championships to become the only man to complete a Super Slam.

Also observed on February 9

• Alto of Altomünster
• Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich
• Ansbert of Rouen
• Apollonia
• Bracchio
• Einion the King (Western Orthodoxy)