On this day in history

August 9

27 births · 16 deaths · 5 events

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Anniversary highlights

Event anniversary

1648

Battle of Adrianople

1648 years ago

Born this day

1963

Whitney Houston

Would be 63

Photo (modified): PH2 Mark Kettenhofen · Public domain

Oldest record

1648th

Battle of Adrianople

event anniversary

Famous births27

1871 · 155 yrs

Leonid Andreyev

Leonid Nikolaievich Andreyev (Russian: Леони́д Никола́евич Андре́ев, 21 August 1871 – 12 September 1919) was a Russian playwright, novelist and short-story writer, who is considered to be a father of expressionism in Russian literature.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 48

View profile Photo (modified): Leonid Nikolayevich Andreyev (1871 - 1919) · Public domain

1896 · 130 yrs

Jean Piaget

Jean William Fritz Piaget (9 August 1896 – 16 September 1980) was a Swiss psychologist known for his work on child development. Piaget's theory of cognitive development and epistemological view are together called genetic epistemology.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 130

View profile Photo (modified): Unidentified (Ensian published by University of Michigan) · Public domain

1899 · 127 yrs

P. L. Travers

Pamela Lyndon Travers ( TRAV-ərz; born Helen Lyndon Goff; 9 August 1899 – 23 April 1996) was an Australian-British writer who spent most of her career in England. She is best known for the Mary Poppins series of books, which feature the eponymous magical nanny.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureWould be 127

View profile Photo (modified): Adam Cuerden · Public domain

1911 · 115 yrs

William Alfred Fowler

William Alfred Fowler (August 9, 1911 – March 14, 1995) was an American astrophysicist.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 115

View profile Photo (modified): Federal Government of the United States · Public domain

1914 · 112 yrs

Tove Jansson

Tove Marika Jansson (Finland Swedish:; 9 August 1914 – 27 June 2001) was a Finland-Swedish author, novelist and comic strip author, painter and illustrator.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureWould be 112

View profile Photo (modified): Per Olov Jansson · CC BY 3.0

1927 · 99 yrs

Marvin Minsky

Marvin Lee Minsky (August 9, 1927 – January 24, 2016) was an American mathematician who conducted research in the cognitive and computer science aspects of artificial intelligence (AI).

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 99

View profile Photo (modified): The original uploader was Sethwoodworth at English Wikipedia . · CC BY 3.0

1931 · 95 yrs

Mário Zagallo

Mário Jorge Lobo Zagallo (Portuguese pronunciation:; 9 August 1931 – 5 January 2024) was a Brazilian professional football player, coordinator and manager, who played as a forward. Zagallo holds the record for FIFA World Cup titles in general with four titles in total.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

SportsWould be 95

View profile Photo (modified): Mieremet, Rob / Anefo · CC BY-SA 3.0 nl

1938 · 88 yrs

Leonid Kuchma

Leonid Danylovych Kuchma (Ukrainian: Леонід Данилович Кучма, IPA:; born 9 August 1938) is a Ukrainian politician who served as the second president of Ukraine from 19 July 1994 to 23 January 2005.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsAge 88

View profile Photo (modified): R. D. Ward · Public domain

1938 · 88 yrs

Rod Laver

Rodney George Laver (born 9 August 1938) is an Australian former professional tennis player. Laver was ranked as the world number 1 professional player indisputably for five years from 1965 to 1969, and by some sources also in 1964 and 1970.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

SportsAge 88

View profile Photo (modified): Evers, Joost / Anefo · CC0

1939 · 87 yrs

Romano Prodi

Romano Prodi (Italian:; born 9 August 1939) is an Italian politician who served as President of the European Commission from 1999 to 2004 and twice as Prime Minister of Italy, from 1996 to 1998, and again from 2006 to 2008.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsAge 87

View profile Photo (modified): Niccolò Caranti · CC BY-SA 4.0

1947 · 79 yrs

Roy Hodgson

Roy Hodgson (born 9 August 1947) is an English former football manager and player who was most recently the manager of EFL Championship club Bristol City. He has managed 22 different teams in eight countries, beginning in Sweden with Halmstad in 1976.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

SportsAge 79

View profile Photo (modified): Mikhail Slain · CC BY-SA 3.0

1953 · 73 yrs

Jean Tirole

Jean Marcel Pierre Tirole (French pronunciation:; born 9 August 1953) is a French economist who is currently a professor of economics at Toulouse 1 Capitole University. He focuses on industrial organization and game theory.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceAge 73

View profile Photo (modified): Jérémy Barande · CC BY-SA 2.0

Showing 12 of 27

Famous deaths16

AD 833 · 1193 yrs

al-Maʾmun

Abu al-Abbas Abd Allah ibn Harun (Arabic: أبو العباس عبد الله بن هارون الرشيد, romanized: Abū al-ʿAbbās ʿAbd Allāh ibn Hārūn ar-Rashīd; 14 September 786 – 9 August 833), better known by his regnal name al-Ma'mun (Arabic: المأمون, lit.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Notable PeopleDied aged 46

View profile Photo (modified): Khalili Collections · CC BY-SA 3.0 igo

1904 · 122 yrs

Friedrich Ratzel

Friedrich Ratzel (German pronunciation:; 30 August 1844 – 9 August 1904) was a German geographer and ethnographer, notable for first using the term Lebensraum (lit. 'living space') in the sense that the Nazis later would.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 59

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown · CC BY-SA 3.0 de

1919 · 107 yrs

Ernst Haeckel

Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel (German:; 16 February 1834 – 9 August 1919) was a German zoologist, naturalist, eugenicist, philosopher, physician, professor, marine biologist and artist.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 85

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1919 · 107 yrs

Ruggero Leoncavallo

Ruggero (or Ruggiero) Leoncavallo (23 April 1857 – 9 August 1919) was an Italian opera composer and librettist. Throughout his career, Leoncavallo produced numerous operas and songs, but it is his 1892 opera Pagliacci that remained his lasting contribution, despite attempts to escape the shadow of his greatest success.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MusicDied aged 62

View profile Photo (modified): Schaarwächter, J.C. (1847-1904) · CC BY 4.0

1942 · 84 yrs

Edith Stein

Edith Stein (German:; religious name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross; 12 October 1891 – 9 August 1942) was a German philosopher who converted to Catholicism and became a Discalced Carmelite nun.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ReligionWould be 135

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1943 · 83 yrs

Chaïm Soutine

Chaïm Soutine (French:; Russian: Хаим Соломонович Сутин, romanized: Khaim Solomonovich Sutin; Yiddish: חײם סוטין, romanized: Chaim Sutin; 13 January 1893 – 9 August 1943) was a French painter of Belarusian-Jewish origin of the School of Paris, who made a major contribution to the Expressionist movement while living…

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ArtWould be 133

View profile Photo (modified): EMBViki · CC BY-SA 4.0

1949 · 77 yrs

Edward Thorndike

Edward Lee Thorndike ((1874-08-31)August 31, 1874 – (1949-08-09)August 9, 1949) was an American psychologist who spent nearly his entire career at Teachers College, Columbia University.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Notable PeopleDied aged 74

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1962 · 64 yrs

Hermann Hesse

Hermann Karl Hesse (German:; 2 July 1877 – 9 August 1962) was a German-Swiss poet and novelist, and winner of the 1946 Nobel Prize in Literature. His interest in Eastern religious, spiritual, and philosophical traditions, combined with his involvement with Jungian analysis, helped shape his literary work.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureWould be 149

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · CC BY-SA 3.0 nl

1969 · 57 yrs

Cecil Frank Powell

Cecil Frank Powell (5 December 1903 – 9 August 1969) was a British experimental physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1950 for heading the team that developed the photographic method of studying nuclear processes, and for the resulting discovery of the pion (pi-meson).

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 122

View profile Photo (modified): Nobel foundation · Public domain

1969 · 57 yrs

Sharon Tate

Sharon Marie Tate Polanski (January 24, 1943 – August 9, 1969) was an American actress and model. During the 1960s, she appeared in advertisements and small television roles before appearing in films as well as working as a model.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

FashionWould be 83

View profile Photo (modified): United Press International (UPI) · Public domain

1975 · 51 yrs

Dmitri Shostakovich

Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich (25 September 1906 – 9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his First Symphony in 1926 and thereafter was regarded as a major composer.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MusicWould be 120

View profile Photo (modified): Fotothek_df_roe-neg_0002792_002_Portrait_Dmitri_Dmitrijewitsch_Schostakowitchs_im_Publikum_der_Bachfeier.jpg : Roger &am · CC BY-SA 3.0 de

2000 · 26 yrs

John Harsanyi

John Charles Harsanyi (Hungarian: Harsányi János Károly; May 29, 1920 – August 9, 2000) was a Hungarian-American economist who spent most of his career at the University of California, Berkeley. He was the recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1994.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 106

View profile Photo (modified): Rakás · CC BY-SA 4.0

Showing 12 of 16

Events5

AD 378 · 1648 yrs

Battle of Adrianople

The Battle of Adrianople, also known as Battle of Hadrianopolis, was fought between the Eastern Roman army led by the Roman emperor Valens and Gothic rebels (largely Thervings as well as Greutungs, non-Gothic Alans, and various local rebels), led by Fritigern.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

1945 · 81 yrs

Soviet invasion of Manchuria

The Soviet invasion of Manchuria, formally known as the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation or simply the Manchurian Operation (Маньчжурская операция), began on 8 August 1945 with the Soviet Union's invasion of the Empire of Japan's puppet states of Manchukuo and Mengjiang, in Japanese-occupied Manchuria and…

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

1945 · 81 yrs

Soviet–Japanese War

The Soviet–Japanese War was a campaign of the Second World War that began with the Soviet invasion of Manchuria following the Soviet declaration of war against Japan on 8 August 1945.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

2020 · 6 yrs

2020 Belarusian presidential election

Presidential elections were held in Belarus on Sunday, 9 August 2020. Early voting began on 4 August and ran until 8 August.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Politics

2022 · 4 yrs

Battle of Bakhmut

The Battle of Bakhmut was a major battle between the Russian Armed Forces and the Ukrainian Armed Forces for control of the city of Bakhmut, during the eastern front, a theatre of the Russo-Ukrainian war. It is regarded by some military analysts to be the bloodiest battle since World War II.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

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