June 9 is Donald Duck Day (see 1934)
National Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie Day
International Young Eagles Day
In the year 53, the Roman Emperor Nero married Claudia Octavia. She was a great-niece of the Emperor Tiberius, paternal first cousin of the Emperor Caligula, daughter of the Emperor Claudius, and stepsister and first wife of the Emperor Nero.
And in the year 68, on his 15th anniversary, the Roman Emperor Nero committed suicide, after quoting Homer’s Iliad, thus ending the Julio-Claudian Dynasty and starting the civil year known as the Year of the Four Emperors (Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian).
On June 9, 1534, Jacques Cartier became the first European to discover the Saint Lawrence River.
In 1732, James Oglethorpe was granted a royal charter for the colony of the future U.S. state of Georgia.
On June 9, 1772, the British schooner Gaspée was burned off the coast of Rhode Island. Per Wikipedia:
The Gaspée Affair was a significant event in the lead-up to the American Revolution. HMS Gaspée, a British customs schooner that had been enforcing unpopular trade regulations, ran aground in shallow water on June 9, 1772, near what is now known as Gaspee Point in the city of Warwick, Rhode Island, while chasing the packet boat Hannah. A group of men led by Abraham Whipple and John Brown attacked, boarded, looted, and torched the ship.
Birthday of John Howard Payne (June 9, 1791), American songwriter, composer of “Home, Sweet Home”.
‘Mid pleasures and palaces
Though I may roam
Be it ever so humble
There’s no place like home
On June 9, 1856, five hundred Mormons left Iowa City, Iowa, and headed west for Salt Lake City carrying all their possessions in two-wheeled handcarts.
1909-06-09 – Alice Huyler Ramsey, a 22-year-old housewife and mother from Hackensack, New Jersey, became the first woman to drive across the United States. With three female companions, none of whom could drive a car, in fifty-nine days she drove a Maxwell automobile the 3,800 miles from Manhattan, New York, to San Francisco, California. She is reported to have said, “Good driving has nothing to do with sex. It’s all above the collar.”
William Jennings Bryan resigns as Woodrow Wilson’s Secretary of State on June 9, 1915, over a disagreement regarding the United States’ handling of the sinking of the RMS Lusitania. Bryan pointed out that by traveling on British vessels “an American citizen can, by putting his own business above his regard for this country, assume for his own advantage unnecessary risks and thus involve his country in international complications”.
On June 9, 1934 – Donald Duck made his debut in The Wise Little Hen. See article at the free dictionary.com
McCarthyism: Joseph Welch, special counsel for the United States Army, lashed out at Senator Joseph McCarthy on June 9, 1954, during hearings on whether Communism had infiltrated the Army, giving McCarthy the famous rebuke, “You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?”
June 9, 1959 – The USS George Washington was launched. It is the first submarine to carry ballistic missiles.
June 9, 1968, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson declared a national day of mourning following the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy.
1973 – In horse racing, Secretariat won the Triple Crown.