Lost Sock Memorial Day
Victory and Peace Day (Armenia)
Victory Day (former Soviet Union countries), marking end of World War II in Europe.
Saint Joan’s Day, observed in New Orleans in honor of Joan of Arc who forced the English to raise the siege on Orleans, France in 1429.
The first newspaper cartoon in America was created by Benjamin Franklin and published in his “Pennsylvania Gazette” on May 9, 1754. It showed a divided snake with the caption: “Join or Die”. Each segment represented one colony or region.
Birthday of Sir James Matthew Barrie (May 9, 1860), Scottish playwright and novelist, author of “Peter Pan.” I had read a condensed version of the story and, of course, saw the movie. I was absolutely delighted when I read the original story. Highly recommend it to whimsy-lovers!
1868 The city of Reno, Nevada, was founded
North Pole Flight Day, anniversary of the first flight over the North Pole, achieved by Commander Richard E Byrd of the U.S. Navy and Floyd Bennett in 1926.
The first Australian Parliament met in Melbourne on May 9, 1901. It is later moved to Canberra on this day in 1927.
May 9, 1942 – Holocaust: The SS murdered 588 Jewish residents of the town of Zinkiv, Ukraine. One of the first and largest Holocaust mass-murder events had occurred on August 27–28, 1941 near the nearby city of Kamianets-Podilskyi. In those two days, 23,600 Jews were killed, most of them Hungarian Jews (14,000-16,000) and the rest mainly local Ukrainian Jews. As the researchers of the Holocaust point out, the Kamianets-Podilskyi massacre was the first mass action in the “Final Solution” of the Nazis, and the number of its victims reached 5 figures. Eyewitnesses reported that the perpetrators made no effort to hide their deeds from the local population.
Also on May 9, 1942, the Zoludek Ghetto (in Belarus) was destroyed and all its inhabitants murdered or deported.
In 1960, the Food and Drug Administration announced it will approve birth control as an additional indication for Searle’s Enovid, making Enovid the world’s first approved oral contraceptive pill.
Jim Gentile of the Baltimore Orioles became the first player in baseball history to hit grand slams in consecutive innings on May 9, 1961.
Watergate Scandal: The United States House of Representatives Judiciary Committee opened formal and public impeachment hearings against President Richard Nixon on May 9, 1974. Nixon resigned August 9, 1974.