9 December on the globe: what happened in the world on this day, and who was born

Gothic War: The Byzantine general Belisarius enters Rome unopposed; the Gothic garrison flees the capital.

Battle of Marj Ardabil: The Khazars annihilate an Umayyad army and kill its commander, al-Jarrah ibn Abdallah al-Hakami.

The first battle between the forces of Švitrigaila and Sigismund Kęstutaitis is fought near the town of Oszmiana (Ashmyany), launching the most active phase of the Lithuanian Civil War.

The Virgin of Guadalupe first appears to Juan Diego at Tepeyac, Mexico City.

The Qing dynasty of China, led by Emperor Hong Taiji, invades Joseon.

In one of two substantial military actions in England during the Glorious Revolution, forces loyal to William of Orange were decisively victorious at the Battle of Reading.

American Revolutionary War: British troops and Loyalists, misinformed about Patriot militia strength, lose the Battle of Great Bridge, ending British rule in Virginia.

French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel, in a memoir read to the Academy of Sciences, coins the terms linear polarization, circular polarization, and elliptical polarization, and reports a direct refraction experiment verifying his theory that optical rotation is a form of birefringence.

Patriot forces led by General Antonio José de Sucre defeat a Royalist army in the Battle of Ayacucho, putting an end to the Peruvian War of Independence.

Texas Revolution: The Texian Army captures San Antonio following the Siege of Béxar.

The first YMCA in North America is established in Montreal.

The Iranian city of Bushehr surrenders to occupying British forces.

American Civil War: The Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War is established by Congress.

The first traffic lights are installed, outside the Palace of Westminster in London. Resembling railway signals, they use semaphore arms and are illuminated at night by red and green gas lamps.

In Louisiana, P. B. S. Pinchback becomes the first African American governor of a U.S. state following the impeachment of Henry C. Warmoth.

The first edition of the Argosy magazine was published under the title The Golden Argosy.

The English association football club Newcastle United was founded by the merger of Newcastle East End and West End.

National Assembly bombing by Auguste Vaillant during the Ère des attentats (1892–1894).

French actress, journalist and leading suffragette Marguerite Durand founded the feminist newspaper La Fronde.

In France, a law separating church and state is passed.

A mine explosion near Briceville, Tennessee, kills 84 miners despite rescue efforts led by the United States Bureau of Mines.

World War I: Field Marshal Allenby captures Jerusalem from the Ottoman Empire.

World War I: The Kingdom of Romania signs the Armistice of Focșani with the Central Powers.

Gabriel Narutowicz is elected the first president of Poland.

The Constituent Cortes approves a constitution which establishes the Second Spanish Republic.

Student protests occur in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, and are subsequently dispersed by government authorities.

Walter Liggett, an American newspaper editor and muckraker, is killed in a gangland murder.

Second Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Nanking: Japanese troops under the command of Lt. Gen. Yasuhiko Asaka launch an assault on the Chinese city of Nanking.

World War II: Operation Compass: British and Indian troops under the command of Major-General Richard O'Connor attack Italian forces near Sidi Barrani in Egypt.

World War II: China, Cuba, Guatemala, and the Philippine Commonwealth declare war on Germany and Japan.

The Constituent Assembly of India meets for the first time to write the Constitution of India.

The subsequent Nuremberg trials begin with the Doctors' Trial, prosecuting physicians and officers alleged to be involved in Nazi human experimentation and mass murder under the guise of euthanasia.

The Genocide Convention is adopted.

Cold War: Harry Gold is sentenced to 30 years in jail for helping Klaus Fuchs pass information about the Manhattan Project to the Soviet Union. His testimony is later instrumental in the prosecution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.

Red Scare: General Electric announces that all communist employees will be discharged from the company.

An Aeroflot Lisunov Li-2 crashes near Anadyr, killing all 12 people on board.

Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 810-9, a Canadair North Star, crashes near Hope, British Columbia, Canada, killing all 62 people on board.

The first episode of Coronation Street, the world's longest-running television soap opera, is broadcast in the United Kingdom.

Tanganyika Territory gained independence from Britain before becoming part of Tanzania three years later.

Tanganyika becomes independent from Britain.

Kecksburg UFO incident: A fireball is seen from Michigan to Pennsylvania; with witnesses reporting something crashing in the woods near Pittsburgh.

Douglas Engelbart gave what became known as "The Mother of All Demos", publicly debuting the computer mouse, hypertext, and the bit-mapped graphical user interface using the oN-Line System (NLS).

U.S. Secretary of State William P. Rogers proposes his plan for a ceasefire in the War of Attrition; Egypt and Jordan accept it over the objections of the PLO, which leads to civil war in Jordan in September 1970.

Indo-Pakistani War: The Indian Air Force executes an airdrop of Indian Army units, bypassing Pakistani defences.

British and Irish authorities sign the Sunningdale Agreement in an attempt to establish a power-sharing Northern Ireland Executive and a cross-border Council of Ireland.

The eradication of the smallpox virus is certified, making smallpox the first of only two diseases that have been driven to extinction (with rinderpest in 2011 being the other).

Mumia Abu-Jamal was arrested for the murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner; his subsequent conviction and death sentence generated controversy in the United States.

Israeli–Palestinian conflict: The First Intifada begins in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

In Serbia's first multi-party election, Slobodan Milošević won the presidential election and the Socialist Party of Serbia won the majority of seats in the National Assembly.

American troops land in Somalia for Operation Restore Hope.

Gwen Jacob is acquitted of committing an indecent act, giving women the right to be topless in Ontario, Canada.

A blast in the center of Moscow kills six people and wounds several more.

Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on STS-116 carrying the P5 truss segment of the International Space Station.

Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich is arrested by federal officials for crimes including attempting to sell the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.

A plane crash in Mexico kills seven people including singer Jenni Rivera.

At least seven are dead and 63 are injured following a train accident near Bintaro, Indonesia.

At least 57 people are killed and a further 177 injured when two schoolgirl suicide bombers attack a market area in Madagali, Adamawa, Nigeria in the Madagali suicide bombings.

President Park Geun-hye of South Korea is impeached by the country's National Assembly in response to a major political scandal.

The Marriage Amendment Bill receives royal assent and comes into effect, making Australia the 26th country to legalize same-sex marriage.

A volcano on Whakaari / White Island, New Zealand, kills 22 people after it erupts.

Fifty-five people are killed and more than 100 injured when a truck with 160 migrants from Central America overturned in Chiapas, Mexico.

Members of the European Parliament, including Vice President Eva Kaili, and their associates are arrested in connection with the Qatar corruption scandal.

John Milton, English poet and philosopher (died 1674)

Peter Kropotkin, Russian zoologist, economist, geographer, and philosopher (died 1921)

Kirk Douglas, American actor, singer, and producer (died 2020)

Judi Dench, English actress

Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourger lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of Luxembourg

Fritz Haber, Polish-German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1934)

Sonia Gandhi, Italian-Indian politician

Grace Hopper, American admiral and computer scientist, designed COBOL (died 1992)

Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden (died 1632)

Carl Wilhelm Scheele, Swedish Pomeranian and German pharmaceutical chemist (died 1786)

Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, Italian economist and politician, 10th President of Italy (died 2016)

John Malkovich, American actor and producer

Dolores Ibárruri, Spanish activist, journalist and politician (died 1989)

James Rainwater, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1986)

Henry Way Kendall, American physicist, photographer, and mountaineer, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1999)

Johann Joachim Winckelmann, German archaeologist and historian (died 1768)

Felicity Huffman, American actress and producer

Hikaru Nakamura, Japanese-American chess player

William Lipscomb, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2011)

Bixente Lizarazu, French footballer

Bob Hawke, Australian union leader and politician, 23rd Prime Minister of Australia (died 2019)

Broderick Crawford, American actor (died 1986)

John Cassavetes, American actor, director, and screenwriter (died 1989)

Simon Helberg, American actor, comedian, and musician

Claude Louis Berthollet, French chemist and academic (died 1822)

Empress Masako, Japanese consort of Emperor Naruhito

Dalton Trumbo, American author, screenwriter, and blacklistee (died 1976)

Kirsten Gillibrand, American lawyer and politician

Ödön von Horváth, Hungarian-German author and playwright (died 1938)

Tré Cool, German-American drummer and songwriter

Kwadwo Asamoah, Ghanaian footballer

Kurt Angle, American freestyle and professional wrestler

Beau Bridges, American actor, director, and producer

Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, German-Austrian soprano and actress (died 2006)

Stacey Abrams, American politician and activist

Mardy Fish, American tennis player

Martin de Porres, Peruvian saint (died 1639)

Michael Dorn, American actor and voice artist

Gastón Gaudio, Argentinian tennis player

Hannes Kolehmainen, Finnish-American runner (died 1966)

Douglas Fairbanks Jr., American captain, actor, and producer (died 2000)

Paul Landers, German guitarist

Jesse Metcalfe, American actor and musician

Maksim Bahdanovič, Belarusian poet and critic (died 1917)

Billy Bremner, Scottish footballer and manager (died 1997)

Choi Min-ho, South Korean singer and actor

McKayla Maroney, American gymnast

Margaret Hamilton, American schoolteacher, actress and voice artist (died 1985)

Gemma Frisius, Dutch mathematician and cartographer (died 1555)

Dariusz Dudka, Polish footballer

Chenghua Emperor of China (died 1487)

Alexander Papagos, Greek general and politician, 152nd Prime Minister of Greece (died 1955)

Jean-Pierre Thiollet, French journalist and author

Harvey Barnes, English footballer

Donald Byrd, American trumpet player and academic (died 2013)

Donny Osmond, American singer-songwriter, dancer, and actor

Thomas Andrews, Irish chemist and physicist (died 1885)

Caroline Lucas, English activist and politician

Joshua Bell, American violinist and conductor

Imogen Heap, English singer-songwriter and keyboard player