December 9
1854 - The poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, was published in England.
1907 - Christmas Seals went on sale for the first time, at the Wilmington, Delaware post office. The proceeds went to fight tuberculosis.
1911 - An explosion inside the Cross Mountain coal mine near Briceville, Tennessee, killed 84 workers. (Five were rescued.)
1917 - British forces captured Jerusalem from the Ottoman Turks during World War I.
1940 - British troops opened their first major offensive in North Africa during World War II.
1941 - China declared war against Japan, Germany and Italy during World War II.
1958 - The anti-communist John Birch Society was formed.
1962 - The Petrified Forest in Arizona was designated a national park.
1965 - “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” the first animated TV special featuring characters from the “Peanuts” comic strip by Charles M. Schulz, premiered on CBS.
1975 - President Gerald R. Ford signed a $2.3 billion seasonal loan authorization to prevent New York City from having to default.
1990 - Solidarity founder Lech Walesa was elected president of Poland.
1992 - Britain's Prince Charles and Princess Diana announced their separation. (The couple divorced in 1996.)
1993 - The U.S. Air Force destroyed the first of 500 Minuteman II missile silos marked for elimination under an arms control treaty.
1993 - U.S. astronauts completed a spacewalk to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.
2000 - On a 5-to-4 vote, the U.S. Supreme Court voted to stop the vote counting in Florida, effectively ending Vice President Al Gore's hopes of winning the presidential election.
2001 - The United States disclosed the existence of a videotape in which Osama bin Laden said he was pleasantly surprised by the extent of damage from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
2002 - United Airlines filed the biggest bankruptcy in aviation history after losing $4 billion in the previous two years.
2004 - Canada's Supreme Court ruled that gay marriage was constitutional.
2008 - Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested on suspicion of scheming to sell Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat for cash or a job for himself in the new administration. (Blagojevich was convicted of lying to the FBI; he was ultimately pardoned by President Donald Trump.)
2013 - Scientists revealed that NASA’s Curiosity rover had uncovered signs of an ancient freshwater lake on Mars.
2014 - U.S. Senate investigators concluded the United States had brutalized scores of terror suspects with interrogation tactics that turned secret CIA prisons into chambers of suffering and did nothing to make Americans safer after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
2016 - The White House said President Barack Obama had ordered intelligence officials to conduct a broad review of election-season cyberattacks, including the email hacks that rattled the presidential campaign and raised fresh concerns about Russia’s meddling in U.S. elections.
2020 - The U.S. government and 48 states and districts sued Facebook, accusing it of abusing its market power in social networking to crush smaller competitors. (A federal judge dismissed the lawsuits in June 2021; federal regulators filed a revised complaint in August.)
2020 - NASA named the 18 astronauts — half of them women — who would train for its Artemis moon-landing program.
Birthdays
25 - MyKayla Skinner (gymnast)
26 - McKayla Maroney (gymnast)
31 - Ashleigh Brewer (actress)
34 - Joshua Sasse (actor)
38 - Jolene Purdy (actress)
41 - Simon Helberg (actor)
43 - Jesse Metcalfe (actor)
45 - Mark Duplass (actor)
45 - Kevin Daniels (actor)
51 - David Kersh (singer)
52 - Allison Smith (actress)
52 - Lori Greiner (TV personality)
53 - Kurt Angle (professional & Olympic wrestler)
59 - Felicity Huffman (actress)
60 - Joe Lando (actor)
60 - David Anthony Higgins (actor)
62 - Mario Cantone (comedian)
64 - Donny Osmond (singer)
68 - John Malkovich (actor)
69 - Michael Dorn (actor)
72 - Tom Kite (golfer)
76 - Michael Nouri (actor)
79 - Dick Butkus (football player)
80 - Beau Bridges (actor)
87 - Judi Dench (actress)
========================================
Today in Sports History - December 9
1926 - The United States Golf Association legalized the use of steel-shafted golf clubs.
1934 - The New York Giants defeat the Chicago Bears 30-13 in the NFL Championship Game.
1935 - The inaugural Heisman Trophy is awarded to University of Chicago running back Jay Berwanger.
1941 - Minnesota running back Bruce Smith wins the Heisman Trophy.
1949 - The NFL accepts the Cleveland Browns, San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Colts from the All-American Football Conference (AAFC).
1951 - Bob Waterfield (Los Angeles Rams) became the first professional football player to kick five field goals in one game.
1973 - Jim Bakken (St. Louis Cardinals) kicked six field goals against the Atlanta Falcons.
1978 - The first game of the Women's Pro Basketball League (WBL) was played between the Chicago Hustle and the Milwaukee Does.
1982 - The World Boxing Council first to reduce the length of championship fights from 15 to 12 rounds, and allows referees to order standing 8-count for fighters in trouble.
1984 - Eric Dickerson of the Los Angeles Rams became just the second player in NFL history to rush for more than 2,000 yards in a season, and broke the record of 2,003 yards held by O.J. Simpson, ending the regular season with 2,105 yards.
1991 - Dan Marino (Miami Dolphins) reached the 20 touchdown mark for an NFL record ninth season.
1995 - Ohio State running back Eddie George wins the Heisman Trophy.
2004 - NHL officials and union leaders held talks for the first time since summer. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman imposed a lockout on September 16 due to an impasse in contract negotiations.
2006 - Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith wins the Heisman Trophy.
2013 - The Chicago Bears retire Mike Ditka's #89.
2017 - Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield wins the Heisman Trophy.
2018 - New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady breaks Peyton Manning's record for most touchdown passes in NFL history with his 582nd of his career.
2018 - Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers breaks Tom Brady's NFL record with his 359th consecutive pass without an interception.
2019 - The World Anti-Doping Agency bans Russia from all major sporting events including the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games and the 2022 World Cup tournament in Qatar for manipulating lab data.
1854 - The poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, was published in England.
1907 - Christmas Seals went on sale for the first time, at the Wilmington, Delaware post office. The proceeds went to fight tuberculosis.
1911 - An explosion inside the Cross Mountain coal mine near Briceville, Tennessee, killed 84 workers. (Five were rescued.)
1917 - British forces captured Jerusalem from the Ottoman Turks during World War I.
1940 - British troops opened their first major offensive in North Africa during World War II.
1941 - China declared war against Japan, Germany and Italy during World War II.
1958 - The anti-communist John Birch Society was formed.
1962 - The Petrified Forest in Arizona was designated a national park.
1965 - “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” the first animated TV special featuring characters from the “Peanuts” comic strip by Charles M. Schulz, premiered on CBS.
1975 - President Gerald R. Ford signed a $2.3 billion seasonal loan authorization to prevent New York City from having to default.
1990 - Solidarity founder Lech Walesa was elected president of Poland.
1992 - Britain's Prince Charles and Princess Diana announced their separation. (The couple divorced in 1996.)
1993 - The U.S. Air Force destroyed the first of 500 Minuteman II missile silos marked for elimination under an arms control treaty.
1993 - U.S. astronauts completed a spacewalk to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.
2000 - On a 5-to-4 vote, the U.S. Supreme Court voted to stop the vote counting in Florida, effectively ending Vice President Al Gore's hopes of winning the presidential election.
2001 - The United States disclosed the existence of a videotape in which Osama bin Laden said he was pleasantly surprised by the extent of damage from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
2002 - United Airlines filed the biggest bankruptcy in aviation history after losing $4 billion in the previous two years.
2004 - Canada's Supreme Court ruled that gay marriage was constitutional.
2008 - Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested on suspicion of scheming to sell Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat for cash or a job for himself in the new administration. (Blagojevich was convicted of lying to the FBI; he was ultimately pardoned by President Donald Trump.)
2013 - Scientists revealed that NASA’s Curiosity rover had uncovered signs of an ancient freshwater lake on Mars.
2014 - U.S. Senate investigators concluded the United States had brutalized scores of terror suspects with interrogation tactics that turned secret CIA prisons into chambers of suffering and did nothing to make Americans safer after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
2016 - The White House said President Barack Obama had ordered intelligence officials to conduct a broad review of election-season cyberattacks, including the email hacks that rattled the presidential campaign and raised fresh concerns about Russia’s meddling in U.S. elections.
2020 - The U.S. government and 48 states and districts sued Facebook, accusing it of abusing its market power in social networking to crush smaller competitors. (A federal judge dismissed the lawsuits in June 2021; federal regulators filed a revised complaint in August.)
2020 - NASA named the 18 astronauts — half of them women — who would train for its Artemis moon-landing program.
Birthdays
25 - MyKayla Skinner (gymnast)
26 - McKayla Maroney (gymnast)
31 - Ashleigh Brewer (actress)
34 - Joshua Sasse (actor)
38 - Jolene Purdy (actress)
41 - Simon Helberg (actor)
43 - Jesse Metcalfe (actor)
45 - Mark Duplass (actor)
45 - Kevin Daniels (actor)
51 - David Kersh (singer)
52 - Allison Smith (actress)
52 - Lori Greiner (TV personality)
53 - Kurt Angle (professional & Olympic wrestler)
59 - Felicity Huffman (actress)
60 - Joe Lando (actor)
60 - David Anthony Higgins (actor)
62 - Mario Cantone (comedian)
64 - Donny Osmond (singer)
68 - John Malkovich (actor)
69 - Michael Dorn (actor)
72 - Tom Kite (golfer)
76 - Michael Nouri (actor)
79 - Dick Butkus (football player)
80 - Beau Bridges (actor)
87 - Judi Dench (actress)
========================================
Today in Sports History - December 9
1926 - The United States Golf Association legalized the use of steel-shafted golf clubs.
1934 - The New York Giants defeat the Chicago Bears 30-13 in the NFL Championship Game.
1935 - The inaugural Heisman Trophy is awarded to University of Chicago running back Jay Berwanger.
1941 - Minnesota running back Bruce Smith wins the Heisman Trophy.
1949 - The NFL accepts the Cleveland Browns, San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Colts from the All-American Football Conference (AAFC).
1951 - Bob Waterfield (Los Angeles Rams) became the first professional football player to kick five field goals in one game.
1973 - Jim Bakken (St. Louis Cardinals) kicked six field goals against the Atlanta Falcons.
1978 - The first game of the Women's Pro Basketball League (WBL) was played between the Chicago Hustle and the Milwaukee Does.
1982 - The World Boxing Council first to reduce the length of championship fights from 15 to 12 rounds, and allows referees to order standing 8-count for fighters in trouble.
1984 - Eric Dickerson of the Los Angeles Rams became just the second player in NFL history to rush for more than 2,000 yards in a season, and broke the record of 2,003 yards held by O.J. Simpson, ending the regular season with 2,105 yards.
1991 - Dan Marino (Miami Dolphins) reached the 20 touchdown mark for an NFL record ninth season.
1995 - Ohio State running back Eddie George wins the Heisman Trophy.
2004 - NHL officials and union leaders held talks for the first time since summer. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman imposed a lockout on September 16 due to an impasse in contract negotiations.
2006 - Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith wins the Heisman Trophy.
2013 - The Chicago Bears retire Mike Ditka's #89.
2017 - Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield wins the Heisman Trophy.
2018 - New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady breaks Peyton Manning's record for most touchdown passes in NFL history with his 582nd of his career.
2018 - Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers breaks Tom Brady's NFL record with his 359th consecutive pass without an interception.
2019 - The World Anti-Doping Agency bans Russia from all major sporting events including the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games and the 2022 World Cup tournament in Qatar for manipulating lab data.
